George Schroeder

USA TODAY Sports

PASADENA, Calif. — One more task remained. In the aftermath of a 34-31 loss, Gus Malzahn had gathered the Auburn Tigers, delivered a final message, then prayed with them. Now, a few moments later, it was time for postgame interviews, which meant a trip to the other side of the stadium.

"Tre? Dee? Y'all ready?" Malzahn said. "Let's go."

Tre Mason was not ready. The junior running back had been sitting in his locker, his face buried in a towel, almost inconsolable, although several teammates and coaches and other staff members had tried. But red-eyed, he followed Malzahn from the locker room. Just outside, Malzahn was intercepted by an ESPN reporter for a live TV interview. As they waited, senior defensive end Dee Ford pulled Mason back inside, away from the bright lights, and embraced him.

"No one is upset with you," Ford said he told him. "No one is upset with us. At the end of the day, we still set the bar."

Mason had run for 195 yards and scored two touchdowns. The Heisman Trophy finalist had the football on the very last play, as time expired, a funky pass-and-two-laterals combination designed to provide him with running room behind a wall of blockers. It was a desperation move, a play called when it's too far to throw into the end zone, and highly unlikely to work – but then, the Tigers knew unlikely. It was the story of their season.

A little earlier, when Mason took a handoff, bounced off several Florida State players and then bolted 37 yards into the end zone with 1:19 left, they figured they'd just written one more crazy, perfect ending. As Mason scored, giving Auburn the lead, Malzahn pumped his fist, and yelled: "BOOM!" Players screamed and jumped and hugged and waved towels and relished another incredible moment in a season filled with them.

But on a football sideline, elation can shift to devastation in 79 seconds. A missed tackle. A penalty flag. A touchdown catch. Seconds later, that wall for Mason crumbled: Finally, there were no more miracles. Inside a very quiet locker room, as Florida State's celebration swirled on outside, the Tigers' first-year head coach searched for the right words:

"OK," Malzahn said. "I know we are all disappointed. We are stinkin' competitors. I'm just gonna tell you this: We feel like crap right now. But everybody in this room is stinkin' champions. They fought their butt off. We make a play or two, we end up winning the game.

"Here's what I don't want you to do: I don't want anybody to have their head down. I don't want anybody playing the name game, all that crap. Man, we're all in this. I could have done a better job, too. We got beat. We're gonna give those guys credit. We're gonna show class, all right?

"Because you learn the biggest lessons in life through adversity. But I'm gonna tell you, when everybody looks back on this team? They're gonna remember that it's the biggest turnaround in college football history.

"I'm just gonna say this to you seniors. I know I talked to y'all last night. We love every one of you. You're the ones that got us here. We'll never forget the senior class. I just wanted to say that. What you guys did? You laid the groundwork for the best years to come.

"I'm just gonna tell you right now, I'm proud of you. You fought your butt off. They had to make a play or two to win. It's OK to be disappointed – crap, we should. That's OK. But let's just make sure we're together. We're different than everybody. I want everybody to understand, OK? All right."

His comments took 79 seconds.

***

A little more than 24 hours earlier, the possibilities had seemed boundless. Behind the scenes, the Tigers never bought that "Team of Destiny" tag – at least, not if it was supposed to mean they were lucky and shouldn't have been playing for the BCS National Championship – but they clearly saw their destination: one more victory. The tipped-pass miracle to beat Georgia? That returned field goal to crush Alabama? It was unbelievable, never-see-it-again stuff, sure – unless they did it again Monday night against the Seminoles. Those things happened, Malzahn told them, "because you earned it," morphing from a 3-9 team in 2012 that did not win a conference game into 12-1, SEC champion, and – they were certain – headed for even more.

Cam Newton might have best illustrated the mindset on Sunday evening. The catalyst for Auburn's 2010 national championship team, Newton was asked by Malzahn to be an honorary coach, and to speak to the team before the Tigers took the field Monday. But with the Carolina Panthers in the playoffs, he couldn't make it to Pasadena. Instead, they improvised.

Auburn's players and coaches had just finished their evening meal in a ballroom on the second floor of the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles. A big screen in the corner had been showing the Godaddy.com Bowl. But then the game was gone. "Look," someone said, "it's Cam." And then Malzahn asked for everyone's attention.

"Cam was really wanting to be here," he said, "but … Cam, are you ready?"

