Kalen DeBoer isn’t interested in letting Alabama drift into the noise around the College Football Playoff rankings. Not right now. Not with another game on deck.
Speaking earlier this week on SEC Radio, the Alabama coach made it clear his message is about the next step, not the Tuesday-night ranking reveal that draws so much attention. He knows the Playoff is the target, but he also knows the Crimson Tide won’t get there by staring at the standings.
Alabama is sitting 3rd in the CFP rankings despite two losses, but DeBoer’s point was simple: the only way forward is to keep winning, starting with Week 11 at Vanderbilt. The Tide head to Nashville on Saturday for a 12:45 p.m. ET kickoff on SEC Network.
That trip carries its own reminder. The last time Alabama played at Vanderbilt, two years ago, it lost there as the No. 1 team in the country. The teams are different now, especially Vanderbilt, which is 1-5 in the SEC, but DeBoer said the lesson from that trip still matters.
“You know that (the Playoff rankings) doesn’t really matter because you got to keep playing. You know, if the season is over, yeah, then it really matters,” Kalen DeBoer said.
“We gotta keep playing, we gotta go play some ball this week against a good Vanderbilt team, a team that people are truly underestimating if you look at the scores throughout the course of their games. … These games are tight against some really good football teams, so we gotta be ready.”
He also pointed back to what happened the last time Alabama was in Nashville.
“We know what it’s like going there, we’ve been there once before, at least with our staff and this team and, you know, it didn’t go so well,” DeBoer said.
For DeBoer, that’s the whole message: save the rankings talk for later. There will be time for that when the regular season is over and there’s nothing left to prepare for.
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A legal case involving former Vanderbilt wide receiver Kayleb Barnett took a notable turn this week, with the Davidson County District Attorneys Office dropping the charges that had been filed against him. Barnett had been facing allegations of aggravated assault by strangulation, identity theft and false identification after his October 11 arrest, and he was set for a court hearing on November 13 before the case changed course.
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Alabama Quarterback Uncertainty Just Changed Vanderbilts Week 11 Stakes
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Keelon Russell has been getting attention as the key variable, while backup Austin Mack has seen increased first-team reps in practice as the week has gone on. For Vanderbilt, that means the prep work has to account for more than one version of the Alabama offense, and the stakes of the game feel a little different now than they did at the start of the week. [Read more 🡒]