Fine, take the physical part out of my description. Hard to argue against the mental and emotional part of it.
The coaches should have had them better prepared, but I can assure you that to the players, much like the fans, the Sugar Bowl, even being a huge reward, was an even bigger letdown considering the chance that was lost with the previous game loss.
I'd have almost as soon not played, even before the losses, as at that point, there was no point. It was just a let down. Then to add insult to injury.....lol
Which is a testament to not only how good Bama has been lately, but also to how spoiled we as fans have become.
In any case, I give Utah their due for that season, it was a great one, and by all accounts, there were no classier fans, but rightful national champions? They have the record, and maybe that's all that matters, but I'd say there is a very small minority that would agree that they were the best team in the nation for anything other than one game.
As to Oklahoma, they would have beaten us ten out of ten that night.
Any time during the season? Nah.
Bama has had some struggles with the hurry up, most teams do, by design. But their defenses have effectively dealt with any offense sent against then for the past five or so years. If they had any glaring issues with them the losses would be much more abundant. True, the losses that are there do trend towards teams with hurry up schemes but as often as not it's not necessarily Tue offense that won those games. Auburn for example.