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Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Alabama's Kalen DeBoer is college football's top big-game coach
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- Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Alabama's Kalen DeBoer is college football's top big-game coach
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Must be the hoodie .
Couldn't just be that Kalen DeBoer has become the best big-game coach in the country.
Seriously. Look it up. Peep his record against ranked opponents. It's mind-bogglingly brilliant.
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Couldn't just be that DeBoer's got Alabama playing like it intends to spend the first Saturday of December in Atlanta, competing for an SEC championship. And it couldn't just be that he's got his quarterback playing like he'll be in New York City the following week.
Nah, it must be that " black hoodie of death ."
A mere seven weeks ago, Alabama and its coach were the butt of the joke.
Now, he's Darth DeBoer. His No. 6 Crimson Tide just zapped a fourth straight ranked opponent, felling No. 11 Tennessee 37-20 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Alabama fans were ready for a bloodletting after DeBoer's second season as the GOAT's heir started with a pathetic performance in a loss at Florida State.
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Boosters were grumbling, and the mood was such that one fan played the Powerball with hopes of winning so she could personally cover DeBoer's buyout that tops $60 million and run him out of town. Seriously.
Better save those shekels. If Alabama keeps this up, this season will include bonuses, not buyouts, for DeBoer.
From Penn State to LSU and lands in between, what opposing fan bases would give for a coach with DeBoer's 19-3 career record against ranked opponents, or his now 14-2 record in that assassin's hoodie. All other game-day attire has been retired. DeBoer ought to burn that red polo he wore against Florida State, but he protected the precious hoodie from cigar smoke while players enjoyed a puff, as is tradition after the Third Saturday in October rivalry.
"I told the guys not to get any ashes on it," DeBoer quipped.
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Alabama, Ty Simpson continue march toward SEC championship game
Inside the messy SEC, only Texas A&M remains undefeated, but who wants to take on Alabama? It's toppled Georgia and halted the nation's longest home winning streak. It regained its honor against Vanderbilt. It survived Missouri. It mauled Tennessee.
Nobody should take wins like these for granted in perilous times like these, inside this unforgiving conference, not when Texas needs overtime to survive Kentucky, and Texas A&M is pushed to the brink by Arkansas and LSU's losing to Vanderbilt.
These aren't the 2022 Vols, and their pass defense is especially vulnerable. Quarterback Ty Simpson took full advantage, deftly passing for 253 yards. Tennessee fits into that middle glob of SEC teams that are pretty good, but not great. Alabama's established itself onto a higher tier.
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No, I'm not declaring Alabama "back," because what does that even mean? Nick Saban's dynasty is finished. This six-game win streak doesn't change that. What this does do is establish Alabama as a top playoff contender, maybe even the SEC's best national championship contender.
Anyway, Alabama's not winning with the joyless murderball style that became the hallmark of Saban's peak. This is a quarterback-fueled uprising.
Simpson's playing as well as any quarterback south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and his wide receivers are some of the finest this side of Columbus, Ohio.
On Alabama's first drive, Simpson faced peril. Two pass rushers had him pinned in — or so it seemed. He danced in the end zone to buy time, then fired a strike to Josh Cuevas to move the chains on third down. That entire first drive — a 91-yard march — became a master class of quarterbacking by this veteran who sat behind Bryce Young , then Jalen Milroe , and waited his turn to become a star in a transfer age. He went from a preseason question mark to a midseason premier asset.
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Tide turns to Alabama on pivotal interception
Good as he was, Simpson's arm didn't deliver this victory.
This one swung on a 14-point twist on the final play before halftime. Tennessee's Joey Aguilar flipped a pass toward the end zone, where Miles Kitselman was running an out route toward the pylon.
If Aguilar's pass had found its mark, the Vols would have gone to their locker room trailing by just two points, having stolen the momentum. Instead, Alabama cornerback Zabien Brown stole the football.
Aguilar's pass lacked the required zip, and it sailed to Kitselman's back shoulder instead of leading him. Brown jumped the route, pried the pigskin from the sky and won a 99-yard footrace to the opposite end zone. A would-be seven points for Tennessee became seven for Alabama.
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And the Tide hooped and hollered on their way to the locker room, and their fans pumped their red and white pompoms, and Tennessee was toast.
"Love it," DeBoer said in his radio interview on his way to the halftime locker room.
Keep beating rivals like this, wearing that black hoodie, and maybe these rabid fans in this football-crazed state will even learn to love him back.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama smokes Tennessee, Kalen DeBoer stays on assassin streak