Cam was. For the next 10 minutes, sitting in front of a webcam, Newton delivered a stemwinder worthy of any head coach. "I look at their schedule, I don't see nothing that really wows me," Newton said, and he added, as though he were talking to the Seminoles: "You ain't played no Alabama. You ain't played no Georgia. You ain't played no Missouri. … Y'all ain't been tested. Y'all ain't been through what we went through.

"They don't know what you went through, going 3-9. It wasn't pretty, but it made you who y'all are.

"This whole year, you guys was always the underdog, the stepbrothers, the little train that could. Now you have an opportunity to prove yourselves to the world … to seize something you can have for the rest of your life. It's only one team that can be crowned and say they had jewelry. This is a jewelry-collecting team – go collect your jewelry."

Newton finished simply: "War Eagle." The response, in unison, was emphatic: "War Eagle!"

Next came another surprise. Chette Williams, the Tigers' longtime chaplain, introduced the speaker for the team's devotional, saying it was the first time an Auburn head coach had asked for the opportunity.

It is something Malzahn, a devout Christian, plans to do on the eve of the Tigers' bowl game every season. And like his offense and so much else, it is something he brought with him from his days as a high-school coach. The Auburn football program resembles its peers, with a relentless focus on efficiency and routine. But back at Shiloh Christian in Springdale, Ark., the head coach had a tradition of inviting the seniors to his house. Malzahn said the goal was, "to let them know I'm a real person," and it's the same with the Tigers.

"I want them to know me more as a person before they leave," he said. "There's a lot more of this deal with being a team than football. You learn a lot more about life than you do (football)."

Malzahn began by addressing Auburn's 14 seniors. One at a time, he had them stand, and told them what he appreciated about them – saying of one: "You are extremely tough mentally and physically; I love your character and the person you are," and of another: "Use your influence in a positive way; the Lord has blessed you."

Then he got personal.The two-point message was delivered quietly, but with intensity. Malzahn challenged the Tigers "to never quit on your family," saying when his father left the family when he was 6 years old, it hurt him deeply and for years. And then he explained how, in his mid-20s, married with two young daughters, he contemplated doing the same thing.

"Y'all see me now, but I was a work in progress," Malzahn said. "Man, I had some idiot switch in me. I started thinking, I don't know if I like this. I've got to be doing other things. I had buddies, they were single, and I wanted to run around with them. It's just by the grace of God that the Lord slapped me in the face and said, 'Wake up.'

"I'm here to tell you if I'd have done that, I wouldn't be here today. There's no telling where I'd be. You look at my family history, my grandfather was an alcoholic, my dad was an alcoholic. … It's just by the grace of God I stuck with my family. I've got a loving wife. I've got two daughters. I'm not the best dad – I try to be – but hey, I'm there for 'em."

Malzahn's second point was to "use your influence in a positive way, and the Lord will reward you." He explained that without a father, he looked up to coaches and wanted to be like them, "and sometimes that wasn't real good. It's why, he said, he tries to be an example for his players, and doesn't cuss or drink.

"I'm not better than anyone else," he said. "I still have it in my mind." But what comes out of his mouth are words like "crud."

And he told them how, in 1994, he took Hughes (Ark.) High School to the state championship game and lost.

"They had never even been in the playoffs," he said. "We had 19 dudes – 19! – and we went to the state finals. It was a real similar story to where we are at. We upset a team that hadn't been beaten in three years, we did this and that, and then we got there.

"And I'm telling you, people ask me, 'Man, what do you think of all these championships?' SEC championship, state championships, national championships – you know what I think about? Every week I think about those kids at Hughes High School. Them jokers, they played their guts out. I didn't do a very good job coaching.

"When you guys see me and wonder what motivates me and why I tick like I do? That's what motivates me. I think about some of those guys. I sit there and think, 'Man, we were that close. We could have had rings.' "

Malzahn closed by telling the players he was a dreamer, and that he'd been blessed throughout his career.

"People talk about dream jobs, and some people said (mine was) Texas or something. This is my dream job. I love Auburn. And I love you guys."

***

The rest of the weekend reverted to business-like routine: Meetings to go over the game plan, followed by meetings to review the game plan, interrupted by meals and then wrapped up by meetings to review the game plan.

