More Like Little Bighorn

“This is a hard loss. It lets us know we can’t underestimate anybody, and we’ve got to play to our full potential. We didn’t come out and play like we’re supposed to.”

–Terrence Cody

Well, there you have it. Not only is our man Mt. Cody able to squash you like a bug, he’s a rocket scientist to boot.

Duh. I’m sure that was part of St. Nick’s game plan—go out there, and whatever you do, underestimate your opponent.

After weeks of denying that they weren’t underestimating the Utes, Bama went out and did just that. Then after the game player after player stepped up to the microphone and confessed to the media that they did exactly the thing that they said they weren’t going to do.

This is NOT Alabama football. Somewhere The B’ar is chewing his houndstooth fedora.

But it is the 2008-09 version. This edition exceeded all expectations, played ferociously but lost their “championship” game against Florida and then cashed it all in for a boatload of postseason player and coaches awards and good times on Bourbon Street. Somewhere along the way, though, they forgot how to stick a tackle and play for pride.

Meanwhile, the Utes lay in wait. Forget The Big Easy. This was more like Little Bighorn.

Shame, that. But such bittersweet postmortems and embarrassing exposure serve to shine sunlight into the dark places—always a good thing.

As is tough love. And there’s going to be a lot of that dished out in T-town over the next few months.

Roll Tide, Roll. And go Gators.