Kirby Smart believesAlabama learned a much-needed le sonafterits 42-35lo s to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinals:Respect everyplayer,no matter where they are listedon the Daniel Munyer Jersey scouting report.The Crimson Tide's defensive coordinator told that the most difficult challenge he has faced in his15-year coaching career waspreparing his teamforall three of the Buckeyes' quarterbacks before last January's Sugar Bowl. Heunderstands the attempt was widelyunsucce sful.MORE: | | During exit interviews, Smartasked three of his top defendersLandon Collins, Nick Perry and Jarrick Williams where they thought the teamwent wrong.Their response was simple: They weren't ready.All three of them said they did not respect the quarterback, and our job as the coaches was to make them respect the quarterback,"."Well, they heard from the media, they heard from ESPN, they heard from everybody that (OSU starter Cardale Jones) was a third-string quarterback. How can a third-string quarterback beat Alabama? We didnt promote him enough and they didnt value his talents enough, and he came in we thought he Bobby Hart Jersey was a really good pa ser. Well, he ran the ball well, too. Well, we had not seen him run the ball . . .and not a runner like (Bama QB)Blake (Sims) and not a runner like their other guy, just big."Although Alabama lost by just a touchdown,Smart realized shortly after kickoff his defense was in for a long night against Jones and Urban Meyer's lethal weapons Devin Smith andEzekiel Elliott.See, everybodys talking about the score, we were leading Mekhi Sargent Jersey , but we werent leading," Smart said. "We had not slowed them down. We had two red area Kevin Byard Jersey stops, which were six points (two field goals), could have been 14. We had a turnover, we stripped a ball. We had not slowed them down, and Im thinking this could be 21 but its six, 21-6, could be 21-21. And then they scored right before the half, which we thought was deadly. They had a good two-minute drive and scored, and I knew that we were in trouble.The lo s weighed heavily on head coach Nick Saban, who didn't waste much time gathering intel to try to improve, according to Smart. Saban flew in Houston coachTom Herman, whose game plans asOhio State's offensive coordinator produced537 yards against a normally stout Crimson Tide defense."We said (to Herman), 'Hey, Breon Borders Jersey look, we want to meet with you. You know us better than anybody. You spent four weeks getting ready for us. Whats our tendencies? What do we do wrong? What do you think?," Smart said. "And he was honest with us, he just told us what he thought. It was very valuable for us.