High standards for the Alabama Crimson Tide football program. For most teams, just reaching a national championship would be considered a huge success — but that’s not the case in Tuscaloosa.
Last season, Alabama made it all the way to the national title game before falling to SEC rival Georgia. Despite the loss, Alabama did not walk away empty. The Crimson Tide received the trophy for their efforts in the College Football Playoff, but offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor Jr. said it only served as a reminder of what the team failed to achieve.
In a recent press conference, Ekiyor said the trophy was displayed in the team canteen. As far as he was concerned, that piece of hardware was nothing more than a “participation trophy”.
“It’s so hard to turn the page, you know?” said Ekiyor. “Obviously, it’s a terrible loss. We worked all year to reach that goal. In some ways, we still haven’t turned the page because it’s always in our minds. I mean, in our cafeteria we received the participation trophy. from the cafeteria just sitting in there. This is the participation trophy. You made it, but you didn’t do anything. You didn’t win. I wouldn’t say we fully turned the page. There are always things externally that motivate us, but that’s all I’m saying.”
The team is better for this trophy compared to what they received when they lost in the national championship game a few years ago. A year after Alabama’s national title loss to Clemson at the end of the 2016 season, strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran broke it down in front of the players.
Alabama’s perennial hope is a championship, even in a season where the program won the SEC and went to the title game, Saban said 2021 is a “rebuilding year” for the program. If it’s a rebuilding year, that’s bad news for the rest of college football.
By 2022, Alabama is once again a national championship winner, but that doesn’t mean the roster is without questions. CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee recently broke down some of the areas the Crimson Tide still need to address to get the job done this fall.
