BATON ROUGE, La. - Alabama’s season was hanging in the balance late Saturday night, and then one snap changed everything.
LSU had just grabbed a 13-10 lead with 2:44 left in the third quarter, the momentum was clearly with the Tigers, and the sun was dropping over Tiger Stadium. For a moment, Alabama’s College Football Playoff picture looked shaky. Then the Crimson Tide answered with a drive that flipped the game and, for the time being, kept those CFP hopes alive.
On the first play after LSU’s touchdown, Keelon Russell hit Rico Scott for 57 yards. Four plays later, Russell found Josh Ford in the end zone, and Alabama had the lead back. LSU never scored again.
After the game, Kalen DeBoer said the message during the timeout before that sequence was simple.
"There’s a lot of football left. And even after that play and after that touchdown, there’s a lot of football left," DeBoer said during the postgame press conference.
"And so it’s all about just being in the moment, staying focused on the next play. And I think our guys, I mean, we’ve had a number of situations now in the second half where you just stay the course."
That approach showed up immediately. Alabama’s offense, quiet for much of the night to that point, ripped off a 5-play, 75-yard drive in 2 minutes. DeBoer said, "the big play to Rico sparked us," and the numbers after that backed him up: Alabama outscored LSU 21-0 the rest of the way.
Scott was at the center of it again. He had already delivered against Texas A&M, when he finished with six catches for 156 yards, and he came through in Baton Rouge as well. Coleman-Williams, who returned after missing Alabama’s previous two games because of multiple injuries, saw the play unfold from the field and explained how it opened up.
"Really, coming off the sideline, we knew that they weren’t going to fall off on the route," Coleman-Williams said. "I’m really just thinking, ‘Can I get two guys right here just to get my opportunity to run away from one?’
And [Scott] did. He ran away from his man-to-man.
Once he grabbed it, I was like, ‘This is my chance.’ I got off my guy, blocked the other guy, gave him a cutback lane, and he just did the rest."
Coleman-Williams also made his presence felt in a big way. He scored Alabama’s first touchdown on a one-yard sweep, then returned a punt 32 yards to set up the Crimson Tide in the red zone before Russell connected with Cederian Morgan on a 25-yard touchdown that pushed the lead to 24-13.
DeBoer said the offense executed the moment exactly the way it was drawn up.
"The offense in that moment executed exactly how you want that play to look like," DeBoer said. "Rico went out and made a play.
I think that’s what it is too. I mean, Rico’s had his game last week, and there’s a confidence in playmaking that everyone believes in when it comes to him and himself as well."
The stakes were obvious for both teams. Alabama and LSU each entered the game with two losses, and no three-loss team has ever reached the CFP’s 12-team field. DeBoer and Lane Kiffin were both under heavy pressure, but only one coach could leave with the kind of win that changes the conversation.
Alabama’s victory was a statement, even if DeBoer has already had bigger-ranked wins over Georgia in 2024 and 2025. The Crimson Tide were ranked No. 5 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday, a surprise given the two losses, and they backed that placement up in one of the loudest environments in college football.
"The toughness, the resiliency, and as long as your mind can stay in the right spot and you stay focused on the right things, there’s a physicality that I think our team still has and the presence that we get in these SEC games that takes over."
The schedule now turns again, with Alabama headed to Vanderbilt next Saturday before home games against Chattanooga on Nov. 21 and Auburn on Nov. 28. The Tide are still not out of the woods, but Saturday’s finish gave their playoff case a much-needed jolt.
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