Alabama is on its open week, but the real pressure point is already lined up on the schedule.
The No. 10 Crimson Tide, sitting at 6-2, head into a must-win matchup with No.
15 LSU on Saturday, Nov. 7.
If Alabama still wants to stay on a College Football Playoff track, dropping that game would put it in a dangerous spot. A 9-3 team could still reach the 12-team CFP for the first time given the parity across college football, but Alabama would likely need the LSU win because its only victory over a currently ranked team is the Week 2 win over Kentucky.
With that in mind, these are the five players who matter most for Alabama over the final month of the regular season.
Keelon Russell sits at the top of the list for a simple reason: he drives everything. Alabama’s quarterback can make explosive throws and create plays in a bunch of different ways, and that makes him arguably the most important player on the field every week.
When Russell is sharp, Alabama usually looks sharp. When he’s off, the offense tends to follow suit.
If the Crimson Tide are going to get into the College Football Playoff, Russell is going to be one of the biggest reasons why.
The offensive line also looms large, and Racin Delgatty is at the center of it. Alabama needs him back from injury first and foremost, because the line has not been the same without its starting center.
And when he returns, the Tide need him to clean up the issues that have already shown up. According to PFF, Delgatty leads the offensive line with nine pressures allowed and five penalties.
He also has to help Alabama create room in the run game, especially with LSU coming on the road.
That run game depends heavily on Daniel Hill, who leads Alabama with 71 carries for 332 yards. He has been the team’s most-used back, which makes him the key to a dependable ground attack in November.
Hill’s best outing came against Kentucky, when he had 18 carries for 104 yards and a touchdown while averaging 5.8 yards per carry. In October, his best day came against Tennessee, when he averaged 4.9 yards per carry on seven attempts for 34 yards, with 17 of those yards coming on one run.
He has not reached double-digit carries since the Sept. 19 win over Florida State, when he finished with 11 carries for 59 yards and a 5.4-yard average. Alabama may need to lean on him more.
On defense, Yhonzae Pierre is the player Alabama needs to see wrecking things up front. He came into the season viewed as the team’s top pass rusher, and November needs to be strong for him.
Pierre had two sacks in October and has five pressures - sacks, hits and hurries - over the last three games, compared with 13 pressures in the three games before that. He has 3.5 sacks this season after posting eight in 2025.
Alabama’s defense is at its best when Pierre is creating chaos, and that same idea applies to Devan Thompkins and the rest of the front seven, too.
The other huge defensive question is the cornerback spot opposite Zabien Brown. Whether it’s Dijon Lee or Carmelo O’Neal, Alabama needs that side to hold up.
Brown has been dependable when healthy, and teams usually avoid challenging him too often. Per PFF, Brown has been targeted 22 times this season and allowed 12 catches, a 54.5% completion rate against him.
Lee, meanwhile, has been targeted 31 times, most on the team, and has allowed 24 receptions on those throws, a 77.4% rate. Before Brown was hurt against Tennessee, O’Neal got the start over Lee, though Lee still saw plenty of action.
Whoever lines up there has to perform well enough to stop opponents from simply attacking away from Brown all game.
In Other News...
Former Alabama Assistant Just Addressed Those Power Four Rumors
Charles Huff has been a familiar name in coaching circles for a while, and his current success at Memphis has naturally put him on the radar as Power Four openings start to circulate. The former Alabama assistant spent time at Marshall and Southern Miss before landing the Tigers job, and his name has recently been floated in connection with Baylor, Maryland and NC State as those programs sort through their next steps.
Huff addressed the chatter in a press conference and made it clear he has not been contacted about any of those vacancies. He also pointed out what usually happens in coaching search season, noting that movement tends to come after the year is over, which keeps the focus on the stretch run for now even as the rumor mill keeps turning. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Heads Into LSU Week With One Encouraging Trend Under DeBoer
After eight straight games, Alabama finally gets a bye week to catch its breath, and the timing could not be much better with injuries piling up and a big LSU showdown looming on the other side. Team captain Ryan Coleman-Williams is trending toward playing in the next game, which gives the Tide at least a little optimism as Kalen DeBoer and his staff try to get a battered roster closer to full strength.
The encouraging part for Alabama is what has happened coming out of bye weeks under DeBoer. The Tide have won all four of those games and done so by comfortable margins, a useful trend to lean on as they head into a matchup that should carry real College Football Playoff weight. LSU, coached by Lane Kiffin, will bring plenty of attention and pressure with it, and Alabama's ability to reset this week could matter as much as anything else in what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Has Two Rising Playmakers Fans Need To Watch Closely
Alabamas latest stretch of games offered a little bit of everything, from a tense 87-85 exhibition basketball win over Auburn to a 31-20 football victory over Texas A&M, and the common thread was the way several younger players kept showing up in meaningful spots. In basketball, Allen gave the Tide a lift by scoring 18 of his points after halftime, while Samuels stat line was less eye-catching than his impact, thanks to a strong plus-minus despite a rough shooting night.
The football side has seen its own rise in production, with Scott turning in a career-high receiving performance and Gibbs contributing as both a runner and receiver. Williams also found the end zone twice for the Lions, another reminder that Alabama fans have plenty of reasons to keep tabs on players whose best stretches may still be ahead of them, even if the bigger questions around consistency are still waiting to be answered. [Read more 🡒]