How do you feel about the Sugar Bowl loss?
- Thread starter TommyMac
- Start date
I agree. It was yet another chance for us to demonstrate the strength of our program and get some redemption for the two losses they gave us during the early 2000s. What did we do? We allowed their offense to absolutely shred our defense and make us look like a JV squad. Our offense kept making plays to keep it close, but they also made too many mistakes. Frankly, it was embarrassing.
IDK, these kids are pretty savy today. They may not appreciate the Bama tradition like us old school guys, but they are smart enough to know that not just any school has a trophy case like we do in the Mal Moore Athletic building. They know the elite schools. There are plenty of good second tier schools with good tradition, but they know the truly elite programs. And when a program has been a recent winner and has great tradition you've got the best of both worlds to show a recruit.
Every school will show off their wares, but there's a difference in a couple of conference championships and the trophies, facilities, and game day experience you'll find in T-town.
Every school will show off their wares, but there's a difference in a couple of conference championships and the trophies, facilities, and game day experience you'll find in T-town.
Excellent post you stated what I have been unable to articulate. As I mentioned earlier, Alabama in particular and other big time programs have been converted to an NFL model, devoid of passion and emotion. This is not all bad until you run into a team that you simply cannot out man and plays with passion and fire for a full 60 minutes. As you said you cannot argue with the results of the past 7 years, but the wealth of talent and coaching is being spread around more than in the past and sometimes the difference can hinge on players playing with emotion and refusing to quit even if they are considered inferior. In today's college football game a team's attitude and passion are easily overlooked because those characteristics aren't held in esteem in the NFL.
It's even worse when you consider that Auburn has the market cornered on this emotion.
Prof, this is a really well written post that rings a lot of bells, except an important one: where's your proof?
We lost two games that we shouldn't have lost. One mattered. One, in the context of modern college football, was an invitation to the NIT.
Kids who don't know what it means to play for Alabama? You like Like Barrett Jones, who dragged a wrecked foot around against Georgia and Notre Dame. Or Mark Ingram and Eddie Lacey or Trent Richardson or Dont'a Hightower or Champ Warmack or DJ Fluker or Kevin Norwood or Greg McElroy and all those other kids who didn't grow up in Alabama but somehow helped us win three championships in four years.
We lose two games and the system has rot? We're convinced that we don't take Auburn seriously enough because we lost a game we should have won 10 times over. Did Gene Stallings take Auburn seriously? Perkins? Dubose? Check out their Iron Bowl records. It's the best rivalry because both teams regularly win.
Fans demand explanations, even our own. We need them. It makes the world a simpler place, but it hides the bigger truth: every team is different, and nobody wins all the time.
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I think the loss to Auburn taught them nothing. They all had it in the back of their minds that it was a fluke and if Auburn hadn't "gotten lucky" they would have beaten them in overtime. That is the worst thought you can ever have, it's that sort of short sighted thinking that killed LSU in 2011 and is likely to kill Auburn this upcoming season. Any time you think you just need to get a LITTLE BIT better, you're screwed.
The Oklahoma loss was ugly any way you cut it. Losing two sugar bowls we should have won is just something you can't get back. But I do believe the players eyes are open now.
The Oklahoma loss was ugly any way you cut it. Losing two sugar bowls we should have won is just something you can't get back. But I do believe the players eyes are open now.
At the risk of sounding like snark, I'm not saying anything hasn't been said by Jess, Earle or a dozen other insiders. We've played Auburn seven times now, and we've not been emotionally prepared for that game at least three, maybe four, times. Our players routinely admit that they knew nothing of the rivalry walking into the game, and frankly, they've yet to play to the contrary. Three of the times we've beaten Auburn, they were a worthless team. Once we beat them based on depth and strength, while we were outplayed and outcoached for much of the game.
If our guys play that way against Auburn, why on earth should we expect that they'll play any different against Oklahoma?
Two points of reference:
1. This topic was heavy on Birmingham radio after the IB debacle, and Barrett Jones was asked about interaction with older Bama greats. He said it happened a little, but not a lot and when the chips were down, you cared more about your teammates than about the school.
2. Jay Barker - and I'm no huge fan of his - did an interview with Roll Bama Roll around the same time. He said that CGS had them spend a lot of time at the Bryant Museum and talking with former players about what it means to wear that crimson jersey. Coach Saban brings in Kevin Elko. So whatever our guys play for, it ain't the long term history of the program.
Look, I'm grateful for all the players you mentioned and they certainly played hard, but frankly, I'm not sure I've got any reason to think that most of those players cared about playing for Alabama as a concept. I'm thankful for them and I hope they dominate the NFL, but I think for many of them, this was three or four years of training for the NFL - not much more, not much less. It probably varies from player to player, but it is what it is... and until we have more players who get what it means to play for the Crimson Tide, we're going to lose games we shouldn't to Auburn and in bowl games.
I hate the loss to OU and big mouth Bob as much as anybody else does. Personally I wanted us to put a good ol fashioned beat down on Stoops. But, it didn't happen. Fact is Oklahoma outplayed us. Flat and simple. All I can do is hope that one day we can get a rematch again with those guys and just annihilate them. Maybe it was a good thing...remember losing the last 2 games in 2008?.....remember what happened the following year?...
