We’ve arrived at the ‘let’s take shots at Alabama’ era, so fire away (while you can)
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It was an inevitable era.
Well, let’s backtrack for a second. I always thought that the post-Nick Saban era at Alabama would be a bit more, um, how do you say … robot-controlled? You see, I always assumed that Saban would coach at Alabama until the robots got here, and even then, he probably stood the best shot at maneuvering around them en route to a national title berth.
The robots haven’t arrived (yet), but as inevitable as it was once Saban moved on, the “let’s take shots at Alabama” era arrived even quicker than I thought it would.
It took approximately 1 year of the post-Saban era to change the conversation surrounding the Tide. Or rather, the conversation directed at the Tide.
In case you missed it, multiple sub-6-foot quarterbacks on Alabama’s schedule called their shot:
And preceding that was the comment earlier in the month from Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who beat Alabama last year, and said that the Commodores will run it back when asked if the outcome will be the same in 2025.
“For sure, I have no doubt we’ve got the guys to do it,” Pavia told Bussin’ With The Boys podcast hosts Taylor Lewan and Will Compton. “We’ve got the firepower, we have the depth. We’ve got the defense, the offense … we’d be selling ourselves short if I was to sit here and tell you we can’t win the national championship.”
OK, there’s a lot to unpack there because those 2 quarterbacks had much different 2024 experiences. Thomas Castellanos was benched on a 7-6 Boston College team, and he left for a 2-10 Florida State squad. That’s a bit different than Pavia, who beat Alabama and later led Vanderbilt to its earliest bowl-clinching victory in program history. What’s he going to say there? “Nah, we got lucky and I fully expect water to find its level in 2025.” No competitor is wired liked that.
That does, however, show you an important range. Whether you’re a middle-of-the-pack quarterback on his 3rd school or a guy who already walked the walk against Alabama, calling out the Tide doesn’t have the same inevitable regret that it once carried. Even the preseason SEC Media Poll reflected that. In the final 15 years of the Saban era, there were 4 times in which Alabama wasn’t picked to win the SEC (2009, 2012, 2015 and 2023). What happened after that? Alabama won the SEC all 4 times and in 3 of those instances, it won a national title.
Inevitable then? You bet. Inevitable now? Not yet.
Right now, Alabama no longer looks like Tiger Woods in his Sunday red
The team in crimson isn’t scaring anyone, even quarterbacks that it once could swallow whole before the entree.
(To be clear, I would bet on Alabama’s defense being hungry enough to take care of Castellanos in that season-opening game at Florida State, wherein the visiting Tide are currently 12.5-point favorites and at -530 on the money line.)
What does that mean? It doesn’t just mean that Saban’s departure opened the floodgates; it means that when you lose 4 games and 3 of them are to unranked teams in the first year of the post-Saban era, your aura against the little guy is gone. Alabama’s aura spoke for itself throughout the Saban era when it suffered just 4 losses to unranked foes in those 17 years. This is the program that won 100 consecutive games vs. unranked teams — that’s the longest such streak of the AP Poll era — from 2008 until Jimbo Fisher’s unranked Texas A&M team stunned the Tide in 2021. Mind you, that streak ended in the midst of an Alabama season that included both an SEC Championship and a national title berth with a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback. Fisher might’ve won the battle following his offseason spat with Saban over A&M’s historic recruiting class, but the Tide still won the war.
Since Alabama made that title game appearance in 2021, it hasn’t returned. Three consecutive years without a national title berth is the longest such drought since 2006-08, which was also the last time that one could take a jab at Alabama and live to see another day. That was a much different time than 2017, when another Vanderbilt player went viral for calling out the Tide.
Of course, that infamous moment was followed by a 59-0 beatdown in Nashville a week later. Different times.
There are plenty of college football fans who probably saw Pavia’s comments and harked back to “Alabama you’re next” instead of what happened in Nashville last year. After all, Alabama still won 3 of the first 5 SEC titles of the 2020s. It held a No. 1 ranking in the first year of the Kalen DeBoer era after obtaining an extremely Saban-like victory against No. 1 Georgia.
We know what happened after that. Four aura-losing defeats led to the worst Alabama season since 2007.
This is the best time to call out Alabama since the end of the first season of the Nick Saban era
That’s true in part because of how this team was constructed. Go back to what Castellanos told On3.
“They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I can’t see them stopping me.”
Saban was always considered the ultimate troubleshooter. From adjusting Alabama’s defensive front in the 2023 SEC Championship to confuse Georgia to pulling the greatest in-game quarterback switch in college football history to win the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship, the scariest part of Saban was how he adjusted. He could save a team with tweaks made from quarter-to-quarter or season-to-season, like when he adjusted Alabama’s offense with his polarizing post-2013 hire of Lane Kiffin.
If Saban was the starting pitcher who could throw a complete game with 4-5 different pitches, DeBoer is the relief pitcher who has only gotten by with 1-2 pitches.
In 2024, DeBoer looked like a hurler who only had 1 pitch he could throw for a strike, and if it wasn’t there, he was capable of walking the bases loaded and staring at an inevitable crooked number, regardless of the strength of the opponent.
Teams sensed that. Maybe they’ll still sense it in 2025 even after his reunion with Ryan Grubb.
And to be fair, a team with an offensive-minded head coach does feel a bit more susceptible to call-outs. DeBoer’s squad could put up 50 points per game and it still wouldn’t invoke fear, and if you don’t believe that, go back to Lincoln Riley’s Oklahoma teams or Ryan Day’s pre-2024 Ohio State teams. Those 2 offensive-minded head coaches also inherited juggernauts from historically great coaches, and they were always going to be the subject of callouts until they won a title. Day overcame that. Perhaps DeBoer will be next. Don’t forget that the guy is 15-3 vs. ranked foes — that’s the best record among active FBS coaches with 15 such games — and 6-1 vs. AP top-10 teams.
But the little guy/quarterback doesn’t care about that, nor does he care about the fact that Alabama just produced its best scoring defense since 2017, AKA when “Alabama, you’re next” call-outs were followed by 59-0 massacres.
All the little guy cares about is finally having a chance to sit on Alabama’s fastball and knock it out of the park.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
