Lets just stop and compare the last three seasons. In '11 Bama lost to number 1 ranked LSU in overtime after dominating LSU on the field but not the scoreboard, didn't make the SEC championship game, but got extremely lucky to get a rematch. Which by the way brought on the inevitable 4 team playoff we are going to this season. 11-1 regular season, won the rematch against LSU with a lot of motivation and the BCS national championship, to finish 12-1.
In '12 Bama loses as the number 1 ranked team to Texas A&M and Johnny Manzeil and got extremely lucky to end up in the BCS championship game, after a harrowing close win in the SEC championship game, to play an over matched, over rated Notre Dame team to win the BCS national championship. How many on here would have relished a rematch with Texas A&M and Johnny boy for the BCS championship in '12 instead of the Irish, especially seeing how they demolished Oklahoma and the rematch with Johnny boy this past season? Finished 13-1, SEC and BCS champions.
'13 seen Bama almost go wire to wire #1 and lose to a charged up Auburn underdog, with no time remaining on the clock after a mistake ridden game much like the LSU game in '11, which kept Bama from the benefit of another game in the SEC championship game and being left out of the BCS championship picture for the first time in three years. Luck wasn't such a lady for us this year as the past 2, and an uninspired team went and laid an egg in the Sugar bowl, ala '08 after a heart breaking loss to Florida and an uninspired Bama losing to Utah in New Orleans.
So now this past season is somehow a carbon copy of the '10 season where Bama lost 3 games during the regular season?
Call it what you want but this past season with all them great recruits were not the '10 team, at least not by the records account. Bad timing of the loss to Auburn and Auburn's great fortunes in beating Georgia, a much inferior team to Bama, set the stage for Bama not playing for and winning the BCS this past season.
All three Bama teams lost a regular season game against a great opponent late in the season, just this past seasons team lost at a bad time and circumstance. Would Bama have played inspired ball and beat FSU? We will never know, but I believe if Bama had gotten in the game they would have and we would be talking about 4 in a row coming up and the college football world would be hating all of us!
No doubt there was problems with players on the team this past season and stuff but I will take every 5 or 4 star player that we can get without ever worrying about entitlement issues. If the team really was affected by all the issues being spouted by former players, then it almost did not matter.
Personally no matter how much I would like for Bama to win every national championship every year, it would actually be detrimental to college football. The fact that this team came that close to a three peat is an extraordinary accomplishment to me and bodes well for the future with the recruiting class coming in next week.
Every year the team that wins the national championship has problems to overcome. Bama's track record of late overcoming theirs has been very fortunate and amazing. But perfection for any team in any season is rare, not the norm. The last three season's for Bama has certainly not been perfect by any means. Most would call it fortunate.
