Nick Saban makes interesting point about Miami's recent loss and he might be right

“In my opinion, Miami needed to lose."
Georgia v Tennessee
Georgia v Tennessee | Roger Wimmer/ISI Photos/GettyImages

On ESPN's College GameDay the morning after Miami's loss to Louisville, Nick Saban said: “In my opinion, Miami needed to lose. I used to tell our team all the time when we played a game like that, we needed to lose, because we need to learn from the things that we're not doing to create the habits we need to have to play winning football on a consistent basis."

Immediately after the loss, many fans and media pundits went to social media to declare the Hurricanes' season dead. And while they are now in a compromising position within the ACC — they do not control their own destiny to make the conference title game — and this loss felt like something all too familiar to Canes fans, Saban has a point.

If we look at recent history, there have been plenty of examples of teams that got it together after a loss. After all, it is still extremely difficult for any team to go undefeated. Miami will certainly hope to replicate the success of the teams listed below after the tough loss to Louisville.

Examples of teams that lost early, then won out or went deep in the CFP

  • 2008 Florida — Lost to Ole Miss on Sept. 27 (31–30), then won 10 straight and the BCS national title over Oklahoma (24–14).
  • 2015 Alabama — Lost to Ole Miss on Sept. 19 (43–37), then won out and beat Clemson for the CFP championship (45–40).
  • 2014 Ohio State — Lost to Virginia Tech on Sept. 6 (35–21), then won out and took the inaugural CFP title over Oregon (42–20).
  • 2014 Oregon — Lost to Arizona on Oct. 2 (31–24), then won the Pac-12 and reached the CFP title game (fell to Ohio State).
  • 2023 Texas — Lost to Oklahoma on Oct. 7 (34–30), then made the College Football Playoff and fell to Washington in the Sugar Bowl semifinal (37–31).
  • 2017 Clemson — Upset at Syracuse on Oct. 13 (27–24) but still made the CFP, losing to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl semifinal (24–6).
  • 2003 LSU — Lost to Florida on Oct. 11 (19–7), then won the BCS national championship vs. Oklahoma (21–14).
  • 2006 Florida — Lost at Auburn on Oct. 14 (27–17), then won the BCS national championship vs. Ohio State (41–14).
  • 2024 Notre Dame — Lost to NIU on Sept. 7 (16-14), then won out in the regular season and defeated Indiana, Georgia and Penn State in the CFP before losing to Ohio State in the national championship game.

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