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The Three Losses I NEVER Got Over, N.S.


Elephant Tipper

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http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/19203858/never-get-last-second-loss-clemson

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- It's not in Nick Saban's nature to dwell on anything for very long, but even the ultimate live-in-the-moment coach has had a difficult time shaking Alabama's last-second 35-31 loss to Clemson in this year's College Football Playoff National Championship.

"I'll never get over it because you never do with those kind of losses," Saban told ESPN this week. "I never got over the returned field goal at Auburn. I never got over playing poorly against Ohio State and losing that game late. And then in this game, we didn't play very well, and Clemson did when they had to. That's what eats at you. We didn't play that great against Washington, either (in a 24-7 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl win) in the semifinal.

"Something happened to our team from the SEC championship game to the playoff. You look at the Clemson game, and our really good players didn't play very well. But Clemson was a damn good team. They were the best team we played against with the best quarterback, and where we needed to play well, we didn't."

It was Alabama's first loss after 26 straight wins, and the Crimson Tide were vying for what would have been their fifth national championship in the past eight years. Never one to mince words, Saban said the blame for Alabama not playing its best football in the playoff falls squarely on him.

"If you had asked me if that team makes it to the championship game in September, I would have said probably not because of the quarterback (Jalen Hurts) being a true freshman," Saban said. "But after we got there, I felt like if we had played to our strengths as a team, we would win. But we didn't play to our strengths, and that's my fault. That's the part that's hard to get over.

"I didn't do a good job, whether it was keeping the team focused, making sure the team took the ownership they needed to take in those games ... whatever. I don't know what it was. But I do know it's on me, and we'll go on and all learn from it."

As he did after the game in January, Saban downplayed the impact of changing offensive coordinators the week of the championship game. Steve Sarkisian, who had been an offensive analyst all season for the Tide, stepped in to call plays for Lane Kiffin after Kiffin was named the Florida Atlantic head coach. Kiffin stayed on as Alabama's offensive coordinator through the Washington game, but Saban felt like it was too cumbersome all the way around for Kiffin to juggle his FAU head coaching duties and Alabama offensive coordinator duties.

"We scored more points in that game against a better defense than we did the first playoff game," Saban said. "We really scored 17 against Washington (not counting a defensive touchdown). At the end of the day, we played 80 plays of defense and gave up 14 points, and Clemson scored three times in the fourth quarter. So, what's that have to do with the offensive coordinator? Now, if we had kept the ball more on offense, maybe there wouldn't have been the pressure on the defense in the end or whatever, but we just didn't do the things we needed to do to win that game.

"Look, having to make the change probably wasn't helpful, but it was better than the alternative and that wasn't my fault. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is."

Alabama will conclude spring practice Saturday with its annual A-Day spring game. Saban said the team has made a lot of progress considering some of its personnel losses, but also warned, "We've got a long way to go."

Notably, Alabama lost 74.5 tackles for loss off the 2016 defense, and the Crimson Tide also scored a school-record 11 defensive touchdowns last season. Five of the players scoring those touchdowns are also gone.

"Two years in a row, we've lost a lot of guys," Saban said. "We just had a lot of depth on defense and it didn't show up, and we were still really good last year. We've got a lot of young guys that can make a contribution to the team, which we need from a depth standpoint."

WDE !!!

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I guess when you become accustomed to only dropping a game, maybe two a year, the losses are much tougher to get over.  They stand out and you rehash every play and analyze the hell out of 'em.  

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I'm sure winning is no longer joyful but more relieving for him. And when that happens the losses are like panic attacks I imagine

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11 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I'm sure winning is no longer joyful but more relieving for him. And when that happens the losses are like panic attacks I imagine

My guess is at this point in his career he's not going to allow himself to enjoy winning until/unless he wins 7 national championships and passes Bear Bryant.

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3 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I'm sure winning is no longer joyful but more relieving for him. And when that happens the losses are like panic attacks I imagine

Winning at that level consistently has to still be joyful, why else do it?  I'd have to think the winning becomes methodical, but he somehow finds a way of fighting complacency within his program, that can't be an easy task.

I imagine he's so anal and OCD that anything that falls out of his plan (a loss or two) must drive the man insane...like you said, panic attacks.  For a perfectionist/driven person like that it must be a psychological nightmare.

It's been a while, but I'm glad Auburn made his list and he'll never forget that L.

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6 minutes ago, keesler said:

Winning at that level consistently has to still be joyful, why else do it?  I'd have to think the winning becomes methodical, but he somehow finds a way of fighting complacency within his program, that can't be an easy task.

