Alabama football: 3 reasons to be encouraged, 3 reasons to still be worried coming out of the bye
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Alabama football 2025, pre-bye edition, was 1 big mixed bag, with 1 big clunker at the start and 2 solid victories to follow.
There were aspects to agonize over and there were positives to cling to. There were reasons to think that, just maybe, Kalen DeBoer might not have been the right guy to take the baton from Nick Saban, and in the same breath there were reasons to think Alabama could still find its way back to the College Football Playoff before it’s all over.
But the bottom line after 3 games is that there’s 1 loss, and while that might not be the end of the world in many college football locales, it is in Tuscaloosa. That makes the next 9 games a perilous path to the Playoff, and it likely gave the 17th-ranked Crimson Tide a little more urgency during their bye week.
Coming out of the bye, Bama stares the annual SEC gauntlet right in the face, starting with this Saturday night’s colossal showdown at Georgia. There is definitely cause for both optimism and concern, so we’ll dive into 3 reasons to be encouraged and 3 reasons to still be worried coming out of this early bye week.
3 reasons to be encouraged
Let’s start with the positives:
1. Ty Simpson has already shown he can respond to adversity
Simpson waited so long for his starting moment, and it all immediately went to pieces. And while Simpson wasn’t even close to being Alabama’s biggest problem in the season-opening disaster at Florida State, he wasn’t on point. Yes, Simpson ended up with 254 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, but he completed just 53.5% of his passes (23 of 43) and his QBR was just 55.8.
His defense did him no favors that day, getting gashed and putting the Simpson-led offense in a hole all afternoon. It was a lot to ask of a quarterback on the first day of his new life as a starter and while Simpson was OK, 17 points is rarely going to be enough to win in a hostile environment. It certainly wasn’t in Week 1, and the avalanche of criticism from all corners might’ve been enough to drown some signal-callers with thin skin and a lesser skill set.
Right away, Simpson was going to be tested mentally. And right away, he passed that test and not just because he led the Tide to victories over Louisiana-Monroe and Wisconsin that everybody already presumed would be wins. It was the way Simpson did it with pinpoint accuracy, completing all 17 of his passes in Week 2 and 24 of 29 attempts in Week 3.
Instead of becoming sloppy in a desperate attempt to make up for the FSU loss, Simpson put his nose down and continued being precise. Through 3 games, he’s thrown for 862 yards with 9 touchdown passes and 0 interceptions. Not only has he yet to throw a pick, he’s led an offense that’s yet to turn the ball over at all, the first time Alabama has started the season without a turnover in its first 3 games since 2017.
That kind of clean offensive football will win you a lot of games, especially with the talent that Bama has to go with it. Tide fans don’t have to like that Week 1 loss, but they’ve got to applaud the way their new starting quarterback shook it off and held it together.
2. Ryan Williams seems poised to explode, and just in time
There’s no way to sugarcoat it. The first few weeks were a nightmare for the supposed super sophomore, and it wasn’t all his fault. After setting the college football world on fire as a freshman, Williams caught just 5 passes for 30 yards in the loss at FSU, and that wasn’t even the worst part. He suffered a concussion in the fourth quarter as a cruel reward, and that kept him out of the Week 2 laugher against Louisiana-Monroe.
While the Tide didn’t need Williams to blow out the Warhawks, it was a prime opportunity for Williams to roll up some big numbers and get his sophomore campaign back on track.
That opportunity was gone, but in Week 3 against Wisconsin, Williams morphed into the secondary-shredding weapon from 2024. He caught the same number of passes (5) as he did against FSU, but they went for 165 yards this time, with touchdown grabs of 75 and 41 yards in the third quarter of a 38-14 victory.
Suddenly, Williams seemed back on schedule, with his mojo back intact and just in the nick of time going into the bye week. Now, after another refresh and reset, Williams comes out of the bye flying high as Bama gets ready for a Saturday night showdown at Georgia in Week 5.
And nobody who follows Alabama football should need a refresher on what Williams did to Georgia last season in Tuscaloosa.
3. The defense started making plays, with a reinforcement on the way
After 2 games, the first a horrible performance at FSU and the second a shutout against a Sun Belt team, there wasn’t any real playmaking going on for Kane Wommack’s defense. The unit came into Week 3 with a measly 1 sack, but it had 3 of them by halftime against Wisconsin and finished the day with 4 sacks.
Finally, the Tide were flying to the quarterback like all those past Alabama teams, and they were getting turnovers, too, or at least star safety Bray Hubbard was with 2 interceptions. There’s no way Bama is going to survive this particular SEC journey without some havoc from that defense, and the havoc finally showed up against a Big Ten team on national TV.
It had to be a relief going into the bye and here’s a relief coming out of the bye — Kalen DeBoer announced on Monday that senior captain Tim Keenan III would make his season debut against Georgia after missing the first 3 games with an ankle injury suffered in fall camp. That’s a huge piece added to the defensive line, and now there’s the potential for a whole lot more of that needed havoc against opponents far superior than Wisconsin.
3 reasons to still be worried
It’s not all sunny in Tuscaloosa, though. Here are some causes for concern:
1. Louisiana-Monroe and Wisconsin aren’t Georgia
The 73-0 thrashing of Louisiana-Monroe was therapeutic after the FSU nightmare, and the 38-14 handling of Wisconsin was full of highlight-reel plays on both sides. So, a round of applause for Kalen DeBoer’s team for getting off the canvas and punching back.
But now comes a steep step up in competition, with the start of the SEC slate in general and specifically this Saturday night at No. 5 Georgia. And then there’s the intense revenge factor Bama will be up against after that thrilling victory almost exactly a year ago in Tuscaloosa.
Gunner Stockton and the Dawgs already have a signature win in their back pocket this year from Week 3 at Tennessee. Now they want blood from Bama. Is this Tide team really ready for the madness that awaits in Athens? We’re about to find out.
2. Can Jam Miller’s return really flip the switch on the running attack?
Kalen DeBoer told reporters on Monday that the senior would make his 2025 debut against Georgia, which was exactly what the hope was after Miller injured his collarbone during a fall camp scrimmage. Miller’s workload was ramped up during the bye week, and now it looks like Alabama’s top returning rusher will finally get a chance to spearhead a rushing attack that’s been feeble without him.
Nobody stepped up in that backfield while Miller was out. Bama’s leading rusher through 3 games is Kevin Riley with 120 yards, a number that would be good after 1 game. Riley is the only Tide back with over 100 yards, which is something else, and not in a good way.
It would seem likely that Miller’s return will jump-start this running attack, but it’s not automatic. Will the offensive line be up to the task and adjust to blocking for a guy who hasn’t been in a game situation since last season? And just how healthy is Miller as he returns? It’ll all unfold in primetime on Saturday.
3. We’re 3 games in and Deontae Lawson still doesn’t have a sack
Yes, Lawson leads the Tide in tackles with 10 (6 solo) through 3 games, so he’s on schedule there. But when you’re a senior team captain and you were invited to speak at SEC Media Days, there’s a certain expectation level, especially at Alabama.
Right now, there’s still a big 0 in the sack column for Lawson, even after Bama finally exploded for 4 sacks in Week 3 against Wisconsin.
Yes, it’s still relatively early. That SEC jungle is just arriving. But being the star linebacker at Alabama carries a legacy that demands fulfillment, and for Lawson that must start in Athens on Saturday night.
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.
