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Was the Georgia win a mirage for Alabama football? Can the Tide be worthy of the CFP?
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- Was the Georgia win a mirage for Alabama football? Can the Tide be worthy of the CFP?
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – For Kalen DeBoer , postgame speeches like the one he gave after Alabama football's 24-17 loss to Tennessee are the ones he's not good at.
He doesn't question the Crimson Tide's fight . He doesn't question the Crimson Tide 's preparation or the work that was put in.
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"These guys, you know, came ready," DeBoer said.
It's an Alabama team that can't find that right balance, something DeBoer said he saw Saturday in at 24-7 loss at Tennessee.
"We just can't mesh right now the offense and defense together and play great team football," DeBoer said. "There's times when we've got to be able to separate ourselves and have that killer instinct. And right now, we don't do that. It's not like they're not trying. It's just the execution needs to be better."
Execution nearly squashed Alabama's hopes at a program-defining win against Georgia . It was a narrative that led to a field-storming in Nashville after a loss to Vanderbilt , and left the Crimson Tide asking questions after a close win over South Carolina .
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Execution could be what keeps Alabama out of the expanded College Football Playoff. And for DeBoer, nothing is more representative of those execution issues than 15 penalties for 115 yards, those mental mistakes that kept the Crimson Tide off schedule.
"You just can't get over the hump," DeBoer said. "And it's going to put you in situations where you got your back to the wall. We can't kill ourselves like that. There's times where you see we're locked in, but we got to be better. We got to get better. You can't win a football game when you have mistakes like we had out there."
It was execution that allowed Tennessee's offense to start clicking in the second half, allowing Dylan Sampson and Nico Iamaleava to do enough to take and hold onto a single-score lead. It was execution that that held Jalen Milroe back late, unable to seize his CFP moment and lead the Crimson Tide to a comeback road win.
Execution was the difference between Alabama leaving Knoxville with a win and the Volunteers ' celebration.
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But when asked to describe what that execution looks like, defensive lineman Tim Smith was lost for words.
"I have no clue," Smith said. "It's 11 people out there at the same time. You have to ask each and every single one of those people. But yeah man, it's a team game."
Alabama quarterback Milroe takes "full ownership" for lack of communication and execution on offense. He also takes the blame for lack of explosion, knowing what he has to work with.
Moving forward, Milroe's mindset remains. He's starving, he said, to lead the best offense in the country. He's starving to be better, to see improvement in a brand new offensive scheme, one he said he still trusts.
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"We're never a finished product," Milroe said. "Even if we were successful tonight, we would not be a finished product."
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer during an SEC conference game between Tennessee and Alabama in Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024.
Alabama football is not a finished product. It's a product that believes that those goals, those CFP dreams, are still attainable.
"Everything we want ahead of us is still there," Smith said. "We can still accomplish everything we need."
Everything Alabama wants is getting increasingly difficult, especially as DeBoer continues to have the postgame speeches he admits he's not good at.
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: Is Alabama football worthy of the CFP after Tennessee loss?