I imagine he's so anal and OCD that anything that falls out of his plan (a loss or two) must drive the man insane...like you said, panic attacks.  For a perfectionist/driven person like that it must be a psychological nightmare.

It's been a while, but I'm glad Auburn made his list and he'll never forget that L.

Agree on everything, minus the bold. I personally think its human nature to experience less of a "high" from one's accomplishments as they become more and more common -- and nobody has done it at the rate NS has. I don't mean the championships, those are all special most likely. But navigating through the regular season -- I think piling up those wins could possibly fail to move the needle for him as much as they used to. May be the expectation is to win them all which can cloud one's joy when the goal is accomplished. Maybe I should've said "a lot less joyful" for him.

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1 minute ago, Tiger said:

Agree on everything, minus the bold. I personally think its human nature to experience less of a "high" from one's accomplishments as they become more and more common -- and nobody has done it at the rate NS has. I don't mean the championships, those are all special most likely. But navigating through the regular season -- I think piling up those wins could possibly fail to move the needle for him as much as they used to. May be the expectation is to win them all which can cloud one's joy when the goal is accomplished. Maybe I should've said "a lot less joyful" for him.

I think he probably does get some amount of enjoyment, just not the kind that most people associate the word with. 

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8 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

I think he probably does get some amount of enjoyment, just not the kind that most people associate the word with. 

True, I agree.

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36 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I'm sure winning is no longer joyful but more relieving for him. And when that happens the losses are like panic attacks I imagine

Even as just a fan that is how winning is to me. I barely remember how I felt in 2010 but man every day I think of the loss in 2013 in the title game and it is painful and still haunts me. What ifs is a helluva drug.

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4 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

Even as just a fan that is how winning is to me. I barely remember how I felt in 2010 but man every day I think of the loss in 2013 in the title game and it is painful and still haunts me. What ifs is a helluva drug.

What ifs are the worst. And they never freaking go away

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4 minutes ago, Tiger said:

What ifs are the worst. And they never freaking go away

and the natty game against fsu is the worst because we HAD that game. I will always be convinced stop that onsides kick by fsu and we win going away........

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37 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

and the natty game against fsu is the worst because we HAD that game. I will always be convinced stop that onsides kick by fsu and we win going away........

So many plays in that game, when looking back, give me that feeling ugh

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10 minutes ago, Tiger said:

So many plays in that game, when looking back, give me that feeling ugh

YES! the ultimate what if game. Like you said so many ughhhhhhhhhhh plays.

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13 minutes ago, Tiger said:

So many plays in that game, when looking back, give me that feeling ugh

Shoot yeah. Marshall doesn't under throw Ricardo on our first drive, stop their fake punt...tackle their kickoff return...make a tackle on their last drive...pass interference at the end of the game...so many

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22 hours ago, keesler said:

I guess when you become accustomed to only dropping a game, maybe two a year, the losses are much tougher to get over.  They stand out and you rehash every play and analyze the hell out of 'em.  

Probably the thing that makes the losses tougher is knowing that his roster is far superior to the teams he is losing to.  He knows the losses are on him.

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Quote

"I didn't do a good job, whether it was keeping the team focused, making sure the team took the ownership they needed to take in those games ... whatever. I don't know what it was. But I do know it's on me, and we'll go on and all learn from it."

I can't tell if he's getting better at throwing his players under the bus or worse at it. 

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17 hours ago, Barnacle said:

My guess is at this point in his career he's not going to allow himself to enjoy winning until/unless he wins 7 national championships and passes Bear Bryant.

100%. He's chasing history. They really will have to carry him out of turdtown in a pine box unless he passes bryant first. 

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This is why I want so badly for UAT to have a 3 or 4 loss season...especially with a couple of losses early in the year.  It will eat that SOB up inside!  The world could sit back and watch the whole thing implode!

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10 hours ago, penguin149 said:

This is why I want so badly for UAT to have a 3 or 4 loss season...especially with a couple of losses early in the year.  It will eat that SOB up inside!  The world could sit back and watch the whole thing implode!

Eh. They'd just find more money.

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10 hours ago, penguin149 said:

This is why I want so badly for UAT to have a 3 or 4 loss season...especially with a couple of losses early in the year.  It will eat that SOB up inside!  The world could sit back and watch the whole thing implode!

I'm with you on this. It's hard to feel sympathy for that son of a gun when he is always ranting and raving and throwing cuss fits b/c everything is not perfect in his world at the time. I especially hate how he talks down to reporters when they ask him a question that he thinks Is  beneath him to answer, when they are just trying to do their job. You have angered the Mighty Saban with your question; you are not worth the ground I walk on, you must kneel before me and kiss my latest championship ring. I think that pompous jackass deserves every minute of sleep he loses from now on.

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