Nick Saban implied that his former team might not have been totally into it mentally in Tuesday’s ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Michigan.

Alabama lost 19-13, ending the first season under Kalen DeBoer with a 9-4 record. The Crimson Tide was largely undone by a disastrous first quarter, in which it turned the ball over three times and fell behind 16-0.

Appearing on the ESPN College GameDay set Wednesday morning, Saban weighed in.

“Turnovers just kill you in a game, and obviously Alabama had two or three or them early in the game,” Saban said. “Michigan’s guys played well in the game. I don’t think Alabama did.

“I think one of the big things, though, that’s always been an issue is for all these teams that have a chance to get in the playoffs and don’t, it’s always a huge letdown when you go play — not take anything away from Michigan — a huge letdown when you go play in a bowl game.”

It’s a refrain Saban used many times during his time at Alabama, notably after the Crimson Tide fell short of playing for the national championship in 2008 and 2013. Alabama lost Sugar Bowls by double-digits at the ends of both of those seasons, to Utah in the former year and to Oklahoma in the latter.

Fellow GameDay panelist Desmond Howard — the former Michigan Heisman Trophy winner — noted that his alma mater wasn’t exactly at full strength either. Several top Wolverines players opted out of the game, leaving Howard scratching his head.

“I watched the game, and I couldn’t recognize half the guys for Michigan who were out there on the field,” Howard said. “They had so many backups out there.”

Saban coached Alabama for 17 years, with five national championships and 16 double-digit-win seasons. The last time the Crimson Tide failed to win at least 10 games was 2007, his debut season.

Saban retired on Jan. 10, and soon after joined ESPN full-time. He also reflected on his first year out of coaching in more than a half-century, and provided his “best moment” from his debut season on College GameDay — when he had a little fun with former assistants Steve Sarkisian of Texas and Kirby Smart of Georgia prior to the SEC championship game.

“I think a lot of people can relate to this, when you leave a profession where you worked for 50 years and go do something else,” Saban said, “and then having the opportunity to be part of GameDay and look at the game from 1,000 feet and work with you guys, who have helped me tremendously.

“And my best moment was being able to call ‘bullshit’ on Sark and Kirby.”