TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -Alabama's latest loss has coach Nick Saban searching for ways to motivate his team.

Citing the 9-11 terrorist attacks and Pearl Harbor, Alabama coach Nick Saban said Monday his team must rebound like America did from a ``catastrophic event.''

In this case, that would be an embarrassing 21-14 loss Saturday to Louisiana-Monroe.

``Changes in history usually occur after some kind of catastrophic event,'' Saban said during the opening remarks of his weekly news conference. ``It may be 9-11, which sort of changed the spirit of America relative to catastrophic events. Pearl Harbor kind of got us ready for World War II, or whatever, and that was a catastrophic event.''

Alabama's just getting ready to face No. 25 Auburn, its biggest rival, on Saturday.

A Saban spokesman said the coach chose the 9-11 and Pearl Harbor references to illustrate the challenges facing his team.

``What Coach Saban said did not correlate losing a football game with tragedy; everyone needs to understand that. He was not equating losing football games to those catastrophic events,'' football spokesman Jeff Purington said in a statement to The Associated Press. ``The message was that true spirit and unity become evident in the most difficult of times. Those were two tremendous examples that everyone can identify with.''