After Alabama lost 35-31 to Clemson in January's national championship game, Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Hurts put a picture in his phone of Tigers players holding up the trophy.
Hurts eventually switched to a new phone, which has a picture of him dejectedly walking off the field in Tampa, Fla.
"It's still there," Hurts said in a recent news conference. "Hopefully I can remove it. It's definitely a motivating factor, and we've got an opportunity to redeem ourselves."
There is no shortage of memories and reminders from the stinging defeat that derailed Alabama's bid at becoming the first 15-0 champion of the College Football Playoff. The Crimson Tide built an early 14-0 lead and led 24-14 heading into the fourth quarter, but they were no match for Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson down the stretch.
Watson went on to become a first-round pick of the Houston Texans in April's NFL draft, while Alabama used the loss as offseason motivation in the months that seemed to linger.
"It takes a tremendous amount of accountability to be able to execute and sustain the execution for 60 minutes in a game," Alabama coach Nick Saban said during SEC media days in July. "We played against a really, really good team, which I think is what you expect when you get in the playoffs, and we weren't able to finish the game like we needed to.
"I think there are a lot of lessons to learn, and hopefully we won't waste a failure."
The themes of "finishing" and "don't waste a failure" became prominent leading up to the season, which began with a No. 1 ranking and a 24-7 defeat of No. 3 Florida State in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Alabama won its first 11 games and was No. 1 until Nov. 25, when it gave up the final 16 points of a 26-14 loss at Auburn.
Alabama was selected as the fourth and final team by the playoff committee, giving the Crimson Tide the opportunity to finish what they couldn't last season.
"You don't want to dwell on the past and get caught up in this being an emotional game because they beat us last year and that we have to do something different to beat them this year," Alabama running back Damien Harris said. "In the offseason, I think it fueled us - our whole motto was 'finishing' - and I think that helped us in the offseason, but we're just focusing on us right now and playing our best football.
"They've got a great team and will pose a lot of challenges, but we feel like if we play our best football, it will give us a good chance to win."
Alabama and Clemson are playing a round earlier than the past two seasons. The Crimson Tide won the playoff championship 45-40 over the Tigers after the 2015 season, so Alabama's 76-75 edge in total points reflects the tightness of the matchups.
The Tigers have outgained the Crimson Tide on both occasions, racking up a combined 1,061 yards to Alabama's 849.
"It's round three," Alabama junior defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick said. "They've got a great team with some great competitors."
Said Harris: "They've both been epic games."
Moses injured
Alabama freshman inside linebacker Dylan Moses suffered a foot injury during Monday's practice and is "out indefinitely," according to Saban.
Moses came on remarkably strong at the end of the regular season, starting the Mercer and Auburn games and racking up 21 of his 30 tackles for the season. In the 56-0 drubbing of Mercer on Nov. 18, the 6-3, 232-pounder tallied 11 tackles, four tackles for loss and an interception that he returned 11 yards.
The Tide already are without inside linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton (broken kneecap) the rest of the way, so Rashaan Evans, Mack Wilson and Keith Holcombe will head that position against Clemson if Moses can't play.
Alabama sustained another setback in Tuesday's practice when redshirt sophomore safety Deionte Thompson suffered a knee injury. AL.com reported that it could just be a bruise but that an MRI had been scheduled.
Thompson's value was enhanced by the season-ending knee injury to Hootie Jones at Auburn.
Signatures coming
The Tide enter today's early signing period with a crop of 16 commitments that is ranked No. 7 nationally by 247Sports.com.
Among those are five top-100 prospects: outside linebacker Quay Walker (No. 64) of Cordele, Ga.; defensive end Stephon Wynn (No. 70) of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.; defensive end Jordan Davis (No. 89) of Memphis; cornerback Josh Jobe (No. 95) of Cheshire, Conn.; and center Emil Ekiyor (No. 100) of Indianapolis. Walker is not expected to sign in the early period, but the other four are among the dozen or so players likely to sign with the Tide today.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.