5 players who’ll be key in getting Alabama back to the College Football Playoff
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It’s been a long couple of years since Alabama football found its way to the precipice of the national title game, lost to Michigan in an overtime heartbreaker, then lost its legendary head coach just 9 days later.
Crimson Tide fans wiped tears from their eyes after a stinging loss on the field and then did it all over again after a loss on the sideline they knew was coming eventually. Nick Saban was a few plays from coaching for his 7th national title in 17 glorious years in Tuscaloosa, then suddenly he was announcing his retirement.
And suddenly, Alabama football faced the transition period it never wanted to come. Somehow, Saban would be the Tide’s head coach forever and that Crimson Tide trophy case would keep needing more room. Somehow, after the decades of coaching stress, Saban still looked tan and ready for more, so naturally he was going to coach until he was 80 — maybe longer.
But college football isn’t scripted like some fairy tale for the home fans, not even at Alabama. Saban’s tour de force in T-Town didn’t end the way Crimson Tide fans pictured it, with one last national championship and with Saban at a very old age — certainly much older than 72. Instead, it ended in agony at the Rose Bowl, 1 agonizing play short of another title appearance, with every Alabama fan wondering what could have been.
Then, a little over a week later, everybody was wondering what exactly the Tide were going to do. Saban was gone, and now what? Just 2 days later, everybody found out, when Alabama hired a tall, lanky guy from South Dakota of all places named Kalen DeBoer. He hadn’t coached anywhere near the state of Alabama or the SEC, for that matter, and he came to Tuscaloosa after 2 seasons at faraway Washington.
The Alabama football community took a deep, collective breath ahead of the 2024 season, its first without Saban since 2006, and it wished for the best from this stranger of a coach who had just led Washington to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Unfortunately for Alabama, but to hardly anybody’s surprise, the dreaded transition from Saban to anybody else didn’t go as the Crimson Tide had hoped in 2024. After a scintillating 4-0 September capped by that iconic victory over Georgia, reality hit hard in October, and Alabama dropped road games to Vanderbilt — yes, Vanderbilt — and Tennessee.
With College Football Playoff hopes still flickering, DeBoer’s team was thrashed in a primetime game at Oklahoma in late November, and an Iron Bowl win the following week couldn’t save Year 1 AS (After Saban). Then, in a cruel twist of fate, Alabama ended the calendar year the way it started it, by losing to Michigan, this time far off from the Playoff semifinals in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
DeBoer had a 9-4 record stamped on him, which at Alabama is unacceptable, especially after the previous decade and a half. There was no return to the Playoff, even in the expanded 12-team format, only a return to the drawing board.
And what about this fall? Can the Tide recapture their mojo in Year 2 with DeBoer and without Jalen Milroe, who now plays for the Seattle Seahawks? The pressure on DeBoer is higher this time around, if that’s possible. If Alabama is going to return to the Playoff in 2025, he’s going to have to coach a lot better with right-hand man Ryan Grubb back at his side, and he’s going to need these 5 players to show up in a huge way.
Note: This list of 5 players is in no particular order of importance. They are all equally important to Bama’s fate this fall.
Ty Simpson, quarterback
Simpson has the stage in T-Town, at long last. This is his 4th season in the program, but Simpson has barely seen the field while sitting behind Bryce Young and then Jalen Milroe. He’s only thrown a combined 50 passes since his arrival in 2022, completing 29 of them for 381 yards without a touchdown or an interception.
The Tennessee native has been sacked 6 times during those brief appearances, so he knows how to take a beating and come back for more. Simpson kept coming back for more at Alabama, and he’s finally been rewarded with the starting job, winning it well before the second scrimmage of fall camp was even played.
Simpson will be a novelty for the college football world, the SEC and even for a lot of fans at Alabama who may have missed his brief cameos while they went for a sandwich and drink. But everybody is going to learn about Simpson very quickly, and they’re all going to find out very quickly if Simpson is up to the task like so many Alabama quarterbacks before him the past few decades.
A strong early indicator for Simpson was that second scrimmage held on Saturday. With the starting job locked up, it would have been human nature for Simpson to relax a little and not quite be at the level he was at when fighting for the job. Instead, Simpson got Kalen DeBoer’s attention, in a good way, and he did it with his legs instead of his arm.