Which is total BS. They are noting more than an inconsistent flash in the pan. They have only 10 win seasons back to back once in their history.
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Reading about the "glory days" of Oklahoma, Notre Dame, etc..... is a whole lot different than actually watching the games on TV or attending the games. These kids grew up watching Spurrier's, Bowden's, Saban's, and Carroll's teams. Heck, at 18 they don't even remember the "fun-n-gun" that much! They were born in '96! The brain learns by making connections with past experiences and new information to be learned.
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The Sugar Bowl was an utter, complete failure on the part of the coaches and players to be 1) prepared to play, and 2) able to adapt and adjust to what Oklahoma was doing. Very embarrassing loss. Embarrassing for the program, embarrassing for the seniors who had such a great run at the Capstone. And, though it doesn't really matter to the program, embarrassing for a very proud fanbase.
That said, we got to see an exceptional breakout performance from Derrick Henry, who gave us a glimpse of what is to come from him.
That game is over and the only thing that can be done at this point is to look forward and hope the team learns from the mistakes of that game.
That said, we got to see an exceptional breakout performance from Derrick Henry, who gave us a glimpse of what is to come from him.
That game is over and the only thing that can be done at this point is to look forward and hope the team learns from the mistakes of that game.
How is that much different than any new generation? In the pre-internet days, nobody had access to the past except through a library somewhere (or in sports you had ESPN's version of sports history).
But today, any kid can virtually go back and relive what life was like in his previous generation through a virtual library of videos and historical sights.
Not disputing that us older Tidefans don't have a different connection to the program than the players, which is true, but in many ways that'll always be the case.
For that, you have to have a "love of the game". Not many players are like that and they live in the moment. I'll bet there are probably only 6-10 people on Tidefans that can tell who my Avatar is without looking it up on Google.
Anyway, that horse is now dead.
Anyway, that horse is now dead.
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Another well-written post: a couple of thoughts. Only one Alabama coach in the last 50 years has ever dominated Auburn, and at one point even he lost three out of four. Check out the records of his family tree. Saban is ahead of the curve.
Does Barrett Jones or any other member of those 2008-2013 teams need a history lesson? They came plausibly close to winning 5 championships in a row. Think how much better they would have been had they cared about Alabama.
We can search for deeper meaning all we want. But sometimes you lose. You just do.
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It might not hurt for them to hear from John Hannah, Biscuit, Jay Barker, and others. Hearing from those guys might help the players from other parts of the country understand the importance of the Crimson jersey.
Heck, AJ admitted this year he didn't care about the Iron Bowl when he was younger because he was a Miami fan. He grew up in the state and didn't care about the rivalry. Why should a guy from Missouri care about the rivalry if the in-state QB didn't?
Buzz,
While I understand the sentiment, the fact OU beat us doesn't change the fact that Bob Stoops crumbles nearly every single time he's in a big game. Maybe we need to play OU with something actually at stake - I have a hunch we'd see a different result.
Stoops came up big in 2000. No argument. But ever since then he has not only lost, he has crashed and burned in spectacular style MULTIPLE times. His rep was not earned because he lost one close game to Boise State. If that were his only faux pas, Stoops would be in that category of great coaches who had an occasional hiccup. Coach Saban lost to UAB his first year at LSU, ULM his first year at Alabama, and Utah in the 2009 Sugar Bowl after we'd been number one for five weeks late in the year. Those were considered somewhat humiliating losses. However, Saban's record is full - far on the other side - of big wins like the 2001 SECCG, the 2004 BCSNCG (against Stoops, no less, where Saban was the underdog), and the great run since 2009. Our losses during that time have been to GOOD teams, including this year's OU team.
Stoops not only loses at inopportune and ridiculous times - he gets humiliated. One week his 2003 OU team was being called the greatest ever; the next, he was losing by four TDs to a three-loss K-State team, and the game wasn't even that close (KSU could have beaten them by a couple of more TDs). Then there's the USC obliteration. Losing is one thing; not even showing up FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME is something different. I don't care if USC's entire offense was on the take, there's no way they should have been 36 points better than a good OU team.
Now regarding the three recent OU wins over us - in 2003, OU BARELY (with a fake punt) beat a 4-9 mediocrity with a head coach on the job only four months serving major sanctions. Ole Miss beat us by double what OU did. For that matter, Hawaii - HAWAII - had an easier time with our 2003 disaster than "the greatest team of all-time." We were supposed to lose that game, but we weren't supposed to be within seven at the end.
Look, OU beat us fair and square on the field, and I've never said anything else about that. Seven turnovers - give them credit and you won't beat anybody. You've not heard me say things like it was because we weren't ready or whatever. I think it stands to reason that letdowns DO happen and lack of intensity and focus can help you lose, but it's no acceptable excuse to me.
I guess you may be right about us in particular, but let's not act like Big Game Bob is anything other than a colossal flop artist, either. His past record certainly suggests that had the Sugar Bowl been unbeaten us versus unbeaten him, he would have lost in spectacular fashion. It wasn't - he won, give him credit. It's just like the fact his team won doesn't prove his stupid claim about the SEC being overrated true. Simply look at the on-the-field results in bowl games and everywhere else.
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