Great article but unfortunately times have changed with the new generation of players. His generation played games even if they were declaring for the draft, they were more team oriented than players are today-I mean just look at the recruiting world to see how ME first these guys truly are.
Kirby can do only so much to get his players to play in the game-he can bench them (which the report during the game made it sound like he did-course he denied it because that reflects bad on his players), but we see this a lot of years with a lot of different programs. We saw it just last year with Auburn against UCF, and we also saw it with Michigan against UF. In all three games I mentioned, the teams that won were excited to be there, the teams that lost were not because they have bigger hopes that were dashed there game before.
Bottom line is you can't read much into bowl games any longer except the playoff games, in those games you get those 4 teams BEST effort, and if the game is a blowout-as both were even though OU made a comeback of sorts, you see that OU and ND were not worthy against Bama/Clemson. Do I think we are capable of beating those two, yes, on a given day I do, especially Clemson. But, we had our chance and we didn't get the W. Our players need to use that feeling of getting snubbed to fuel them for next year-they need to realize that IF they didn't lose to LSU, even with the loss to Bama they make it in. They nearly made it in with 2 losses but they better learn from the lessons this season provided and that is EVERY GAME matters which is what Worley is saying, it is just that this generation of player is not going to see the Sugar bowl like he does or like we the fans do-the real game to circle this year-losing at LSU for sure, and then blowing the lead against Bama when they just couldn't finish.