BATON ROUGE, La. -- After LSU suffered a heart-breaking 21-17 loss to Alabama Saturday, the Tigers took the setback hard.

While Hayden Rettig (Los Angeles/Cathedral) wasn't part of the team for the loss, he was feeling the emotions with them while in town for an official visit.

"Yup, it got to me," the ESPN 300 quarterback said. "It hurt. You just have to get back out at practice and come back together as a team."

If Rettig feels part of the team, it's for good reason: He committed to the Tigers in May. He said his official visit "showed me that I picked the right place."

It was the one downer on what was otherwise a good weekend for Rettig, who was still on campus when he was reached Sunday.

"The trip was awesome," he said. "Awesome" was a word he used repeatedly to describe his stay, from the moment he walked out on to the sidelines with other prospects, serenaded by the student section chanting, "Come to school here," to watching a thrilling game between two of America's elite programs.

Another "awesome" sight for Rettig was seeing quarterback Zach Mettenberger pass for a career-high 298 yards and a touchdown against the No. 1 team in the country.

Rettig is one of two quarterbacks pledged to play for the Tigers. Anthony Jennings, another ESPN 300 quarterback from Marietta, Ga., was also at the game.