Kirk Herbstreit: Alabama is ‘a very different team’ in 2026
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Kirk Herbstreit has been watching Alabama football for decades now, and he’s witnessed what they’ve become the past few years under Kalen DeBoer.
Since Nick Saban departed after the 2023 season, the Crimson Tide have been good but not good enough. Last season, Bama even made it to the College Football Playoff, but the Tide were whitewashed by eventual national champion Indiana in the CFP quarterfinals.
Again, good but not good enough.
But how about the 2026 team that has soared to a 5-0 start going into Saturday night’s mega matchup against fellow 5-0 SEC powerhouse Georgia? This Bama team is 3-0 in the SEC, like the Bulldogs are, and the Tide are ranked 6th going into the primetime showdown (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) against the second-ranked Dawgs.
Yes, Alabama is really good, as it almost always is, but Herbstreit sees major differences this year, and the ESPN college football analyst explained those differences during Thursday’s appearance on The Pat McAfee Show:
“To (Kalen DeBoer’s) credit, he’s being him. To his credit, he’s stayed in the pocket. … Kalen DeBoer has had to deal with the noise and just kind of sit in the pocket, go out and recruit, (say) we’re going to continue to raise the bar, we’re going to do it our way,” Herbstreit said. “That’s very, very hard to do when the expectations from the fans are for you to be like (Nick Saban). I just don’t think that’s realistic when your personality is so different. Kudos to (DeBoer) for being himself.
“I think they’re a very different team this year. Keelon Russell is going to get a lot of credit, but they’re healthy at running back, Daniel Hill is running the ball with authority, they’re better at the line of scrimmage. You mention Ryan Coleman-Williams, he’s back to playing the way he did his freshman year, which is great to see. He’s playing with a lot more confidence. And I think the biggest issue, which we saw in last week’s game (against Mississippi State) in Starkville, everybody thought it was going to be a shootout … Kane Wommack and his defense, they are flying around, they’re better in the trenches and they’re doing a much better job on the back end just being on the same page and coming up with interceptions, so it’s a very, very different Alabama team.”
Those compliments paid by Herbstreit will be on full display come Saturday night, as Alabama tries to take down Georgia for the third straight regular season. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the Crimson Tide’s chances to pull off the hat trick of victories against the Bulldogs in primetime:
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.