DeBoer told reporters after the scrimmage that Simpson’s speed is a facet of his game that might be heavily underestimated. The coach was impressed again by Simpson’s ability to make plays using his speed and to keep plays alive with his legs, too. DeBoer loved Simpson’s steadiness and consistency in the scrimmage, and his elevation to the starting role after years of waiting is something to appreciate.
Of course, the Florida State defense won’t care about Simpson’s story in a few weeks. Neither will all of those SEC defenses just looking to get a piece of Simpson as he gets used to life as the main guy. It’s going to be a huge challenge for Simpson this fall, let’s be honest. And if Alabama has any hope of navigating through the SEC jungle and getting back to the Playoff, it’s going to need Simpson to be as impressive from September through November as he’s been in August.
Jaeden Roberts, offensive lineman
Roberts needs to be healthy in 2025 for the offensive line to work and so Simpson isn’t running for his life. Right now, Roberts isn’t healthy. The guy who’s been Alabama’s rock at right guard for the past 2 years has now missed both scrimmages during fall camp.
After Saturday’s second scrimmage, DeBoer shed more light on just what is going on with unquestionably one of the team’s most important components. The biggest news is that DeBoer couldn’t even guarantee that Roberts will be able to play in the season opener at Florida State on Aug. 30.
DeBoer revealed to reporters that Roberts is dealing with a concussion, and concussions can be a trick thing, no matter what position you’re talking about. The coach said that Roberts is going through the concussion protocol and so he’s done nothing from a team standpoint.
There is no need to try to sugarcoat this, because Alabama fans who’ve watched Roberts the past few years know how vital he was and is. They know this isn’t good, and they know that time is running out until kickoff in Tallahassee. DeBoer said he didn’t expect Roberts’ absence to be long-term, but he also couldn’t give a timeline for his return.
Roberts is a 6-5, 327-pound behemoth of a guard who’s entering his redshirt senior season at Alabama. He’s exactly the kind of player and leader that a team like this leans on as it tries to transition back into a Playoff contender.
The Houston native has tasted the winning that Alabama is desperate to get back to, as a member of Nick Saban’s 2021 recruiting class. Roberts was a 4-star recruit, and he’s followed through on that billing from the 247Sports composite rankings during a stellar run in Tuscaloosa under Saban and now DeBoer.
Right now, Roberts isn’t OK. His team needs him back and soon, if not for the opener then soon thereafter. If this lingers and Roberts does miss an extended time, then that elusive Playoff spot for DeBoer and his team gets a little harder to achieve in December.
Ryan Williams, wide receiver
If this one seems obvious, it’s because it is. Williams set the college football world on fire last September along with fellow true freshman Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State. The Mobile native performed like someone far beyond his years last fall, because he did what he did at age 17. Williams didn’t turn 18 until Feb. 9, well after his dazzling freshman season had ended.
That season-opening run Williams had was pretty iconic. Both of his catches in the season-opening rout of Western Kentucky went for touchdowns, which wasn’t a bad way to introduce yourself to the crowd at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The next 2 games, he lit up South Florida and Wisconsin for 4 catches and 1 touchdown each, and then things got really interesting.
On a primetime, national TV stage against Georgia, Williams officially announced his presence as one of college football’s brightest young stars. He caught 6 passes for 177 yards and a touchdown, and that touchdown will likely go down as one of the biggest in Bryant-Denny history.
Georgia had stormed back from a 33-15 deficit after 3 quarters to take a 34-33 lead, before Jalen Milroe found Williams on an electrifying 75-yard scoring strike with a little over 2 minutes left to lift the Tide to victory and a 4-0 start.
Williams was primed for one of the best freshman seasons in SEC or college football history. You know, the kind of freshman season that Smith ending up having up in Columbus. But when the losses started coming for Alabama, Williams’ production fell off, not totally, but it was noticeable. He was impressive in the loss at Tennessee, catching 8 passes for 73 yards and a TD.
