Alabama football players traveled by air Wednesday to New Orleans, the site of Monday night's national semifinal Sugar Bowl against Clemson.Alabama football coach Nick Saban has experienced every possible outcome in the College Football Playoff, which is why his Crimson Tide are bypassing the fun New Orleans often has to offer and focusing squarely on Monday night's national semifinal Sugar Bowl showdown against No. 1 Clemson.
The Crimson Tide flew to New Orleans on Wednesday hoping for a better showing compared to the inaugural playoff after the 2014 regular season, when they entered No. 1 but dropped the Sugar Bowl semifinal to No. 4 Ohio State, 42-35.
"When we came to this game a few years ago, we were trying to balance the bowl experience with the whole playoff experience, not having done that before," Saban said in a news conference moments after his team arrived. "Our players make the decision about curfew, what they do and how they do it, because I give the leadership of the team the opportunity to do that.
"Each year, they have been more and more serious about the game and less and less interested in the bowl experience."
Alabama's loss to the Buckeyes marked its only one-and-done playoff performance. The Crimson Tide have played Clemson in the past two national championship games, winning 45-40 in the title contest of the 2015 season and losing 35-31 in last season's rematch.
Since the inception of the playoff, the Crimson Tide have ventured to New Orleans, the Dallas suburb of Arlington, the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Atlanta and Tampa, Fla.
"They've experienced consequences in these games, both good consequences and bad consequences," Saban said. "They understand that after going through those experiences, the fun of it all is the success. The fun of it all is winning the game.
"You don't always remember what you do, but you always remember whether you won or lost the game, and that's what has changed a little bit with our players, which doesn't disappoint me at all."
The playoff system replaced the Bowl Championship Series, which pitted the top two teams and not the top four. Alabama won BCS titles in Pasadena, Calif., New Orleans and Miami, matchups that had more of a bowl feel because there wasn't another game to play.
Saban has been outspoken about the playoff lessening the interest in the rest of the bowls, and it apparently is lessening the experiences at the semifinal destinations.
"The two don't fit together that well," he said.
Moses won't play
Saban said Wednesday that freshman inside linebacker Dylan Moses will not play in the Sugar Bowl. Moses started Alabama's final two regular-season games against Mercer and Auburn, tallying a combined 21 tackles and four tackles for loss, but he injured a foot in practice this month.
The loss of Moses coupled with the loss of Shaun Dion Hamilton, who broke a kneecap Nov. 4 against LSU, leaves Alabama with senior Rashaan Evans, sophomore Mack Wilson and redshirt junior Keith Holcombe as the primary inside linebackers.
Wearing the patch
Alabama will have 25 players, including walk-ons, wearing patches Monday night to signify they already have graduated. The Southeastern Conference will have 116 graduates on the rosters of their bowl participants.
Among the 25 with the Crimson Tide are several starters, including punter JK Scott, kicker Andy Pappanastos, offensive linemen Bradley Bozeman and Ross Pierschbacher, Evans, outside linebacker Christian Miller and cornerbacks Anthony Averett and Levi Wallace.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.