Seth McLaughlin didn’t want to talk, politely waving off reporters when they approached. As teammates changed around him, heading for the showers and throwing tape into trash cans after Alabama football’s 27-20 loss in the Rose Bowl to Michigan, McLaughlin sat in his full white and crimson uniform, sans helmet and cleats, staring into his locker to the left of James Brockermeyer’s.

The Crimson Tide center struggled all through the season getting snaps back to quarterback Jalen Milroe. That problem showed up in force in the College Football Playoff semifinal against Wolverines.

Milroe deflected when asked what went wrong after the loss.

“The quarterback and the center have to have a great relationship and that’s something that we tried to build throughout the whole season,” Milroe said. “There’s a multitude of things that me and Seth talk about in that regard. That’s something that we do talk about.”

On the first drive of the second half, Alabama was driving. The Crimson Tide, which looked abysmal offensively in the first two quarters, pushed to the Michigan 47.

Down 13-10, it seemed UA was building some hard fought momentum. Then, the snap went past Milroe, for a loss of 13 yards.

The next play, it happened again. Loss of six.

After a seven-yard run by Jase McClellan to regain some of the lost yards, Alabama had to punt. Scoring opportunity gone.

After the game, Michigan defensive lineman Kris Jenkins was asked whether he thought the Wolverines had impacted McLaughlin’s snapping.

“I like to think we did,” Jenkins said in the Michigan locker room after the game. “Because we didn’t really see him fumble that before, so whenever that happened, we were just trying to get after that ball, get that scoop-and-score.”

Throughout the game, McLaughlin snapped the ball low. It threw off Milroe’s rhythm as the Tide tried to fix what was ailing its offense in the loss.

The problem surprised Jenkins.

“I was like ‘What happened bro?’” he said. “I was genuinely confused. I wasn’t even trying to talk trash, I just like “What’s going on?” He didn’t say nothing but fair enough.”

Even on the last play, the snap went low. Milroe gathered it and took off up the middle, but couldn’t score on fourth-and-goal from the three.

The season was over.

“The ball was on the 3-yard line, which is just like a two-point play, but we didn’t get it blocked so it didn’t work,” Saban said afterward. “We didn’t execute it very well and it didn’t work. They pressured and we thought they would pressure, but we thought we could gap them and block them and make it work, and it didn’t.”

Michigan will face the winner of Washington and Texas in the national championship game on Jan. 8 in Houston, Texas.