But the Tennessee game was the only one after the Georgia breakout where he caught more than 4 passes. In his final 5 games, including the bowl game, he didn’t catch more than 3 balls. Williams still finished the season with 48 catches for 865 yards and 8 touchdowns, but the way it all started, the numbers could have been better.
Maybe it was his youth finally showing. Maybe it was that first year going through the SEC that got to him. Williams was a shooting star in 2024, but in 2025 Alabama absolutely needs him to have staying power throughout the fall if it wants to be a Playoff team. With a new offensive coordinator and a new starting quarterback, it’s not going to be easy for him, but it’s going to be imperative that Williams’ production stays consistent right through the Iron Bowl and just maybe beyond.
Keon Sabb, free safety
Speaking of shooting stars for Alabama last fall, Sabb was the Tide’s defensive version, except unlike Williams, he didn’t even get to finish the season. After spending 2 seasons at Michigan, where he helped the Wolverines capture the 2023 national championship, Sabb took his talents to the SEC.
He showed maturity at Michigan by being a key piece to a title run as a sophomore, and he was going to be a key piece in getting Alabama back to the Playoff last fall. Sabb was doing just that during the first half of the 2024 season, piling up 39 tackles, 24 of them solo, with 2 interceptions.
Sabb was rolling with his new program, until he wasn’t. After playing in the loss at Tennessee in mid-October, Sabb missed the final 6 games of the season with a lower-body injury, including the bowl game against Michigan, the program he left to gain more playing time.
It was a painful, premature way for Sabb’s first season at Alabama to end, and he said earlier this month in fall camp that the injury was bothering him a few weeks before the Tennessee game. Sabb told reporters in camp that the Tennessee game was the point where he couldn’t handle the pain anymore.
Now, it’s August, and Sabb has his sights set on going the distance in 2025. So far, so good, said Tide defensive coordinator Kane Wommack earlier in camp. Wommack told reporters that Sabb was ahead of every marker the coaches had for him during the offseason, as far as getting back on the field for games.
That was at the start of fall camp, a few weeks ago. Now, with the season opener at Florida State fast-approaching in a few weeks from now, Sabb knows it’s crunch time. Last season, his injury gave Bray Hubbard the chance to gain meaningful playing time and now with Malachi Moore gone to the NFL, Sabb and Hubbard are primed to form the starting safety duo this fall.
That’s the hope for Bama, at least. Sabb’s ability to stay on the field this time around would go a long way in solidifying the back end of the defense, and that alone would go a long way in pointing the Crimson Tide back to the Playoff.
Deontae Lawson, linebacker
Lawson is the latest in a seemingly endless line of star linebackers that have sauntered through Tuscaloosa. If you’re invited to represent your program at SEC Media Days, as Lawson was this summer in Atlanta, then it automatically catapults a player into elite status — or presumed elite status.
That’s what Lawson is supposed to be in 2025. He was chosen to be in Atlanta for Media Days in July, and he’s supposed to be one of the players who gets Alabama back to Atlanta in December for the SEC Championship Game after a 1-year absence. If Lawson continues his career ascent in T-Town, he can be one of the players who gets the Crimson Tide back to the Playoff after a similar 1-year absence.
This will be Lawson’s third year as a starter, and he not only needs to put up massive numbers, he needs to lead this defense. The star linebackers at Alabama from Derrick Thomas on down have been the heart and soul of their respective defenses. Alabama should be asking the same of Lawson as a senior who wants to end things the right way after it went sideways last fall.
Lawson had 76 tackles, 36 of them solo, with 2 sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception in 2024. Those would seem to be numbers a team could win with, but it didn’t happen for the Crimson Tide in Kalen DeBoer’s first season. Lawson has piled up 194 tackles, including 15.5 tackles-for-loss, in his so-far stellar Tide career.
When the preseason All-SEC selections were released last month, Lawson was a 2nd-team pick. Yes, he’s supposed to be elite. Lawson, another Mobile native, has been in the Alabama program for 5 years now, so he’s experienced some wonderful highs under Nick Saban to contrast with last season’s low of falling short of the Playoff without Saban.
Lawson’s ability to take his game to even another level in 2025 is part of what’s necessary for Alabama to experience that Playoff atmosphere again with a coach not named Saban.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
