How Alabama Football Players Handled The 24-Hour Rule After a Loss

The Crimson Tide players revealed the ways they reflected over the weekend to put the loss behind them.

Apr 13, 2024; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker (52) celebrates after the offense scored a touchdown during the A-Day scrimmage at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images / Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide football program returned to the practice field Tuesday after suffering an upset loss this past Saturday to the Vanderbilt Commodores. The Crimson Tide has to put its poor performance in the rearview mirror quickly in order to get the season back on track as the South Carolina Gamecocks come to Tuscaloosa this weekend.

Over the last 17 years under head coach Nick Saban the Crimson Tide utilized "The 24-Hour Rule" to celebrate wins or mourn losses. The edict has carried over under new head coach Kalen DeBoer despite the team returning to the facility on Sundays to review film. Usually Alabama's players have to guard against complacency after winning on Saturday, but this this past weekend's "24-Hour Rule" looked a bit different after a loss.

"Reflecting, asking myself what I could have done better, on the field and as a leader as well, so I reflected," Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker said. "I'm very intentional of my emotions so I just wrote down some of what I was feeling on the bus. Whenever I don't feel like getting up in the morning, or don't feel like eating the right things I'm going to go back to that list. It's dated, titled the Vandy game, so that's going to be my motivation for the next couple weeks, but I'm focused on South Carolina this week."

Booker said the word finish wouldn't leave his mind Saturday, noting the four drives the Crimson Tide failed to produce points for and the Alabama expectation of production and scoring on every possession.

While losing is never the goal some of the Alabama players held onto the positives from Saturday as the season still has a lot of life left.

"It's really important just not to overreact," Alabama tight end Robbie Ouzts said. "At the end of the day, that's part of football, wins and losses. We're fortunate here to not have many losses, but you've just got to use it as a learning experience. You've got to go back, not overreact, watch the film, see what you did right, see what you did wrong and just correct it and really have that growth mindset that coach talks about."

The Crimson Tide is still tied for second in the SEC and ranked in the top 10 in the AP College Football Poll. Alabama has a tie-breaker over Georgia and gets to play LSU, which is one of three SEC teams without a conference loss.

"Control the controllables. It happened. Adversity happens in life, how are you going to respond?" Alabama running back Justice Haynes said. "We've got to respond the right way. It happened, everything we want and all the goals we have are still right in front of us. We've just got to go back to the drawing board and go back to work, continue to keep grinding every day."

The Alabama defenders that spoke with the media on Tuesday all said their weekend was filmed with film study and honest reflection.

"Watching film," Alabama defensive lineman Tim Smith said. "Like I said, just understanding what we have to do and what we have to execute. You watch the film, you analyze you be real with yourself, first of all to make sure you gave your best that you can, and then like I said just analyzing the film and just making sure everybody did what they were supposed to."

The 24 hours were a little bit different for maligned safety Malachi Moore as he not only dealt with the emotions of the loss, but dealt with the fall out from his end of game outburst.

"It was definitely - anytime after a loss the 24 hours definitely is long and rough," Moore said. "Like this week is probably going to be the longest week just because we're ready to go back out there and compete. I really just watched the film over and over again and kind of decompressed from it and get away from the negative energy."

The Crimson Tide's 24 hours of mourning have come and are long gone now that Tuesday's practice has concluded. The players all echoed focus on South Carolina as the Gamecocks would love. nothing more than to come into Tuscaloosa and land a signature win.