Kalen DeBoer had finally started to buy back some trust in Tuscaloosa. A 5-0 start helped. Even the narrow, controversial loss to Georgia last week did some damage control, especially after Alabama fought back in the fourth quarter and gave fans a reason to believe the Tide were turning a corner in year three of his tenure.
All of that evaporated on Saturday in Knoxville.
Alabama dropped its second straight game, becoming the first Crimson Tide team to lose consecutive regular-season games since 2007. And more than the result, it was the way it happened that will hang over DeBoer.
From the opening snap, Alabama looked out of sorts, flat, and completely unready to handle Tennessee. The defense kept the game from getting out of hand for as long as it could, but the offense offered almost nothing.
The first signs were ugly. Alabama didn’t pick up positive yardage until its fourth offensive series.
Keelon Russell coughed up the ball on the opening possession, and Tennessee turned that mistake into a second field goal. Alabama’s only touchdown came on a play sparked by the Vols themselves, when Ivan Taylor intercepted George MacIntyre on a tipped pass and that set up a Russell touchdown run.
Outside of that, the offense never really found a pulse.
By the time Tennessee was ahead 26-10, Alabama had managed just 149 yards of offense, with the rest of the production coming in what was effectively garbage time.
That’s the part that keeps following DeBoer around. This wasn’t the first time an Alabama team under him has walked into a game looking unprepared.
There was Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, and the bowl loss to Michigan in year one. There was Florida State in the opener last year.
Now there’s Tennessee in 2026, arriving just as the mood around DeBoer had started to shift in his favor.
And the sequence matters. Alabama fans had already been through the same emotional swing before: the optimism after an upset over Georgia in 2024, only to be followed by the Vanderbilt loss; the hope that came with the offseason before the Florida State opener; the momentum after beating Oklahoma in the playoff last year, only to be crushed by Indiana in the Rose Bowl.
This time, the bounceback from the Georgia loss was supposed to mean something. Instead, Alabama delivered what may have been the worst overall performance of DeBoer’s three seasons.
Now the Tide sit at 5-2 after starting 5-0, with no room left to breathe over the final five weeks of the regular season. And with a road trip to LSU still on the schedule and a suddenly competent Auburn team waiting in the Iron Bowl, the path to a College Football Playoff run looks awfully narrow after a night like this.
In Other News...
DeBoer Called Out What Fueled Alabamas Offensive Meltdown At Tennessee
Tennessees defense spent the afternoon turning Alabamas offense into a mess, and the numbers told the story as much as the score did. DeSean Bishop ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns in No. 14 Tennessees 26-10 win over No. 6 Alabama, while the Crimson Tide managed only 201 total yards and went just 2 of 13 on third down. The turnovers piled up, too, and the result was a game in which Alabama rarely looked settled long enough to build any rhythm.
Kalen DeBoer pointed to the same issue at halftime, when he said his team needed to stay composed and make better decisions. Thats the part Alabama will probably spend the most time sorting through after a loss like this, because the problems were not limited to one bad series or one breakdown. Against a Tennessee defense that kept forcing the issue, the Tide never found a clean offensive answer, and the frustration only mounted as the game slipped away. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Suddenly Has Two Crucial Injury Questions After Tennessee Loss
Alabamas bruising night in the loss to Tennessee brought more than just a setback in the standings, it added two injury situations the Crimson Tide will now have to sort through. Cornerback Zabien Brown and running back EJ Crowell both went down with lower-extremity injuries in the first half, forcing Alabama to keep adjusting on the fly in a game already shaped by absences and patchwork depth at multiple spots.
Brown made it back to the sideline in the second half, offering at least a small sign of hope, but Crowell did not return and left with a knee brace. With Alabama already missing several key players and leaning on replacements throughout the game, the health of both Brown and Crowell could quickly become one of the biggest questions heading into the next stretch of the season. [Read more 🡒]
Alabamas Offense Has Created A Playoff Problem Fans Cant Ignore
After a fast start that had Alabama looking like a playoff lock, the offense has hit a stretch that has made the margin for error a lot thinner. Consecutive losses to Georgia and Tennessee have put the spotlight on a unit that once seemed to have answers, with Kalen DeBoer pointing to the run game, penalties and the lack of explosive plays as reasons the Tide have stumbled.
At 5-2, Alabama is still very much alive in the College Football Playoff conversation, but the path forward looks different now. The bigger concern is whether the offense can regain enough rhythm and consistency to keep the season from turning into a weekly referendum on how much the Tide can afford to slip again. [Read more 🡒]