The FSU loss was alarming, and Kane Wommack’s Alabama defense had a major red flag
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For most of the past 2 decades and really for most of the past century, Alabama has been pushing its foes into oblivion, running up points and rolling to championship glory.
Those 30 SEC titles, 34 conference crowns in all, and those 18 claimed national titles, the first one coming exactly 100 years ago, were won in all shapes and sizes. But Alabama teams have always had a way of doing the punishing through shear physicality, on both sides of the ball, and one thing you hardly ever see is the Crimson Tide getting pushed around.
In the season opener of the 100th anniversary season of that first national championship, Alabama got pushed around.
It happened in plain daylight, on national TV, for all to see.
It happened outside the friendly confines of Bryant-Denny Stadium, in hostile territory, because on Saturday afternoon Tallahassee seemed as far away from Tuscaloosa as the moon.
It happened against a Florida State team that was unranked but unrelenting, and the Seminoles played possessed, desperate to put last year’s 2-10 disaster behind them and determined to regain their own winning swagger.
It happened because, somehow, an Alabama defense that was supposed to be one of the country’s best in 2025 allowed Florida State to run for a whopping 230 yards, pounding Kane Wommack’s unit time and again in the 31-17 loss. It was Alabama’s first season-opening setback since 2001, almost a quarter century ago, and for a Crimson Tide team that came in as 2-touchdown favorites, it was a defensive disaster with many layers to it.
There was Alabama’s early 7-0 lead followed by 24 unanswered Florida State points, with all 3 of those Noles touchdowns naturally coming on the ground.
After Bama appeared to gather itself and scored the next 10 points to get within 24-17 in the fourth quarter, there was no sense of the moment for the Tide defense, as FSU gashed Wommack’s defense again and finished off its drive with — what else? — a 14-yard rushing touchdown.
There were still a little over 7 minutes left in the game, but the vibes at Doak Campbell Stadium were already too strong for the home team. The fans could feel it, too. There was no coming back for the defenseless visitors from T-Town, and soon the entire field would be filled with fans rushing the field.
Turned out Alabama couldn’t stop Florida State’s players or its fans from running wild on Doak’s turf, either.
This felt worse than even the lowest moments of Kalen DeBoer‘s first season last fall. Worse than the Vanderbilt meltdown, the scene of another delirious fan celebration. Worse than the Tennessee loss a few weeks later and worse than the November no-show at Oklahoma that effectively took Alabama out of College Football Playoff contention.
And, yes, worse than the ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan, because by that point the season had long ago become a lost one on the way to 9-4.
Because this was supposed to be the reboot, the start of something way better in Year 2 AS (After Saban). DeBoer and Wommack had all of fall camp and really all offseason to prepare for Florida State, knowing the Noles were out for their own fresh start. The Tide offense surely shoulders some of the blame for what happened, because 17 points are hardly ever enough on the road.
But Wommack’s woeful defense is where the real blame should be laid. A unit that features star players like linebacker Deontae Lawson, defensive lineman LT Overton and defensive back Domani Jackson should never be dominated like this Bama unit was dominated.
It was all so unbelievable and all so unacceptable, and it started in the trenches, where Florida State had its way in a way you just don’t expect from an Alabama opponent. Seminoles quarterback Tommy Castellanos only threw for 152 yards in his FSU debut, and that was just fine, and he only had to throw it 14 times all day, with 9 completions.
Castellanos’s arm got a break because his legs were doing most of the work, together with his running backs. The Boston College transfer who spent his freshman season down the road at UCF in 2022 was back in the Sunshine State, and he made all the plays that were needed against that toothless Tide defense.
Most of those plays were on the ground, of course, as Castellanos was the head of the snake in Florida State’s rushing attack. He tucked the ball under and ran it an astonishing 16 times — 2 more than the amount of passes he threw — for a team-high 78 yards, averaging a hair under 5 yards a pop.
Castellanos’ biggest carry might have been one of his earliest, with his 9-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter tying the game at 7-7 and capping a 75-yard Noles drive. That touchdown and that drive effectively switched the narrative, because Alabama actually got the ball first and embarked on a 17-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Ty Simpson’s first TD pass as the new Tide starting quarterback.
Normally, or maybe always, when Alabama sucks the life out of a home crowd like it did with that game-opening drive, that narrative is written in stone and the Crimson Tide have their way the rest of the day. Maybe all Bama needed to make that happen was one defensive stop to get the ball back with that 7-0 lead. But it didn’t happen because Wommack’s defense couldn’t contain Castellanos.
It was only 7-7, but the home crowd was re-energized, and a belief was already starting to build. After Bama’s next drive ended with Conor Talty missing a 53-yard field goal attempt, another “momentum swing” moment where it swung FSU’s way, the Tide defense was back on the field. And FSU’s running attack went back to punishing them, with Micahi Danzy’s 32-yard touchdown run giving the Noles a lead they never relinquished.
That’s where it all really slipped away for Bama, which is saying something considering it was only 14-7 at the time. A 7-point deficit in the second quarter for the Tide is usually delaying the inevitable Bama surge. On Saturday, it was merely a prelude to more punishment by FSU’s offensive line, as the yards allowed on the ground kept piling up on an Alabama front 7 that came into 2025 with so much expectations.
After Bama went 3-and-out, FSU went back to work, using 2 14-yard runs on the ensuing drive to set up a long field goal that made it 17-7. That was the halftime score, that one Tide touchdown seemed like it was scored about 3 weeks earlier, and social media went ballistic on Bama’s defenseless defense.
