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The Tuscaloosa News
Why Alabama football feels the 2025 Georgia win is nothing like the win in 2024
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- Why Alabama football feels the 2025 Georgia win is nothing like the win in 2024
ATHENS, Ga. — One year ago, Alabama football quarterback Jalen Milroe was beaming.
In Alabama's 41-34 win against Georgia in 2024 , Milroe had just thrown a career-high 374 passing yards, adding 117 yards and four total touchdowns. He said he "tried to maximize" each play call given to him. He aimed to be the "best version of myself."
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And after Alabama 's marquee win against No. 2 Georgia, Milroe was feeling good.
"All the hard work you're going to do in the dark is going to shine at some point," Milroe said. "And it came out and shined today."
One week later, Milroe and the Crimson Tide crumbled, losing to Vanderbilt on the road before other road losses to Tennessee and Oklahoma and an eventual ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan .
One year later, after leading Alabama to a 24-21 road win against No. 3 Georgia , quarterback Ty Simpson recognized how big the win was. "It's huge," he said.
But he immediately turned the page.
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"We're not done yet. It starts tomorrow," Simpson said, racing past his and the team's normal '24-hour rule' and calling Vanderbilt "a really good team."
But to Simpson, it's simple.
"We know what happened last year," Simpson said.
This Alabama team is not the same Alabama team that faced the Commodores in Nashville in 2024. This Alabama team has already been humbled, falling to then-unranked Florida State on the road, a game that seemingly left all preseason hope for a deep College Football Playoff run trampled under the feet of field-storming Seminoles fans.
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Postgame in Athens, Kalen DeBoer had already known what it was like to be beaten down, to lead a team that made up its mind to "fight" instead of cower.
"They pretty much got an edge to them," DeBoer said. "Took everything that was out there and channelled the energy into us, into us getting better and being better."
Vanderbilt's different too.
The Commodores are no longer the shock of the SEC. Vanderbilt entered Week 5 as the No. 20 team in the country. Diego Pavia and company have five wins, outscoring opponents 245-86 including then-ranked No. 10 South Carolina who the Commodores beat 31-7 on the road.
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Keon Sabb is not one to compare the locker rooms of Alabama football 's last two wins against Georgia with Vanderbilt on the horizon. They are "two individual things," the Crimson Tide safety said.
That's the mindset as Alabama, once again, turns its attention to Vanderbilt.
"It's making both games individual of each other," Sabb said. "We won today. Enjoy the win for 24 hours and then, tomorrow, get back to it."
Alabama kicks off against Vanderbilt in Week 6 at 2:30 p.m. CT Oct. 4 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football feels the 2025 Georgia win is nothing like the win in 2024
