Alabama’s 50-36 win over Florida State on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium had all the weirdness of a game interrupted by weather and all the drama of a team that had to find itself in real time.
The 34-minute lightning delay felt like the turning point. Alabama went into that makeshift halftime with just 13 points and a defense that had no real answer for Florida State’s offense. When play resumed, the Crimson Tide came back looking like a different team on offense, even if the Seminoles kept landing enough chunk plays to stay dangerous.
The result was Alabama’s third straight win to open the season, moving the Crimson Tide to 3-0 and dropping Florida State to 1-2. It also stretched Alabama’s home winning streak against unranked teams to 90 games, a run that dates back to 2007.
Offensively, Alabama earned an A- because the first half and second half told completely different stories. Before the delay, the Tide offense had no rhythm and no real way to respond as the deficit grew.
After the break, though, Alabama needed only five plays to pile up 140 yards and flip the game with a 20-point swing it never gave back. Keelon Russell was at the center of it all, playing with the poise of a veteran, dropping passes into open lanes and adding a score with his legs.
The defense, on the other hand, got a D after a night that undercut the early-season optimism. Alabama did a decent job containing the Florida State run game for anyone not named Ousmane Kromah, and the Tide did get some big sacks and turnovers. But too many explosive plays against the secondary turned the unit into a liability, and a young offense kept forcing Alabama to answer again and again.
Special teams came away with a B+. Conor Talty kept doing his job, knocking through field goal after field goal and continuing to look like a reliable weapon.
The one real blemish came in kickoff coverage, where Samuel Singleton Jr.’s 31-yard return helped set up a touchdown drive. Even so, Alabama’s special teams remains one of the cleaner parts of the operation.
The coaching grade landed at C-. The defense looked stunned, and while Alabama’s offense got the right kind of jolt after halftime, that adjustment also put the burden squarely on Russell to keep the Tide moving.
He delivered stretches of explosive football, but he also showed the inconsistency that made every drive feel like a question mark. That split falls on Kane Wommack and Ryan Grubb as play-callers, and especially on Kalen DeBoer.
Overall, Alabama earned a C+. This was another comeback, much like the one against Kentucky, but this time the Tide survived a game it could have easily lost control of. Instead, Alabama found enough offense to hold off Florida State and walk away with a win that was far less comfortable than the final score suggests.
The game’s MVP was Russell. With Alabama trailing at key moments, he kept the Crimson Tide within striking distance and delivered the kind of response the Tide needed to stay ahead of the Seminoles.
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When Nick Saban announced his retirement in January 2024, Mike Norvell surfaced as a serious name in Alabamas search, with reports indicating he had moved into advanced talks with the Crimson Tides athletic director. In the end, Norvell stayed at Florida State after landing a contract extension, closing what looked at the time like one of the biggest coaching possibilities of the offseason.
Since then, the backdrop in Tallahassee has only grown shakier, with Florida States football fortunes sliding and the programs athletic director recently being fired. For Alabama fans looking back on that search, the near-miss feels more significant now, because the decision to stay put has placed Norvell in a far more uncertain spot than the one he passed up. [Read more 🡒]
Keelon Russell May Have Changed Alabamas Ceiling Faster Than Expected
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For Alabama, the bigger point is how often these fights reshape the competitive landscape before anyone plays a game. Texas A&Ms move into the SEC came out of frustration with the Big 12, and the pattern is familiar enough now that each new dispute feels like another sign of a sport still working through who has leverage, who gets heard and what happens when schools decide their conference no longer fits the job they want done. [Read more 🡒]