The 5 things Alabama needs to show in Atlanta with the Playoff looming
Published:
Alabama is in a weird place right now even as it gets ready to play a football game in a very familiar place.
After a little 1-year hiatus, the Crimson Tide are crashing the early December SEC party in Atlanta yet again, and they’ll be facing Georgia yet again in the battle for conference supremacy. But there’s a much bigger battle that Bama is fighting as it plays for another SEC trophy, and that’s the desperate pursuit of a College Football Playoff spot that just might be tied to the result of Saturday’s game.
The Alabama fan base is still breathing really hard after the Tide barely escaped haunted Jordan-Hare, and there is 1 theory that winning the Iron Bowl on the road, getting to 10 wins and flashing all those shiny ranked SEC victories is good enough for the Playoff committee. There is another theory dipped in Selection Sunday sweat and potential heartbreak that says Bama is anything but a CFP lock.
And that’s why things are so weird right now for Kalen DeBoer‘s team, which has played its way into an SEC Championship Game that might ultimately be its undoing if it loses. But there’s no Atlanta without that win at Auburn, which showed the Tide’s grit under extreme pressure after blowing a 17-0 lead. It also showed you can be a work in progress while also being a national championship contender.
At this very moment, Bama is both. We’ll know a heck of a lot more about this team by early Saturday evening. But what we do know is the Tide will need to play a lot better than they did last Saturday to beat Georgia for the 2nd time this Saturday. With that, here are the 5 things Alabama needs to show in Atlanta, with an SEC trophy at stake and, just maybe, a Playoff spot, too:
1. For starters, Ryan Williams needs to show up in Atlanta
Yes, Alabama still won the game and that’s absolutely a credit to the resilience, poise and depth of this team. To prevail in the Iron Bowl pressure-cooker, on the road, with your Playoff dreams on the line, without getting literally anything from your most explosive playmaker is doing something pretty special. But what is the likelihood you can do it again in the SEC title game, against a much better team that is salivating for some payback?
If someone tapped you on the shoulder back in August, said they’ve just returned from the future and told you that Williams not only wasn’t going to catch a pass in the Iron Bowl, he wasn’t even going to be targeted once, you’d have called him or her crazy. Right? Look, it’s no secret by now that Williams hasn’t had the sophomore year everyone expected after electrifying college football as a 17-year-old freshman phenom last season. The numbers don’t lie and neither does the eye test.
Williams’ 40 catches this fall are at least in the ballpark of the 48 he had a year ago, but his 598 yards receiving fall way below his 865 from 2024 and he’s only caught 4 touchdown passes this season after snagging 8 TDs as a freshman. Things just haven’t been quite right for Williams in 2025, starting with that concussion he suffered in the Week 1 loss at Florida State, to those bevy of dropped passes and now almost being a glorified decoy in the Iron Bowl, of all games.
But despite not having as many catches or yards as Germie Bernard and despite not having as many touchdowns as TD machine Isaiah Horton or Bernard, can you really see Bama going anywhere in a potential Playoff run without meaningful contribution from Williams? According to Pro Football Focus, Williams was 4th among Tide receivers with 38 snaps played against Auburn, trailing Bernard (70), Horton (53) and even Lotzeir Brooks (39).
Kalen DeBoer basically said nothing to see here to reporters afterward regarding Williams’s playing time in the Iron Bowl. He’s been saying all the right things about Williams’ week-to-week preparation, too, but right now there’s just a disconnect. Saturday afternoon, under the intense glare of the SEC title game, with everything on the line again, would be a really great time for Williams to re-emerge. His “hello world” moment as a freshman came against Georgia. Bama could use a “hello again” moment or 2 in Atlanta.
2. Desperation, because with 2 losses a Playoff spot isn’t guaranteed
While Alabama fans were justifiably excited on Tuesday night when the Tide jumped Notre Dame and moved into the No. 9 position in the updated College Football Playoff rankings, Bama is still in a precarious position going into Saturday. A victory over Georgia makes all of that potential sweat (and tears) on Selection Sunday go away quickly, as Alabama won’t just make the Playoff, it’ll get the SEC’s automatic bid and maybe even a first-round bye.
But a loss? Well, that might change everything for Bama, including whether the Tide squeeze into the Playoff or not. Because a loss on Saturday means Alabama will have 3 losses in 2025, and even in the new world order of the 12-team Playoff format, having 3 losses and asking for a Playoff berth is asking a whole lot. If Bama plays really well and loses to a really good Georgia team by, say, 3 or 7 points, and if other things break right for the Tide on Championship Weekend, then they could still be in line for a Playoff spot.
