MADISON, Wis. — The final 36 seconds of Alabama’s first half against Wisconsin on Saturday offered a snapshot into what the Kalen DeBoer era should look like. Leading 14-3 with the ball on its 27-yard line, Alabama could’ve played it conservatively, run out the rest of the clock and gone to half with a lead and momentum, plus the ball to start the second half.
That wasn’t under consideration and probably rarely will be under DeBoer.
Two plays later, Alabama was in the end zone on a 73-yard drive in just 19 seconds. Both plays were passes from quarterback Jalen Milroe, who accounted for five touchdowns. What happened right after halftime put the game away for good: a five-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to start the second half, creating an insurmountable 28-3 Alabama lead.
DeBoer’s aggressive nature is the reason why Alabama has 13 touchdowns of 20-plus yards through three games, the most in college football, and why the Tide are averaging 49 points per game.
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“We’re going to be aggressive,” DeBoer said. “When you have playmakers like we have, you want to give them chances to make plays and every possession matters. We went after it.”
WOW @AlabamaFTBL only needed 17 seconds to find the endzone on that drive ⚡️😳 pic.twitter.com/MCPphanT0a
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 14, 2024
Almost everything went right in Alabama’s 42-10 win, its first legitimate test of the season, which came on the road against a Big Ten opponent. With a bye week coming up, it didn’t take long before questions started about Alabama’s next opponent.
“There’s people that say this offense is working now, but will it work against a team like Georgia? What do you say to that?”
“Respect all, fear none,” Milroe said.
Alabama’s dominant performance and presumably a Georgia win on Saturday night will set the stage for the most anticipated game of the year to date: a showdown on Sept. 28 in Tuscaloosa. Georgia is also off next week, so both teams will have plenty of time to prepare. Few series have been as consequential during the past several years as Alabama-Georgia, and this year’s game comes with a new set of layers.
There were questions about how Alabama compared to Georgia after last week’s South Florida game when the Tide had three turnovers and 13 penalties. A much cleaner and dominant operation against Wisconsin (zero turnovers, four penalties) re-centers confidence that the team’s on the right track. That was a feeling that reverberated through the program all week. The team was finally feeling comfortable with change: in scheme on both sides of the ball, in daily habits like switching to morning practices and in personnel from last year to this year (including the coach).
And the results showed.
“There’s a lot of nuance that you don’t realize unless you’re right in the fire with the guys,” DeBoer said. “There’s play-calling rhythms, taking the field and how we communicate; there’s so many nuances that the great teams have, and we’re a work in progress.
“It takes repetitions for everyone, and we were much more in sync this week whether it was today or whether it was all week through our game planning.”
Bama didn’t hold back in Madison 💪 pic.twitter.com/TiMfVIbX6A
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 14, 2024
What that means for Alabama’s long-term outlook is that the team has plenty of room to grow, an important aspect to consider with the expanded College Football Playoff field. In the here and now, that turning of a corner plus a big win offered a needed confidence boost heading into a true benchmark test.
When Alabama and Georgia, play there’s usually something important on the line, whether it’s the SEC championship like last December or the national championship in the 2021 season. Two weekends from now, it will be about SEC positioning early in the season, but there’s an underlying storyline: the next chapter in determining who is “the standard” of college football.
For the past two decades, Alabama has been the measuring stick to which other top programs are to be compared. Lately, that mantle has started to shift toward Georgia, and the question to Milroe on Saturday served as evidence of that. As dominant as Georgia has been with 48 wins in its past 50 games — Alabama routinely bests Georgia in head-to-head matchups. That includes last year’s SEC championship when the Tide reaffirmed their place as the standard in the conference.
But those were with Nick Saban. The biggest question that loomed over DeBoer when he was hired, and it’s still present, is how much of a dropoff in excellence is there from Saban to the next coach, no matter how good he is. Sept. 28 is an opportunity for DeBoer and his team to answer that question.
While we speculate from the outside, Alabama will first start by focusing on itself.
“The bye will be great to reflect and nail down pillars on where we need to improve,” Milroe said. “This week is all about us.”
Alabama focusing on itself has served the program well since DeBoer’s transition in January. It started with roster retention and culture building, turned to developing the existing talent and merging new players, and now it’s on to in-season week-to-week improvements.
There will be some who question what Alabama is and will be moving forward, leading up to kickoff with Georgia. But the feeling coming out of Madison is that Alabama’s still the same Alabama. Two weeks from now, the DeBoer-led Alabama can show it.
(Photo of Jalen Milroe: Jeff Hanisch / USA Today)
