Alabama wide receiver Jerry Jeudy signs autographs Wednesday during SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala. Jeudy said his approach to the Crimson Tide's lopsided loss to Clemson in the national championship game in January has been "So what? Now what?"HOOVER, Ala. - Alabama arrived Wednesday morning at SEC Media Days as the reigning Southeastern Conference football champion but also as a program coming off a four-touchdown defeat.
The Crimson Tide's staggering 44-16 loss to Clemson in the national championship game doubled the worst previous setback of the Nick Saban era in Tuscaloosa, and it's something the coach and his players have dealt with in different ways since.
"It hurt me for a while just seeing it again on TV and having that feeling created again," junior receiver Jerry Jeudy said. "It was really tough losing that game, but it's, 'So what? Now what?'
"We lost last year. Now, what are we going to do about it to get where we want to go and finish it off? It's a new season, and that's what I'm focused on."
The Tide rolled to a 12-0 regular season last year but struggled in the 11th and 12th games. They were tied 10-10 early in the third quarter against The Citadel before erupting for a 50-17 victory, and they held a 17-14 lead over rival Auburn early in the third before breaking free for a 52-21 triumph.
After 12 consecutive double-digit wins, Alabama met Georgia in the SEC title game and fell behind twice by two touchdowns before rallying for a 35-28 win.
"We didn't play with the discipline at the end of the season that we would like to have as a team," Saban said. "I don't think that our preparation, so that we can go in a game and be very responsible and accountable to do our job at a high level on a consistent basis, was what it needed to be. Whether or not people were worried about personal outcomes more than team outcomes, it's always hard to judge that, but it seems like we had a lot of distractions at the end of the year.
"Hopefully we learned from those scenarios, and it will help us do the things that we need to do to be able to play to our full potential throughout this season."
Saban has guided Alabama to five national championships in the past 10 seasons, including two of the past four. Clemson also has two national titles in the past four seasons, making this the first offseason in several years in which a team has been compared with legitimate reason to Saban's machine.
Not that every Alabama player agrees there should be such a link.
"Honestly, I really do think that Clemson is a great program, but there will never be another Alabama," junior linebacker Dylan Moses said. "I feel like we're in our own realm. Clemson has great coaches and great players and great all of that, but we'll just worry about ourselves."
On Wednesday, Alabama players were not concerned by such questions as, "Who should be the preseason No. 1?"
Junior quarterback Tua Tagovailoa expects to benefit from his most recent game, exclaiming, "I'm glad I had the opportunity to have that loss. What can you learn from a win?"
The Tide will seek to start another winning streak against Duke in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game on Aug. 31 in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but they ultimately will be judged by where they stand in December and January. That's also when it will be revealed whether the Clemson loss was put to good use.
"If you're a competitor, you're going to respond in a positive way and learn from the things that you didn't do, whether those things were in preparation, game-day decisions or the habits that you created leading up to the game," Saban said. "All of those things contribute to having success against one of the best teams, or the best team, in the country, and we obviously didn't do that. That's my responsibility.
"I think that our players learned a lot from that experience."
An experience that continues to affect Alabama different ways.
"They had a good game, and they're a great team," Jeudy said. "We didn't finish how we wanted to, but that's last year. We're focused on the upcoming season."
Said Tagovailoa: "I would definitely like to play that game again."
Maye commits
Alabama received a 2021 commitment on Wednesday from Drake Maye, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound quarterback from Myers Park High in Charlotte, North Carolina. The four-star prospect is the younger brother of former North Carolina basketball standout Luke Maye.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.