Josh Cuevas reveals Alabama held players-only meeting after Week 1 loss to Florida State

Fresh off the program’s first season-opening loss in nearly a quarter of a century, after No. 8 Alabama looked overmatched in Saturday’s 31-17 loss at unranked Florida State, the Crimson Tide needed to hit the reset button. That corrective measure came courtesy a players-only meeting earlier this week, according to veteran tight end Josh Cuevas.

“That’s just the thing we do — we have players-only meetings before every game, and if we need to, we’ll just call one just kind of out of schedule,” Cuavas said Tuesday, according to CBS Sports’ Mike Rodak. “Even if it’s in the locker room or something, we bring everybody together and we talk it out. Nobody is uncomfortable to kind of call anybody out or do something like that. That’s just an example of the team culture.”

This comes as Alabama faces serious criticisms about its overall team discipline and effort after multiple players were see loafing or jogging on several plays against Florida State, which put up 382 yards of total offense — including 230 rushing yards — on Saturday.

And some of the loudest critics are coming from inside the house.

AJ McCarron calls out Deontae Lawson, Ryan Williams for lack of effort

On a recent episode of THE DYNASTY podcast, former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron called out the team’s lack of effort in the Crimson Tide’s 31-17 loss at Florida State.

“There was no passion, there was no fight, no dog, and especially from the guys that I thought were returning that would show that,” McCarron said. “Ryan Williams, Deontae Lawson — I did not see that fire. I thought Deontae Lawson would be an absolute dog. He was nonexistent in this game. I’m just being up front, and I love the kid.

“Hell, he graduated from the same school my kids go to. I’ve watched him for a long time. I don’t know if he’s just slow coming back from the ACL, and I’ve had that. And trust me, it’s not easy. But he played slow. He looked out of shape. He did not play with a reckless abandonment, like I thought he would.”

Williams, the team’s superstar sophomore receiver, and Lawson, Alabama’s fifth-year senior linebacker, are widely regarded as two of the Tide’s best players. However, the pair each had lackluster performances in the opener against the Seminoles.

In the loss, Williams recorded five catches for just 30 yards and failed to score a touchdown for the seventh time in the last eight games vs. Power Four competition. Meanwhile, Lawson — who was playing his first game since suffering a torn ACL in late November against Oklahoma — led the team with six tackles Saturday but didn’t account for a sack or a tackle for loss vs. FSU.

Williams left the game in the fourth quarter after absorbing a brutal hit while running a crossing route across the middle of the field. He suffered a concussion and his status is currently day-to-day.

— On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this report.