For Alabama and coach Nick Saban, the 2022 season carries the added goal of avenging the program’s loss to Georgia in last year’s College Football Playoff national championship game.
Every year, the CFP runners-up receive a trophy for their effort, a memory Saban and the 15 starters slated to return this fall will likely carry all year long. During a media session held Friday following Alabama’s second fall practice, one of those returning players, redshirt senior offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor, revealed the Tide chose to keep the trophy in a rather prominent place as motivation.
Ekiyor told reporters the team stores the keepsake in the cafeteria of the Mal M.