Fans went ballistic on Wommack, in particular. And if you’re asking why a fan base could possibly ask for a coordinator to be fired after the first half of the first game of the season, then you obviously haven’t tapped into the wild passion of the Alabama football community. The truth is, there are many other fan bases of elite programs that would’ve reacted in a similar way as Alabama’s, but the excellence demanded by Alabama fans is truly unmatched.
That’s what 6 national titles in a little over a decade will do. But Nick Saban is long gone, and that was never more painfully obvious than it was during the Florida State fiasco. Specifically, it was during the third quarter, when past Bama teams would’ve risen up, met the challenge and likely conquered, when you knew this was something different than you’ve seen in a very long time.
Wommack’s unit had to hold steadfast and allow its offense to get the next points. But after finally forcing the first FSU punt of the game, Bama’s offense was stopped on downs in Noles’ territory. With the game and the narrative teetering, Bama’s defense broke yet again, this time through the air as Castellanos completed a 64-yard pass down to the Tide 4, followed by — what else? — a 4-yard TD run on the very next play by Caziah Holmes.
There was still 9:45 left in the 3rd quarter, but it all seemed out of reach with a 24-7 hole because, yes, the Alabama offense had done next to nothing since that opening touchdown. But it was the defense, the much-hype Alabama defense that was supposed to be one of the nation’s best, like it always is, that was really letting things get out of hand.
There were virtually no significant victories at the line of scrimmage. There was 1 sack all afternoon by the Crimson Tide, with it coming from Keon Sabb, a safety, which screams out loud that the front 7 wasn’t creating much havoc at all.
There was also nobody on Wommack’s defense who had more than 6 tackles. Three players — Lawson, Sabb and linebacker Justin Jefferson — each finished with 6 tackles, with safety Bray Hubbard posting 5. The 1 turnover that Alabama forced wasn’t even by the defense, with its special teams unit recovering an FSU fumble late in the third quarter.
That turnover came with Bama down 24-10, and with a chance to swing some momentum, the offense came up empty after being handed some great field position. Ryan Grubb didn’t exactly make a great first impression in his debut as Tide offensive coordinator, so what happened on Saturday wasn’t all on the defense.
But the defense was the most glaring deficiency, because those 230 yards rushing were that glaring and so were the 4.7 yards per carry that the rampaging Seminoles averaged.
During his Monday press conference, Wommack called his unit “timid in getting off of blocks.” When was the last time you heard an Alabama defense being called “timid”? This wasn’t some social media savage doing it either. It was the Tide’s own defensive coordinator, who proclaimed that he was “really excited to get that fixed this week.”
That would be Saturday night’s home opener against Louisiana-Monroe, when Alabama’s defense will have a chance to let its frustrations out against a heavy underdog from the Sun Belt Conference.
If that happens, it will be fine, but it won’t move the needle too much because it’s Louisiana-Monroe. When the Alabama defense had a chance to avenge its poor play on Saturday, after the Tide crept within a touchdown with 11 minutes to go, the unit failed miserably, immediately giving up a 10-play, 75-yard drive, with none of those 75 yards being gained via the pass.
It was courtesy of that running attack that Bama couldn’t stop, with a 15-yard penalty mixed in. That game-sealing drive was capped by Gavin Sawchuk’s 14-yard TD run, and with a little over 7 minutes left it was inevitable that those delirious FSU fans were going to be doing a little rushing on the field, too.
They did, and they filled up the entire field at Doak Campbell Stadium. As if the loss itself wasn’t hard enough for the Tide and for Tide fans, the brutal realization that it was authored by brand new FSU offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn had to make it 100 times worse. Malzahn was Auburn‘s head coach for 8 seasons from 2013-20, winning a national title as Tigers OC in 2010, so he spent years trying to solve Bama during the Saban Era.
Last Saturday, Malzahn saw up close that this wasn’t the Saban Alabama teams he banged his head against the wall trying to beat all those years. This was something different, especially the Tide defense he was literally running circles around.
Yes, Bama was missing star defensive lineman Tim Keenan III, a team captain, a senior, a big-time leader. Keenan suffered a high ankle sprain in practice, and ESPN reported that he would miss multiple games and would return at some point this season.
It was one of a few blows that Bama suffered during fall camp, with the loss of running back Jam Miller another one. But in past years, the Crimson Tide would be able to overcome injuries, even ones to standout players, and still move forward and win games.
Last Saturday, before the calendar even flipped to September, an Alabama football team didn’t just lose. Its defense, its calling card for decades, got tossed around a stadium in Tallahassee. Naturally, the Tide plummeted in the new AP Poll, falling 13 spots to 21st, which is Bama’s lowest ranking since it was No. 24 to begin the 2008 season.
That was the start of Saban’s second season in Tuscaloosa, and that team shot up to No. 13 the next week. Alabama never left the AP top 20 again until — that’s right — this week, when that number 21 was placed next to its name.
What comes next? Well, after Louisiana-Monroe this Saturday, another home game against Wisconsin in Week 3. After a bye week, we’ll know. We’ll know if this was an early blip on the radar or if it was a warning sign of worse things to come. Because on Sept. 27, that SEC gauntlet begins with a trip to revenge-minded Georgia, and it seemingly never lets up for the 2 months after that.
You can call this an early crossroad for DeBoer in his crucial Year 2. But right now, it’s Wommack who has to start doing the convincing, starting this Saturday night. His defense has to shout it out loud that it won’t give up 230 yards rushing again and that it simply refuses to get pushed around again, by anyone.
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.
