Besides the final score, Alabama football didn’t have much to celebrate offensively after Saturday’s win over South Florida. Sure, the Crimson Tide scored 42 points, but most of those came in the final six minutes, and the rest of the game was marked by penalties and an inability to sustain drives.
UA faces a tougher challenge this week, traveling to face Wisconsin Saturday. In the week of practice leading up to that game, Tide players weren’t blaming anyone besides themselves.
“‘Bama beat ‘Bama,” tight end CJ Dippre said. “That’s kind of what me and the guys were kind of sticking it as. They didn’t do anything special. Good team. All respect to them. But we kind of just beat ourselves. Penalties, turnovers. We’ve just got to up the standard.”
Alabama especially struggled up front. The offensive line cost the team 70 yards in penalties, and negated multiple touchdowns, in addition to issues blocking the Bulls throughout the game.
Regular left guard Tyler Booker was playing tackle Saturday, with Kadyn Proctor out due to a shoulder injury. He agreed with Dippre’s assessment of the situation.
“We were definitely beating ourselves,” Booker said. “I’m glad we went through this adversity so we know how to learn from it in the future.”
Saturday’s game was the second year in a row where the Crimson Tide played poorly against USF. The Tide traveled to Tampa in 2023, narrowly escaping with a 17-3 victory, again adding a touchdown late in the game to make the score look better than it was.
Alabama players had hoped to right the wrong with a new coaching staff in 2024. That didn’t happen, with three turnovers and 13 penalties.
It was a frustrating day for Booker and company.
“No matter who we’re playing, we could be playing Georgia or the Dallas Cowboys, we always want to perform to the best of our ability,” Booker said. “So it really wasn’t about USF, it was just us not playing to the ‘Bama standard.”
The Badgers are 2-0, but didn’t beat Western Michigan or South Dakota as emphatically as fans would have preferred. Alabama is favored by more than two touchdowns.
It would behoove the Crimson Tide to fix the sloppiness this week, before it faces No. 1 Georgia at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“The word of the week is ‘Elevate,’” Booker said. “To play to our standard, elevate to our standard. Not drop to the level of our opponent, no matter who we’re playing.”
Alabama and Wisconsin are scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m. CT Saturday at Camp Randall. The game will be aired on FOX.
