Graham Watson actually comes to Utah's defense and swats down this bogus excuse put out by Alabama head coach Nick Saban months after the Utes waxed his Tide in the Sugar Bowl.
"There's very little interest from our fans, our players or anybody else to play in the Sugar Bowl, which to me is a tremendous opportunity," Saban said. "I tried to tell everyone, you're only going to remember one thing about this game and that's the outcome. So there's no interest, there's no passion and everybody is embarrassed because of how we played. Well, it's because you didn't have any passion for it, you didn't have any interest in it, you didn't have any enthusiasm to do it, and that's across the board. And that's not right. We go to a BCS bowl game, everybody ought to be positive and enthusiastic about what we're doing."
I actually thought Nick Saban, after his only real undefeated team remark, handled himself pretty well in the wake of Utah's victory, but why do this now? Why come out and state your team had no interest playing in the Sugar Bowl, as if it was a huge step down from where the Tide have been the past fifteen years?
What this sounds like is Saban still hasn't gotten over the beating and is still trying to excuse it away. But instead of just admitting that maybe his team lost to a really good Utah squad, he actually undermines his own coaching ability by implying he failed to motivate his team prior to a huge game. Isn't that why Alabama pays him more money than any coach in college football? Or did he forget that little detail?
With all that said, I believe the second those players took the field, they were just as fired up as Utah, especially since 70-percent of the stadium was filled with partisan 'Bama fans. If that can't get the adrenaline flowing, then you're playing the wrong sport.