Utah Utes football: 'Bama coach takes blame for loss

NEW ORLEANS — Alabama coach Nick Saban had no idea what he was setting himself up for when he spoke quickly after his team lost in the SEC Championship game.

Shortly after the Crimson Tide lost to Florida on Dec. 6, he said Alabama was the only team from "a real BCS Conference" to go undefeated in the regular season.

The Utes knew all about the quote and it had them wanting to prove something to Saban, the Crimson Tide and their fans, and they obviously did.

When Saban was reminded of what he said following Utah's 31-17 win in the Sugar Bowl on Friday night, he was apologetic.

"I apologize if anybody was offended by that," Saban said. "We have a tremendous amount of respect for Utah. I certainly misstated that."

But after making those comments, Saban got noticeably agitated.

"I don't think our guys played with enough intensity," he said. "So if that's what gave them all their intensity, then I guess I'm responsible for the way they played and I'm responsible for the way we played. So I'm responsible for the whole dam kit and caboodle."

SMALLER THAN AVERAGE CROWD: The Sugar Bowl fell short of a sellout, as there were some empty seats in the upper left corner above Utah's end zone in the Louisiana Superdome. The announced attendance for the Sugar Bowl was 71,872, which was the lowest recorded turnout at the Sugar Bowl since 2001 when Miami defeated Florida 37-20.

The crowd was decidedly pro-Alabama, but Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said he was proud of how his fans turned out.

"I think they traveled well," he said. "In the economic climate that we are in right now and the logistics of the game, it wasn't an easy game to get to. I am very pleased with the turnout. As pleased as we were with the fans that turned out, even more pleased with the way they supported and reacted. There were maybe, what, 15,000-20,000 Utah fans, but it seemed like 30 or 40 (thousand) because of the way they handled themselves and the emotion and the passion they had."

STAR-STUDDED COIN TOSS: A total of 40 former coaches and Sugar Bowl MVPs participated in the coin toss prior to Friday's game. Legendary and Hall of Fame coach Frank Broyles, who led Arkansas to four Sugar Bowls, tossed the coin. The group of MVPs was led by 1970 Sugar Bowl MVP Archie Manning.

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