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Wasson: How did it get this bad, this fast for Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama?
By David Wasson
Published:
In the weeks after Paul W. Bryant hung up his houndstooth hat in Tuscaloosa back in December of 1982, Alabama Crimson Tide fans accustomed to decades of national dominance didn’t quite know what to think about a future that didn’t involve a pair of constants: Winning football games, and their beloved Bear.
Excepting a brief, defense-dominated run in 1992 directed by Gene Stallings, Alabama meandered into the sport’s wilderness – hanging more and more off the threadbare bits of history while the rest of the SEC evolved.
I thought a lot about Coach Bryant on Saturday night while watching the Tennessee Volunteers seemingly will themselves past a suddenly pedestrian Alabama Crimson Tide team inside Neyland Stadium. Was it a classic? Hardly. Was it anyone’s ballgame heading into the final 2 minutes? Yep.
And what else was it? The most painful reminder yet that Nick Saban’s nearly 2-decade-long run leading the big, bad Crimson Tide bullies was long gone.
Alabama on Saturday looked like the Saban-coached Alabama, in that the Tide were wearing the same all-white road duds that routinely marched into Neyland Stadium and pushed the Vols around. Crimson helmets with numbers on the sides, the whole bit. But with outwardly cool coach Kalen DeBoer under the headset instead of the oft-fiery Saban, a distinct attitude that bore out on the field as Joyless Murderball has been replaced by a team seemingly bereft of leadership and desire to dominate.
Saturday wasn’t just a loss to Tennessee, a team Alabama humiliated 16 times in 17 years during Saban’s tenure. After all, the Tide lost to the Vols with Saban on the same sideline just 2 years ago. But it signaled what began as worried whispers in the second half against Georgia and manifested in 60 minutes of doom the following in Knoxville.
This Tide team, full of talent and superstars on both sides of the ball, has lost its way in a big way. This Tide team, which is stocked with players that was within a whisker of playing in the College Football Playoff title game just last year, was pushed around by Vanderbilt on the road and survived at home against a middling South Carolina squad heading into the Third Saturday in October.
Sure, you could have written off Vanderbilt’s miracle had the Tide come out the next week and whipped the Gamecocks all over Bryant-Denny Stadium. But they didn’t. And with each succeeding blown opportunity gifted Alabama by Tennessee on Saturday, it was becoming more and more apparent that Tennessee was hungrier for a win and prepared to do what it took to earn it.
Alabama? Jalen Milroe, thought by many (including me) as a legit Heisman Trophy contender for much of the first half of the season, has seemingly regressed each week under DeBoer’s offensive system. The Tide largely abandoned any desire to run the ball save its first drive of the third quarter against the Vols, instead seemingly content to rely on transcendent freshman receiver Ryan Williams to perhaps make a big play and spark the battery.
That spark never came, even though Milroe threw Williams’ way a staggering 19 times (12 more targets than any other Alabama receiver). Alabama rushed for just 75 yards on 34 lackluster carries, with Milroe particularly bottled up to the tune of 11 yards on 14 carries.
Defense, which had been hard to define against the Commodores and Gamecocks, actually wasn’t the issue against Tennessee. Kane Wommack’s squad pitched a first-half shutout, and forcing the Vols into 3 turnovers should have been enough fuel for the other side of the football.
Instead, Milroe and the Tide offense misfired – time and time again. Bad throws, ill-timed penalties and missed assignments can add up against any team. But against a rival in their home stadium with 100,000 ready to spark Zippo to cigar?
DeBoer might end up being the right guy to replace Saban, who unlike Bryant seems in fine health and will ghosting around the program via his ESPN stint and literal presence on campus, but right now it feels like Alabama is all wrong.
I wasn’t there, but it probably felt the same way around Ray Perkins and Bill Curry. And certainly around Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione, Mike Price and Mike Shula as well.
Alabama is not even out of October, and probably needs help in addition to winning out to have a shot at another meaningful game. Alabama is now mid, as the kids say, just another team rattling around on Saturday afternoons trying to catch a break in this new college football universe.
Change is inevitable. Nothing lasts forever. But even the most skeptical Alabama fan would have never seen it dissolve as suddenly as it has in 2024.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
