The Alabama Crimson Tide football team once again finds themselves not playing for the national championship after losing the Rose Bowl 27-20 to Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinal game. It will be the longest national title drought in Nick Saban's career since becoming the head coach in Tuscaloosa.
Some call it a bit of a miracle that Alabama (12-2) even made it to the semifinal matchup to begin with, considering their two-score loss to Texas back in Week 2 at home, followed up by an ugly, low-scoring win over South Florida the following week. (Not to mention 13-0 ACC conference-winner Florida State being snubbed out of the Top 4.) Others, however, might call it ESPN bias, given that the network now has exclusive rights to the SEC conference and that they own the major networks broadcasting CFP games. Nonetheless, none of that matters after the Crimson Tide's loss to the Wolverines.
All season long, this hasn't felt like one of the normally dominating Alabama teams that Saban has fielded in the past. The 2023 Alabama football team often found themselves behind in games—like down 20-7 at halftime to Tennessee—and having to make desperate last-minute plays to win games—like against Auburn in the Iron Bowl. Monday's CFP semifinal game seemed to be playing into the hands of Alabama teams of old, until it didn't.
With 4:41 remaining in the fourth quarter in the Rose Bowl, Alabama kicker Will Reichard kicked a 52-yard field goal to put the Crimson Tide up 20-13. But Michigan (14-0) was able to tie it up 20-all with just 1:34 remaining on the clock. The game then went to overtime, where after winning the coin toss, Alabama deferred, allowing Michigan to score first on a 17-yard Blake Corum run. Alabama then ran six plays, with their final coming on a fourth-and-goal at the Michigan 3 that resulted in Michigan stuffing Jalen Milroe to end the game.
In games like this one, it's always easy to point fingers, but we'll help out by telling you who should be to blame in Alabama's loss to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.
Center Seth McLaughlin's bad snaps
Most likely the biggest of blames will be pointed at Alabama center Seth McLaughlin, who has had troubles all season snapping the ball, even changing his grip at one point during the season, according to Bama247.
Alabama football got the ball to start the second half trailing by three points. Just when the Crimson Tide got into Michigan territory on a first-and-10, McLaughlin sailed a ball over the head of Milroe that resulted in a loss of 13 yards. But on the very next play, it got even worse.
Now on second-and-23 on the Alabama 40, McLaughlin then snapped the ball low, where Milroe dropped it, losing another 7 yards that killed the drive, setting up a near-impossible to convert third-and-29, leaving Alabama to punt a play later.
But McLaughlin's woes weren't over. In overtime, with the Crimson Tide looking to tie it up to take it to a second overtime, on a must-have fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard-line, a snap to Milroe came just inches from touching the ground, causing the quarterback to bend over to pick it up. The play-call looked to be an RPO, but the low snap caused Milroe to act quickly and take the ball into his own hands to make a play up the middle instead, with the Michigan defensive front getting the stop that ended the game.
Jalen Milroe kept scoreless
Milroe obviously had a lot to make up for this season, including overcoming his own struggles, and although the quarterback did improve, he still had his faults as a passer. Milroe's strength as a passer this season came in his ability to hit the deep ball, but the Michigan secondary only allowed one pass over 25 yards the whole night, which went to Isaiah Bond for 29 yards.
A frustrated Milroe was only able to complete 16 of 23 passes for 116 yards while also carrying the ball 21 times for just 63 yards and no scores. It was the only game all season in which he had not scored a single touchdown, either through the air or on the ground, not to mention it was his lowest passing yards in a game this season.
The guy who had everyone screaming Heisman after his miraculous play in the Iron Bowl looked far from elite in Monday's Rose Bowl.
Nick Saban (and/or OC Tommy Rees) outcoached by Jim Harbaugh (and/or DC Jesse Minter)
It's not very often you hear or see that someone outcoached Nick Saban. But that's exactly what happened in the Rose Bowl against Michigan. In fact, going back to Alabama football's two losses this season, the other being the Texas game against former assistant Steve Sarkisian, he was likewise severely outcoached in that game as well.
In Monday's Rose Bowl game, a lot of where those criticisms are coming from is on the final play of the game that was nowhere close to successful with the Michigan defense stuffing Milroe attempting to run the ball up the gut. Granted, some of that was due to a bad snap, but Michigan's Josiah Stewart blew up RT JC Latham.
Was this a Tommy Rees call? Even if so, the offensive coordinator likewise didn't have his best night as a play-caller, where the Crimson Tide had less than 300 yards of offense.
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