Wasn’t it their head coach say that he was excited to see how they matched up with the number 1 team? Well, now they know. I wonder if they “know” that it wasn’t that they played poorly or that our team played well. They were beat before they walked on the field, before the season started; they were beat before any of them signed with UM. They got beat by a superior culture, a meticulous attention to detail, a strategy so outrageous that no coach has ever put into action before. The salesman and the little country agricultural and engineering school in a backwater town few could place on a map have assembled, not a methodical machine like Bama, but a group of remarkable young men recruited for their character as much as for their ability, playing with obvious love for their teammates, for joy and as part of a path to become exceptional people when they’re through.

If they knew that, they’d know that their defeat was a lot bigger than they thought. Probably good for them that they can tell themselves they just need to work harder.