There is a quote from T. Whitmore’s Fearless: Embrace the Resistance,
"Truth be told, you will never know how strong and adamant you are unless adversity strikes. Then you learn courage, you build resilience, you learn to persevere, you build character."
The 2019 Alabama football team must confront this specific challenge when they face off against Duke, August 31.
For the first time since 2015, Alabama is not the favorite to win the national title. Salty Saban likes it that way. He loves Alabama playing with an ax to grind. After losing back to back games in 2008, Saban placed visual reminders throughout the athletic complex to remind the Tide of not finishing. The Tide plays best with an Alabama-sized chip on its shoulder.
After the 2015 Ole Miss upset, the head coach scoffed at critics who said the Tide dynasty was dead and buried. Ranked eighth after the loss, Alabama marched into Athens, destroyed Georgia and proceeded to another championship.
Not scoring for the final three quarters, feelings on the loss for fans went from boiling anger, head-scratching frustration, and skittish laughter –to wondering if aliens simply abducted the football team. The traumatic loss would have made an audacious, daring episode of True Detective as the detectives investigated what happened to Alabama football.