Amidst a plethora of intriguing storylines within the SEC this season, Alabama has appeared to emerge from the pack as the league’s truly elite team.
After falling to Florida State 31-17 in their season opener, the Crimson Tide have largely dominated their competition while picking up ranked wins over Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Tennessee in recent weeks.
And so after ESPN’s Paul Finebaum was ready to turn up the hot seat on Kalen DeBoer earlier this season, he was singing Alabama’s praises following the team’s latest win over the Volunteers.
During a SportsCenter segment where Finebaum handed out mid-season grades to various programs, Finebaum gave the Tide an ‘A’ for their performance thus far.
“Alabama has been dominant while going through one of the toughest runs I’ve ever seen,” Finebaum said. “The grade is A.”
It’s hard to disagree with Finebaum’s assessment, as Alabama has looked the part of a national-title contender by keeping its head above water in the SEC while others drown around it. Ty Simpson’s emergence into a Heisman contender has played a large factor in that, and the Crimson Tide defense has done well to rebound from a rough showing in the opener against Florida State.
Parker is currently the sports editor with the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
