The axiom is almost as old as time itself, and certainly as old as the institution of marriage. At some point along the way, that newlywed shine fades and the parties involved are smacked in the face with the realization that they’re, well, stuck with each other.

The honeymoon is over.

When all the shouting is over with Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, either the Georgia Bulldogs will have taken another step toward outright SEC superiority, or the Alabama Crimson Tide have proven to the world that there is life after Nick Saban.

One team will win, one team will lose, and both sides won’t stop jabbering about it until the next time they square off. Likely neither team will actually be outside the expanded College Football Playoff picture, of course, as it’ll take 2 losses from here on out to say that.

But …

Steel yourselves, Tide Nation, for what I’m about to suggest: What if Alabama (gasp!) loses?

Is the Kalen DeBoer honeymoon over?

Now, before you go researching how to poison privet Ligustrum hedges and vow to never take in an English bulldog as a pet, hear out the logic behind the question.

First, no team – no matter how dominant and stocked with future NFL first-rounders – can win all their games anymore. It just doesn’t work that way. Undefeated seasons, especially in this super-conference world we now draw breath in, will be like snowstorms in South Florida. Technically possible, sure, but it isn’t like the Fontainebleau Miami Beach’s valet staff carries ice scrapers.

Alabama is gonna lose, whether it be Saturday or at some point this season. Same with Georgia – heck, the Bulldogs almost lost the plot 2 weeks ago to Kentucky before finally mustering the game’s only touchdown in the fourth quarter to hang on 13-12.

But even with all that logic, those who traffic in crimson and houndstooth will summarily lose their minds if Kirby Smart and Georgia stride confidently out of Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night with a victory. That’s just how extreme fandom works, and Alabama is the world leader in extreme fandom.

There will be gnashing of teeth and hastily thought-out takes on talk radio (“But Pawwwwwwwl!”), but what you’ll also hear for the first time in 17 years will be “is this coach the right guy for us?!?”

Which is patently ludicrous, until of course you’ve spent enough time around Alabama fans to know exactly how this all works. So as a service to them, we will answer the question … yes, West Alabama mouth-breathers, Kalen DeBoer is the right guy for you.

My crystal ball might be on the fritz from time to time, but it doesn’t require Nostradamus characteristics to realize that DeBoer ain’t nothing but a winner. Consider that he took Washington (not the Commanders, either, the college team that plays in Seattle) to the freaking College Football Playoff title game last season.

Sure, you say, Washington is really good. Well, they were last year – but after DeBoer DeParted (that’s some clever wordplay, mouth-breathers …), the Huskies opened up their 2024 slate as a betting underdog to Rutgers. That’s coaching, people, and DeBoer’s got the goods.

Since arriving to Tuscaloosa, all DeBoer has had to do is shore up a roster that was leaking like a sieve to the transfer portal, mesh existing talent with his preferred style of offense and defense, and prepare for a monster SEC schedule that takes precisely zero prisoners.

That march begins Saturday night with Smart’s Dawgs, a team that is dangerous within the gridiron’s white lines and also on the Peach State’s roadways. We opined earlier this week just what Saturday means for Smart to escape the shadow of Daddy Nick’s empire once and for all, but it is equally important for DeBoer to establish himself outside Saban’s formidable presence and stamp this Alabama team as his own.

It could well happen, though it well could go Georgia’s way.

But either way, Kalen DeBoer will be just fine at Alabama. There are simply too many superstars on his current Tide roster, recruiting is back up and humming again, and the infrastructure that supports the program isn’t in utter decay like it was when Saban blew into town on Jan. 3, 2007, after 38 days of hoping and pleading.

So calm down, private jet-trackers. Cool off, “For Sale” sign planters. There are still miles and miles of runway left on DeBoer before the final census is taken. The honeymoon ain’t over by a long piece, and if it all pans out right Saturday night, there will be plenty more champagne to pop before you even think about it again.