Since Dabo Swinney raised the College Football Playoff Championship trophy in Santa Clara, Alabama football had to look deep within to figure out what went wrong–only hours before. There were not many critics picking the Tide to lose.
The embarrassment Alabama received on that fateful night felt as though imposters raided the locker room and assumed the identity of Crimson Tide players.
Suddenly, the media and fans anticipated the beginning of the end, the dread death rattle slowly dissipating from the Crimson Tide lungs as the dynasty was dead. Instead of sulking, Saban went back to the drawing board.