People want answers to why Alabama lost to Texas last week but did an old issue emerge for the Crimson Tide?
Last season, Alabama played Tennessee at Neyland Stadium. It suffered a 49-52 loss and Will Anderson said how ‘anxiety’ impacted the team before the matchup. Tide fans were not pleased to see the Volunteers end its 13-game losing streak to Alabama, but nerves got to Nick Saban’s team. He spoke with ESPN’s Pat McAfee on Thursday, and the term arose again.
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Coach Saban said the Tide had anxiety during the Texas game.
“There are two things that can happen to you: You can focus on the outcome or you can focus on the systems that are going to get the outcome that you need to get,” Saban said. “You got to be in the right emotional place to be able to do that. I think at times, maybe we weren’t. Maybe we were focused on the outcome. Maybe we played with a little too much anxiety. I think attention to detail and playing to the standard and understanding how you get to that — by focusing on the details which you have to do play-in and play-out would help us because we made some mistakes in the game that were very, very costly.”
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Tyler Booker, an offensive guard, told reporters Monday that Alabama ‘did not have the best energy’ in practice for the Texas matchup. The Tide took a 24-34 loss to the Longhorns, marking its first defeat early in the regular season of the Saban era since 2015. Alabama looks to pull itself off the mat against South Florida on Saturday from Tampa, Fla.
The goals for this team are still attainable, but Alabama’s urgency needs to increase.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