But that’s a lot of ifs, and don’t forget that while 2 of Alabama’s 3 potential losses would be against Playoff teams Georgia and Oklahoma, that other loss would be to a Florida State team that finished 5-7. The CFP committee surely won’t forget. And that’s why Bama needs to treat Saturday as the unofficial start of its Playoff run, with a healthy dose of desperation to go with it. Win and all of the noise goes away, with an SEC trophy as a bonus gift.
3. That somebody, anybody, can step in for Jam Miller if he’s out
Like Ryan Williams on the outside, this season hasn’t been what anybody had in mind for Miller in the backfield. After putting up 668 yards rushing and 7 touchdowns last season, Miller was primed to better those numbers as a senior this fall. But fate wasn’t kind to him back in fall camp, when Miller dislocated his collarbone and missed the first 3 games of the season.
After returning for the SEC opener against Georgia and showing flashes of the old Miller, including a 136-yard performance the following week against Vanderbilt, it was touch and go for the rest of the regular season. There was a 4-game midseason stretch when he was a total non-factor, combining for just 81 yards. Then, wouldn’t you know it, right as Miller was regaining his form down the stretch with 62 yards and a touchdown against Eastern Illinois and 83 yards in the Iron Bowl, fate got him again.
Miller was knocked out of the dramatic victory at Auburn, with it being a lower-body injury this time. He was seen on crutches after the injury. Then came the expected uncertain news on Wednesday’s availability report, with Miller being listed as questionable for the SEC title game against the same Georgia team he made his delayed season debut against. Talk about cruel irony, and if Miller can’t go Saturday, somebody from Bama’s stable of backs will have to step in and make sure the Tide aren’t totally 1-dimensional.
Maybe it’s a group effort without Miller? And if his injury is more serious than we know now, then the Tide could be calling on some inexperienced backs in a potential Playoff run. Not exactly an ideal scenario going into, for now at least, the biggest game of the year.
4. That the D is Playoff-ready by slowing down Gunner Stockton again
Kane Wommack’s unit came a long way in 2025 after getting shredded by Florida State in that Week 1 loss. Wommack has come a long way, too. The social media zealots were calling for him to be fired after exactly 1 half of football in Tallahassee in late August. All Wommack’s D did after that was help spearhead an 8-game winning streak that set Alabama back on course toward a Playoff bid, and Wommack was rewarded earlier this week by being named a semifinalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to college football’s top assistant.
Even the 1 game that the Tide lost since Week 1 wasn’t the defense’s fault at all, as it allowed Oklahoma just 12 first downs and 212 total yards. Wommack’s guys played more than well enough to win that game, too, which leads us to Saturday and Georgia. Back in Week 5 in its SEC opener, Bama went to Athens and stifled the Dawgs in a 24-21 victory that set the tone for a 7-1 run through the conference gauntlet. Gunner Stockton has had a heck of a first full year at the helm, blossoming into a Heisman Trophy candidate, but Bama made him look ordinary in primetime in his home stadium.
The dual-threat Stockton was held to 130 yards passing and 22 yards rushing by Wommack’s unit, which is now tasked with trying to do something like that again on a neutral field in Atlanta. The dirty secret about that late September game was that Georgia did rush for 227 yards, but it got swept under the rug because the Tide shut down Stockton and because they bent without breaking. Doing that once against Georgia is hard enough. Doing it twice in 1 season and showing his D is Playoff-ready will be Wommack’s biggest challenge yet in a season full of them,
5. That Kalen DeBoer can meet his first big moment at Alabama
At about the same time Kane Wommack was getting roasted on social media for the egg Bama was laying in Week 1, DeBoer was taking it on the chin, too. Because Bama fans so spoiled by the Nick Saban era were panicking after DeBoer followed a 4-loss first year with a season-opening clunker. Was this guy from South Dakota who was a stranger to the SEC prior to getting the Alabama job really the right guy to replace a legend?
It was a legitimate question at that moment, but DeBoer got himself and his team off the canvas during that 8-game winning streak that included 4 straight SEC ranked victories. He steered Bama to a 10-win regular season and got the Tide back to their rightful early December happy place in Atlanta, with Georgia waiting again. But Saturday won’t be another Saban vs. Kirby Smart grudge match. It’s DeBoer’s time now, and even though he’s beaten Smart in his first 2 seasons in T-Town, this is different.
This is the SEC Championship Game, not a late September SEC opener. These are the big-stage games DeBoer was hired to coach in, and this will be his first true big moment at Alabama. Saturday is when DeBoer can officially start a new era of winning in Tuscaloosa, and before he can start winning Playoff games DeBoer needs to win this game.
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.
