BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Walking down the streets of Tuscaloosa, Alabama defensive tackle Jarret Johnson can see them coming.

They don't know football. They don't understand secondary or major violations. Yet they're quick to criticize the Tide players for the NCAA sanctions announced in February.

	Would Dennis Franchione leave Alabama for Texas A&M?

"They think it's our fault," Johnson said. "People are always stopping me on the street and asking, 'What the hell are you guys doing over there?' I'm like, 'I didn't do anything, I swear.' It doesn't have anything to do with us."

Technically, it doesn't. Former Alabama head coach Mike Dubose and his staff have shouldered much of the blame for the NCAA violations, which centered around the illegal recruiting of players and an alleged $150,000 payment to blue chip defensive tackle Albert Means.

The NCAA sanctions resulted in the removal of 21 scholarships, a two-year ban on postseason play and five years probation. Though Alabama appealed the penalties to the NCAA's Committee on Infractions last week, the players have already had enough.

They've tried to block out the jokes and the finger pointing, but can't. So they've taken that aggravation -- as well as their quest to etch their own individual mark in Alabama history -- and used it as motivation.

They might be on probation. They might be banned from playing in a bowl game. But just two years removed from a dreadful 3-8 season, there's still plenty to play for.

"It's hard to be special in these parts," Johnson said. "But to be on probation, go undefeated, do this and do that -- it's something the fans will always remember. They'll always talk about the Alabama team that was unbeaten on probation."

Not to mention the Alabama team that played in Hawaii. Though the NCAA snatched away an ideas of a postseason bowl game, a Nov. 30 game in Honolulu is quite the consolation prize.

Athletics director Mal Moore helped schedule the game after Washington State pulled out of a previous Nov. 30 agreement with the Rainbow Warriors.

Franchione put the idea to a team vote and the result was unanimous. Afterwards, players came up to Franchione, hugged him and said thanks for guaranteeing a positive ending to a potentially difficult season.

"I think it's better than any bowl game you can go to," Alabama receiver Antonio Carter said. "Go to Hawaii, stay there three or four days -- you can't do better than that."

Some have criticized Alabama for the game, suggesting that the school is circumventing NCAA sanctions with its pseudo bowl.

"As a coach, I love that game," former Auburn coach Terry Bowden said. "It's a reward for your players. But if you're the administration, I'm not sure that makes the right statement. To an outsider, it looks like, well, 'we're going to give our kids a bowl game anyway.' It's almost flaunting it."

Alabama has never played Hawaii, home or away. And as part of the agreement with Franchione, the players had to promise a commitment to win. It shouldn't be too difficult.

The NCAA can take away bowl games, the SEC Championship and a bunch of scholarships, but they can't keep the Tide from running the table. And that's what they plan on doing.

"We're trying to find our special place in history," senior center Alonzo Ephraim said. "We want to do something that Alabama has never done. That's our motivation. That's what drives us to go out and work hard."

Interestingly enough, it's Alabama's biggest rival, Auburn, that the Tide are using as inspiration. The Tigers went 11-0 and finished No. 4 in the country back in 1993, their first season after the NCAA put the school on probation, banning it from the postseason and television appearances.

After the season, Bowden presented his players with championship rings. Though they weren't allowed to say "SEC Champions," they did say "Best in the SEC -- 8-0."

"When you get in a fight with somebody and you win," Bowden said, "whether or not they give you a crown, you're still the winner."

	“	The work is the same. The goals are the same. The conversations in the locker room haven't changed. It's all the same. This is our chance. ”
		— DT Jarret Johnson

Bowden said that outsiders often think it's more difficult to coach a team that's on probation than it really is -- especially the first season. The real challenge, Bowden said, comes in subsequent years, when the annual toll on scholarships begins to add up.

"It's kind of a circle the wagon mentality," Bowden said. "You just tell your team, 'OK, men, we've been forced into this difficult situation, to the fault of no one here. Nobody is out there pulling for us. But let's just prove it to them. Let's show them we are worthy.'

"Players read the stories, they hear all the jokes and negative comments and they want to show everyone how good they are. They're hungry."

Franchione and his staff have chosen the motto "Best in the West." The idea is that by going undefeated in the SEC, the Tide can win the mythical SEC West championship and ensure that the conference's best team isn't represented in the league title game.

"We'd kind of like it if the best team in the SEC wasn't in Atlanta," Franchione said. "Let's leave it all up for argument."

Doing that won't be easy. Though the team returns quarterback Tyler Watts and defensive leaders Kenny King and Jarret Johnson, road trips to Oklahoma, Tennessee and LSU won't be easy.

But it won't keep the Crimson Tide from setting the bar as high as they can. In a perfect world, they, too, will slip "Best in the SEC" rings on their fingers come January.

"The work is the same. The goals are the same. The conversations in the locker room haven't changed," Johnson said. "It's all the same. This is our chance."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn3.com.