Minkah to Alabama: "Thank You"

The moment Tua was sacked for a 16-yard loss in overtime, I was thinking pretty much the same thing as every other Bama fan on the planet.

No. Nope. Not like this.

I was watching from the bench — well not the bench-bench. I had my own little chair on the sideline at the end of the bench, close to where the coaches were standing.

As soon as that play happened, I got that same terrible feeling I had a year earlier, when I watched Deshaun Watson roll out and hit Hunter Renfrow for Clemson’s championship-winning touchdown. For the better part of a year, I had replayed that pick-route in my mind — how all I could do was stand there and watch as our whole season came crashing down. Then the scene afterward in the locker room, where so many of my brothers were sitting there devastated, realizing that their college careers were over. That was the worst part.

I really didn’t want to go out like that.

But just as I felt that negativity creeping in, Tua took the snap and I saw all four of our receivers flying down the field. From there the play developed in slow motion before my eyes. My first thought was that this is a bold call. A really bold call. If the pass was incomplete, we’d be facing third and long, well out of field goal range. If the pass was intercepted, we’d lose the game right there.

My second fear was dashed pretty quickly. The ball was a rocket as soon as it left Tua’s hand. As it sailed through the air, my eyes — like those of millions of others watching all over the country — shot to DeVonta. He was … oh, he was open. I’d covered him in enough drills to know he wasn’t a guy you let get a step on you or he gone. And on this play, he gone.

Just like that, we weren’t in danger of losing a national championship. Now the referee had his arms up. The game was over. We won the thing.

I think it took everyone like half a second to process what had just gone down before the entire sideline freaked out and ran onto the field.

Well, everybody except me. I couldn’t move.

I must have sat there for two minutes or maybe it was 20 seconds. Either way, I knew I needed to wait a beat so I that could really savor that moment.

There were so many emotions rushing through me all at once, so I just sat still and tried to experience them all. Firstly, I thanked God because it was through him that any of this was possible. I thought about the past three years of my life — the good and the bad, and everything I’d learned from both. I thought about how far I’d come just to make it to Alabama. I thought about my parents. It was their work ethic that provided the foundation that made me the person I am today. After we lost everything in Hurricane Sandy, they worked 16-hour days so that I would have every opportunity to pursue my dream. There were many paths my life could have taken, but I was so thankful to be there in that moment.

Eventually Josh McMillon came over and picked me up out of my chair, and that’s when I shifted into celebration mode. I grabbed a hat and a T-shirt, and then I just started sprinting around the field to nowhere in particular. All around me, I saw people laughing, crying and jumping for joy.

I couldn’t help but think, Yeah, this ending was a little more like it.

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JTBama said:

Great article, I thought I remembered reading another article that said he missed the game winning td due to a bathroom break? ....could be wrong ....He'll certainly be missed...RTR

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