At midday Monday, the Tigers gathered for the pregame meal, a buffet that included chicken, spaghetti and meatballs or steak. Players were assigned seats by position group, and got up to serve themselves when called by Malzahn, who started with the big guys. "All right, guys," he said. "Great day to win a national championship. It's gonna be won up front: O-line and D-line."

They did almost everything in near silence, part of the plan to focus on their task. Occasionally, music leaked out from headphones. Only once, a few minutes before the Tigers headed for the stadium, did anyone go off-script or get a little loud. As offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee closed a meeting – he'd been brief; there wasn't much more to say – a hand shot up. A guest asked: "Coach, can I say something?"

Bo Jackson had arrived at the hotel that morning and eaten breakfast with the team. During a lull, he'd pulled up a chair next to Mason and talked quietly with the running back for several minutes. "Fatherly advice," Jackson said. Now, with Lashlee's permission, he spoke to the entire offense, saying he was "as excited as I was on my wedding night."

"You deserve to be here," Jackson said. "Everybody's gonna be watching. They haven't experienced four quarters. That is your 15 minutes. Go out and produce like it's your quarter and have fun. Go out and earn it. … You're special. Go out and play like you're special, guys."

Taking Florida State into the fourth quarter had been a theme hammered home repeatedly during the Tigers' preparation. While Auburn had survived several close games, the Seminoles had been dominant. Auburn coaches said they hadn't been pushed. "What we're gonna do," Lashlee told the offense Monday afternoon, "is hit 'em in the mouth on the first play and in the fourth quarter, where they're not used to being."

And Malzahn told them: "Do exactly what we've done to get here. It may not be easy. They ain't been in a dogfight – we are a dogfight."

***

When Auburn jumped to a 21-3 lead, Bo Jackson, who watched the game from the sidelines, ran to quarterback Nick Marshall and mimed as though feeding himself, over and over, with a spoon: "See what I'm telling you! See what I'm telling you!" the former star said. Junior tight end Brandon Fulse screamed: "We're exposing 'em! We're taking their makeup off!" Yet, for all the intensity of the sidelines, the locker room at halftime was calm. Leading 21-10, the Tigers appeared confident but determined.

"Let's show 'em how to play a full game," said sophomore receiver Sammie Coates, pacing as he spoke. "Let's put up 40 (points)."

Coaches huddled for five minutes, then gathered the players, split into offense and defense, and made tweaks.

"Listen to me," said Malzahn, just before they retook the field for the second half. "We're the better team. Squeeze the football. Don't beat ourselves. Make 'em earn it."

And the last fourth quarter of the BCS era was a dogfight. Left guard Alex Kozan limped off the field, bleeding from a deep cut just below his right knee. As athletic trainers huddled, Kozan screamed: "Wrap it up! It's the national championship!" And although later he could barely walk, he returned to finish the game. Coates came off the field, too, bleeding from the mouth, but didn't miss any action.

Florida State grabbed the lead, a kickoff return that seemed like a dagger, but someone yelled: "We got this! We got this! We've been here before!" And then Mason reached the end zone, and the Tigers were back on top, and tight end C.J. Uzomah waved a towel as the defense took the field, and although everyone was yelling, no one could hear anything.

But in 79 seconds, the elation turned into frustration, and then devastation. With 3 seconds left and 87 yards to go, the Tigers set up one more play for Mason – "When it comes down to that, you just give it your best shot and see what happens," Malzahn said – and then, as the Seminoles' celebration began, all confetti and chaos and the crystal football, they trudged slowly off the field, up the tunnel.

Malzahn stopped to hug his wife, Kristi, and then his daughters, Kylie and Kenzie. In the locker room, quiet had been smothered into silence. The coach gathered the Tigers, gave them his final thoughts, and then prayed with them.

"I pray You'll keep their chin up," he said, "because they're nothing but winners. I just thank You for bringing us here, Father ..."

Malzahn talked quietly for a moment with Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs and SEC commissioner Mike Slive, telling them, "the future is bright for this program," and then left with Mason and Ford for the postgame interview session.

A couple of players cried. Some undressed and headed for the showers. Others sat in their lockers, still in their uniforms. In one corner, defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson huddled with Auburn's defensive players, and said, "Anything I can say won't make you feel any better," – while a few feet away, offensive line coach J.B. Grimes was telling his guys:

"Ain't nothing I can say but I love you. We came within a minute and 19 seconds."