Alabama is heading into the season with the kind of pressure that follows a brand name, not a rebuild. Kalen DeBoer got the Crimson Tide to an 11-4 finish in 2025, pushed them into the SEC Championship Game and landed them in the College Football Playoff in his second year.
But the conversation around Alabama isn’t about progress. It’s about how badly the biggest stages exposed them.
The Tide beat Georgia in the regular season, then got thumped 28-7 by the Bulldogs in the SEC title game. They rallied from 17-0 down against Oklahoma in the first round of the playoff and won 34-24 on the road, only to run into No.
1 Indiana in the Rose Bowl and get buried 38-3. Alabama never looked like it belonged in that game, and that’s the part that lingers.
At Alabama, a playoff berth is not the finish line. Fans don’t hand out credit for being close, and they don’t soften their standards because a coach is in Year 2.
The only thing that really matters is whether the Tide are winning championships or at least looking like one of the sport’s true heavyweights when they face another elite team. Last season, they did neither.
That’s why DeBoer enters this year with the mandate to get Alabama back into legitimate contention. If that doesn’t happen, the scrutiny only gets louder. The one thing easing the path, at least on paper, is the schedule.
On "The Paul Finebaum Show," ESPN’s Paul Finebaum pointed to that slate as a big reason many believe Alabama will be back in the playoff mix.
"How many times have you heard us talk about that on this show?" Finebaum said.
"Alabama's schedule, incredibly manageable. (It's) why many believe Alabama is a playoff team."
The biggest tests on the calendar are Georgia, Tennessee, LSU and Texas A&M. DeBoer has already beaten Georgia in the last two regular-season meetings, even though Alabama fell to the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game last season. LSU brings a fresh wrinkle with Lane Kiffin now in charge, and that one comes on the road in what figures to be a night game.
Tennessee comes with its own uncertainty, especially at quarterback, but the Volunteers have beaten Alabama in Knoxville the last two times they’ve hosted the Tide. Texas A&M is coming off a College Football Playoff appearance, though it remains to be seen whether the Aggies can turn that into something bigger.
So yes, the schedule gives Alabama a clear opening. But the standard in Tuscaloosa is higher than just getting back to the playoff. Another CFP trip without strong showings in the marquee games won’t quiet much of anything around the program.
In Other News...
Two Alabama Legends Just Weighed In On Kalen DeBoers Plan
On a podcast, two familiar Alabama voices came to the defense of Kalen DeBoer and Courtney Morgans approach to building the roster, backing a strategy that leans as much on keeping people in place as it does on adding new talent. Former Tide standouts AJ McCarron and Trent Richardson framed the conversation around the realities of the modern sport, where NIL and the Transfer Portal can turn roster management into a year-round test of patience and priority.
For Alabama, the larger question is not whether it can still attract elite recruits, because it already has landed some highly regarded names. It is whether the Tide can pair those additions with a locker room that develops together and stays intact long enough for DeBoers plan to take hold, which is exactly the balance McCarron and Richardson were pointing toward as they talked through the coachs vision. [Read more 🡒]
Nick Saban Just Took An Unusual Step For Terrion Arnold
Nick Saban took a rare and notable step this week by sending a character reference letter on Terrion Arnolds behalf during the former Alabama standouts bond hearing in Florida. The letter came as Arnold worked through a legal process tied to an incident earlier this year in Tampa, a development that immediately put his situation in a different light than the football questions that usually follow a player of his profile.
Arnold was granted $1 million bail after the hearing, but his legal situation is still far from settled. What happens next will matter well beyond one courtroom, especially for an Alabama program that watched Arnold rise under Saban and now sees one of its former players facing a deeply uncertain road. [Read more 🡒]
Another Kalen DeBoer Ranking Just Gave Alabama Fans A Reason To Stew
A fresh round of college football debate has Alabama fans looking at Kalen DeBoer through the lens of yet another ranking exercise, this time from On3 analysts Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman. Their speculative draft of the top 20 head coaches was built as opinion and analysis, but it still put DeBoer in a spot that will catch the eye in Tuscaloosa, especially given how quickly he has become part of the conversation around the sports elite sideline minds.
DeBoer came off the board at No. 11, behind Mike Elko, Kyle Whittingham and Lane Kiffin, which is exactly the kind of order that can stir up a fan base already inclined to defend its coach. The argument attached to the placement is pretty simple: Alabama supporters have a case to be irritated, because the ranking suggests DeBoer has already done more than some of the names selected ahead of him. [Read more 🡒]