Alabama Football: This is Not the End

Alabama Football Fans are Confident This is Not the End of Dynasty Run.

For Alabama football fans there is an upside to disappointment.  Failing to achieve a well-defined goal leads to questions about the achievability of the goal, the plan of action and the execution of the plan.  Questions are good. They can lead to answers.

During a January 2010 celebration of the 2009 National Championship, Nick Saban was very specific. He said, “This is not the End. This is the Beginning.” In January 2017 those same words can carry meaning by stating them with a slight variation.

No one in the Crimson Nation sees 2017 as the beginning.  Far too much has been accomplished during the last eight years.

There will be no championship celebration in Tuscaloosa this January. If there were the words that should be emphasized would be “This is not the End.”

Monday night, Alabama came up short against a Clemson team worthy of a national championship.  As Nick Saban said in the post-game press conference, “one game does not define who you are.” He was talking about his team but the same assessment applies to the Alabama football program.

Alabama lost Monday, literally in the last second.  But the game was not lost on that last touchdown.  Alabama lost by converting only 2 of 15 third downs; having 7 consecutive drives that ended in less than 2 minutes; allowing Clemson almost 10 more minutes of possession, and having to defend Clemson’s potent attack for 99 plays.

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What about 2017? Will the Tide find its way back to the CFB Playoffs?  It is far too early for any predictions. Nothing is ever assured in athletic competition. Saban says it best, “there is no continuum of success.”

There is another Alabama football continuum and it is more ingrained in the Crimson fanbase than at any other program.  At Alabama, there is a “continuum of expectation.”

Every season is measured by championships or the lack of them. Conference championships are appreciated but for generations of Crimson Tide fans, the full measure of every season is the national championship.

The “continuum of expectation” places a heavy burden on players and coaches. The pressure on players and coaches is near unrelenting. As fans do we expect too much?

Too much? Alabama’s greatest players and the five national championship coaches carry an immense burden.  To a great degree, those champions have appeared to accept the “continuum of expectation” as being inherent in Alabama football DNA.

Does the “continuum of expectation” contribute positively to a “continuum of success?” Perhaps not as much as we fans choose to believe, but how can a persistent appetite for greatness not enhance achievement?

I am sure that at some future point in time, Alabama’s extraordinary 21st-century championship era will dim, perhaps even dissipate.  Until that unknown future arrives, my expectation in 2017 is “This is not the End.”