Cuevas Says 'No Reason' to Call Out Effort

The lack of effort and the lack of physicality for Alabama in the 31-17 loss to Florida State have been big talking points from fans and media after Alabama lost its season opener for the first time since 2001.

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Fifth-year player senior tight end Josh Cuevas was asked about both of those topics on Tuesday during his media availability. Did the players discuss the lack of effort from Saturday?

"No. No reason to call it out. Because we know that we lose, it's not up to the standard. We're expected to win," Cuevas said. "If we don't win, then something is on us. That's just kind of we call it, we're watching film every day - damn near every hour of the day, so it's just something we need to work on and realize ourselves. There's no reason to call it out when we know we did something wrong."

Alabama has been called soft by numerous media outlets - Greg McElroy, AJ McCarron, among others. The rest of the game was a stark contrast to the physicality and success Alabama had on the opening drive of the game, a drive capped by Josh Cuevas catching a two-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ty Simpson.

What did tight end Josh Cuevas have to say about Alabama's 'soft' label?

"We don't. We don't react," Cuevas said. "That's just not how we are. We're not focused on the noise; we're focused on the signal. Sure, we set ourselves back. We know that. We know that. We don't need anybody else telling us that. We know that's all there is out there. We're staying within the team and just kind of moving on from there."

Cuevas told the media that the team called a players' only meeting after the opening season loss to Florida State.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.