Alabama football faces a position it hasn’t seen since 2007. The Crimson Tide has two losses before November for the first time since Nick Saban’s debut season in Tuscaloosa, with a tough matchup against Missouri still to come.
It’s a challenging moment for first-year UA head coach Kalen DeBoer, dealing with level of fan and media scrutiny that didn’t exist at his previous stops. However, according to Alabama’s players, DeBoer has met the moment.
“He’s been great leading us,” cornerback Domani Jackson said Tuesday. “He should, as head coach. Just preaching about the team and what we’ve got to do.”
Alabama lost to Tennessee Saturday in Knoxville, suffering numerous self-inflicted wounds on the way to a 24-17 defeat. That loss came two weeks after the Crimson Tide dropped to Vanderbilt for the first time since 1984.
The noise is getting loud. However, according to tight end CJ Dippre, the coaching staff encouraged players to tune it all out.
“Stop worrying so much about external things,” Dippre said of the message from coaches. “We can’t really worry about the last few weeks. We haven’t played to our standard, the Bama standard. So just worrying about, internally, what we’re doing, not our opponent or anything. Just play Bama football.”
Missouri enters Saturday’s game at 6-1 on the season. The Tigers earned a comeback victory last week against Auburn in Columbia, when quarterback Brady Cook made a mid-game visit to a nearby hospital for an MRI, before returning and leading his team to a win.
MU can present trouble for Alabama through the air, with explosive receivers like Luther Burden III and Theo Wease. The game is a must-win for the Crimson Tide, but is by no means a sure thing, with the Tigers ranked No. 21 on the Associated Press top 25 poll entering the matchup.
Another loss likely eliminates Alabama from its already perilous College Football Playoff contention.
“He’s been awesome,” defensive lineman Jah-Marien Latham said of DeBoer’s message heading into the crucial game. “Just making sure that our head is in the right space and keeping us uplifted. Once you do take an L, or two Ls from Alabama, a lot of fans, you got a lot of people, outside noise that’s just a lot of talk, so just making sure that we keep the main thing the main thing and know what our job is, and that’s to go out and perform on Saturday.”
Alabama and Missouri are scheduled to kick off at 2:45 p.m. CT Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The game will be aired on ABC.
