TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As Kalen DeBoer sat in a cramped room beneath the bleachers of Doak Campbell Stadium, echoes of the reality he faced lingered: chants of "FSU" from fans who rushed the field for the fourth time against his Alabama football team in the past 329 days.
As he initially reflected on Alabama's 31-17 loss at Florida State , the Crimson Tide 's fifth loss in the 14 games of the DeBoer era, the Crimson Tide coach recognized his team had its share of opportunities. Alabama was hesitant, it said. Alabama gave Florida State life. It gave the Seminoles "hope and confidence."
"What it does is puts you in a spot where you have to be perfect," DeBoer said. "You're playing from behind and you have to be perfect. The stress on the guys to make every play becomes greater and greater."
One week into Alabama's 2025 season, one loss sets the Crimson Tide back.
Even with 12 spots available for the College Football Playoff, a single loss, especially one against a team that was nearly a two-touchdown underdog, can halt all momentum built over the course of the weeks leading up to that game. Alabama saw it at Vanderbilt, at Tennessee and at Oklahoma in 2024.
But DeBoer wanted to make one thing perfectly clear, something he almost had to plea before he took questions about Alabama's first loss to a season-opening opponent since 2001. "Last year is not this year," he said.
"It's going to be an uphill climb for us. But you can't think of it in the big scope of things," DeBoer said. "You have to focus on the moment, and the next moment is what happens tomorrow. And we'll find out. We've talked all along about the chemistry of this team and how close we are, how hard we've worked. Doing a lot of the right things. We'll find out if that sticks."
Trailing 24-7 midway through the third quarter, Alabama tried to dig out of a hole with a 40-yard Conor Talty field goal and a 6-yard connection between quarterback Ty Simpson and wide receiver Rico Scott. But DeBoer felt the Crimson Tide was behind from the beginning, begging for his team to start faster, to set the tone, to not have to respond.
There's no excuse for Alabama's latest loss, DeBoer said. But it's not changing what he thinks the ceiling of this Alabama team is either.
"I choose to believe we have a good football team," DeBoer said. "But we can't play on our heels. We're not going to be what we think we can be, what we want to be if that's the case. That falls on everyone."
Alabama football will host Louisiana Monroe Sept. 6 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: Kalen DeBoer still chooses to believe Alabama football is 'a good football team'
