One really big thing awaiting Alabama in September, October and November
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When Alabama is involved, it’s always a really big thing, whether the Crimson Tide are playing a high-profile nonconference game, their SEC opener, one of their old bitter rivals or that Iron Bowl around Thanksgiving.
Bama brings ratings, eyeballs, attention, adulation and hatred. When the Tide roll into town, everything stops, and it’s a really big thing whether they win or lose — and especially if they lose. Pick up a copy of Alabama’s schedule every August and you basically see 12 breathless Saturdays that double as potential end-of-the-world moments.
But while there’s no denying that reality, there is also the reality that some things on Alabama’s schedule just hit differently than others. Some dates every fall, some games, some showdowns, some situations deserve the highlighter treatment, for whatever reason.
With that in mind, we’ve combed through the 3 main months of Alabama football mayhem — September, October and November — and picked out 1 really big thing awaiting the Crimson Tide during each of those months. These really big things each month will shape how the 2026 season goes down and if Bama is trending up or down when the dust settles after the Iron Bowl:
September brings a really big chance for payback against FSU
How many refrigerator calendars in the greater Tuscaloosa area have been marked for months for this one? Just a few, perhaps. It’ll happen in Week 3, on Sept. 19, when Florida State comes to Bryant-Denny Stadium, and it’ll get the royal TV treatment in the 3:30 p.m. ET time slot on ABC.
Why wouldn’t it?
With all due respect to Alabama’s Week 2 visit to Kentucky in its first clash with the Will Stein-led Wildcats (which is also a 3:30 p.m. ET ABC game), and with all due respect to the Tide’s Week 4 home showdown with LaNorris Sellers and an interesting South Carolina team, the FSU thing is definitely The Thing for the month of September.
Why wouldn’t it be?
Bama fans have particularly good memories, whether it’s for something grand or something gross. Count this one among the latter, because it was just last year, in a Week 1 whitewash in Tallahassee, that Florida State ran all over Alabama to the tune of 230 yards rushing in a 31-17 victory that provided a rush-the-field moment for the Noles and an immediate cause for concern for the Tide.
Sure, Bama ultimately recovered from this opening dud to make the SEC title game and the College Football Playoff. But let’s be real, most people who love Alabama and hate the Tide never quite looked at the 2025 team the same again, especially as Florida State dissolved into a 5-7 squad that won just 2 ACC games. The Crimson Tide were ranked 8th and were a double-digit favorite, but they got beaten and beaten down.
Is all that enough motivation for Bama to carry into this mid-September rematch of name-brand programs whose campuses are separated by just over 300 miles? We think it’s more than enough motivation, for Kalen DeBoer, his coaching staff, his players and especially Tide fans who will be out for blood. This will likely be a golden opportunity for Bama to start 3-0, and that would be a really big thing — as would getting some delicious payback.
October brings a really big 3-game, make-or-break gauntlet
What’s traditionally meant to be the month where the meat of the SEC season happens is truly that for Alabama in 2026. If the Tide can take advantage of a softer (but not easy) September schedule and then take care of business in Starkville against Mississippi State on Oct. 3, they would be 5-0 and in position to attack a 3-game gauntlet that might or might not set them up for a return trip to the Playoff.
The Third Saturday in October grudge match with preseason No. 20 Tennessee is always standing in Bama’s way at this time of year — thus, the name of the grand old rivalry. This doesn’t shape up as a great Volunteers team, but it’s Tennessee-Alabama, and the Oct. 17 showdown is in Knoxville, where the Vols have taken down the Tide 2 straight times.
Putting an end to those Neyland Stadium nightmares will likely take a lot, because is this Bama team really good enough to walk into Knoxville and just roll as the Tide did for almost all of the Nick Saban era?
Probably not.
And this particular even-numbered season, there are potential potholes awaiting Alabama on either side of the Tennessee game. Big potholes. Because 7 days before the Crimson Tide invade Neyland comes Georgia. That’s preseason No. 3 Georgia, the 2-time defending SEC champions who have become the New Alabama of the conference under longtime Tide defensive coordinator Kirby Smart.
The Dawgs are loaded, as always, and they’ll be loaded with motivation coming to Tuscaloosa because although they bludgeoned Bama in last season’s SEC title game, they’re 0-2 against Kalen DeBoer in the regular season since he arrived in 2024. Those 2 meetings were in late September, so Alabama’s October docket has been Georgia-free the past couple years.
Not this year. This year, the duel with the Dawgs is positioned on Oct. 10, right before that tricky trip to Knoxville, and guess what’s positioned the week after the Tennessee road game? How about a visit on Oct. 24 from another preseason top-10 SEC behemoth in Texas A&M, with dynamic quarterback Marcel Reed leading a program that’s hell-bent on being right back in the Playoff.
Georgia at home, Tennessee on the road, Texas A&M at home — 3 likely ranked foes during an October SEC whirlwind spread across just 15 days. Big? Try really big. Winning all 3 would be an amazing feat, but even getting out of there with a 2-1 mark could really set Alabama up nicely for the stretch drive through November.
November brings a really big first clash with Lane Kiffin at LSU
Kiffin hasn’t always been the enemy. There was that 3-year run between 2014-16 when Lane Kiffin ran the Alabama offense, with a national championship in 2015 to show for it. But before that and now after, the often-controversial Kiffin has been 1 of the top guys that Bama fans most wanted to beat.
And now, here we go again. Kiffin had a 1-season cameo as the head coach at Tennessee in 2009 and then, of course, there was his just-completed 6-year tour de force at Ole Miss, which naturally Kiffin didn’t even complete because he was busy jumping ship to LSU at the very end of last season.
As if the Alabama-LSU blood rivalry needed any more fresh blood in it, right? Enter Kiffin, who has a shiny transfer quarterback to coach up in Sam Leavitt as he already enters his 3rd head coaching job in the SEC by the age of 51. So, after Bama’s October gauntlet and after its much-needed bye week leading up to Halloween weekend, here comes the even-numbered-year visit to Death Valley in early November.
With Kiffin of all people waiting on Nov. 7.
Yes, the Tide visit Vanderbilt the week after the LSU showdown, but Diego Pavia isn’t playing quarterback in Nashville anymore. And with all due respect to the Iron Bowl and everything it represents, there will be no Jordan-Hare Stadium ghosts awaiting Alabama in late November because the game is in T-Town this year.
That leaves what promises to be a titanic showdown and showcase with SEC title and Playoff implications dripping from every last corner of Tiger Stadium. The kickoff time and TV designation are likely far from being announced as we sit here in August, but it would be shocking if Bama-LSU, Kiffin style, wasn’t a primetime kickoff and naturally it’ll land somewhere on the national TV menu.
It isn’t just November’s really big thing awaiting Alabama because of the matchup itself with the preseason 11th-ranked Bayou Bengals. Look at the Tide’s schedule after they leave Baton Rouge. A presumably down Vandy team, followed by a layup at home against Chattanooga, followed by an Iron Bowl home game against a rebuilding Auburn program.
In other words, if Alabama can escape Death Valley with a victory and get the better of Kiffin, it has a really, really good chance to go unbeaten in November. And if that happens, then the 2026 Crimson Tide will more than likely have a really big thing to play for in the month of December — and, just maybe, January.
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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.
