Six national championships in 12 seasons vaulted Alabama into its own college football category: THE team to beat. It\u2019s a\u2026<\/p>\n
Six national championships in 12 seasons vaulted Alabama into its own college football category: THE team to beat.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a designation the eighth-ranked Crimson Tide would like to earn back in 2025.<\/p>\n
Alabama failed to meet expectations the last two seasons, slipping into the College Football Playoff to close legendary coach Nick Saban\u2019s career<\/a> and then getting left out in Kalen DeBoer\u2019s debut season<\/a> in Tuscaloosa.<\/p>\n Roll Tide? Maybe in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that I\u2019m super proud of that have happened within the program that are part of the progression,\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cYeah, we want it right now, too. Yeah, we fell short. \u2026 Sometimes there\u2019s ups and downs that you have to go through, unfortunately, that we had to experience. But in the end, we\u2019re going to take advantage of the failures we\u2019ve had and be better because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Alabama went 9-4 in DeBoer\u2019s first season, losing to three unranked teams away from home: at Vanderbilt in October<\/a>, at Oklahoma in November<\/a> and against Michigan in a December bowl game<\/a> in Tampa, Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got to be better in big moments,\u201d DeBoer said.<\/p>\n Where did it go wrong for a program that had become the standard bearer for the league, maybe even the nation? The Tide ended up middle of the conference pack in offense and defense, hardly the same juggernaut Saban built during his nearly two decades in Tuscaloosa.<\/p>\n Some of that should have been expected given the coaching change. But it should look different with a year\u2019s worth of experience.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want Year 2 to be moments of growth, where you can polish and clean things up,\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cYou never are taking it for granted. You\u2019re starting over from scratch every season. Now you build on tangents which you have that help you win more football games.\u201d<\/p>\n Who will replace quarterback Jalen Milroe?<\/p>\n DeBoer named Ty Simpson the team\u2019s starting quarterback<\/a> last week, picking the longtime backup over former Washington transfer Austin Mack and highly touted freshman Keelon Russell.<\/p>\n Simpson, a fourth-year junior from Martin, Tennessee, spent the last three years waiting for his shot. He backed up Bryce Young in 2022 and then Milroe the last two seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cMy journey is like no other,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cI\u2019ve had opportunities to leave and I didn\u2019t because I want to be here, and I want to be with my guys.\u201d<\/p>\n Simpson has completed 29 of 50 passes for 381 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions in 16 games.<\/p>\n Who are the team\u2019s brightest stars?<\/p>\n Alabama has plenty of talent surrounding Simpson. It starts with electrifying sophomore receiver Ryan Williams, who caught 48 passes for 865 yards and eight touchdowns as a 17-year-old last season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s definitely a pro,\u201d defensive lineman Tim Keenan III said. \u201cHe\u2019s wise beyond his years. I appreciate how he carries himself. His name may be \u2018Hollywood,\u2019 but he\u2019s far from it. He\u2019s very humble.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tide also expects to have one of the nation\u2019s best offensive lines, a unit anchored by 6-foot-7, 366-pound left tackle and projected top-10 NFL draft pick Kadyn Proctor. Keenan and linebacker Deontae Lawson headline a defense that returns eight starters.<\/p>\n Opening on the road could be a good thing<\/p>\n Starting the season Aug. 30 at Florida State could be therapeutic for a team that went 2-4 away from Bryant-Denny Stadium last season. The Tide also play at No. 5 Georgia in late September, Alabama\u2019s first trip to Athens in a decade.<\/p>\n \u201c(Playing on the road is) something we look forward to,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cWe\u2019re all about a challenge, and we love coming into an away-team stadium and trying to clear it out.\u201d<\/p>\n But the meat of Bama\u2019s schedule comes during a five-week stretch beginning in mid-October that includes games against No. 24 Tennessee, 13th-ranked South Carolina, No. 9 LSU and 18th-ranked Oklahoma. Three of those come at home.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a>. AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six national championships in 12 seasons vaulted Alabama into its own college football category: THE team to beat.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-158168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115054990058613227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}