Happy Thursday everyone.
As Brent reported last night, Michigan State fired head coach Sherron Moore after a bizarre and dark incident that could have easily turned into tragedy. Karen DeBoer was immediately listed as a top target, despite assuring Alabama fans earlier this season that Tuscaloosa was a place college football coaches wouldn’t leave.
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Denis Franchione would disagree. Look, none of us know what Karen is thinking. What we do know is that Michigan is a blue chip program with a lot of money that is closer to Cullen’s South Dakota roots, and Ryan Grubb’s wife is a Michigan alum from Detroit who is still working at Michigan. Courtney Morgan is a Michigan alum who curiously left her alma mater in 2022 after one year as general manager to join DeBoer in Washington.
You can bet Michigan is already in talks with Jimmy Sexton for DeBoer. He’s going to get a big offer, and if he stays, then Alabama fans will know he really wants to be here. But if the Wolverines go out of their way to make a cheeky offer, Alabama might not be willing to match it.
And that’s exactly the kind of distraction the team doesn’t need.
Regardless, there’s still one game to play in eight days. Katie Windham wrote about some areas that need improvement, chief among them the offensive line.
Many of Alabama’s offensive problems start up front. Alabama hasn’t been able to run the ball well all year and had negative rushing yards against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Pass protection isn’t great either, with Alabama ranking 86th nationally with 25 sacks. Simpson seemed to get pressure nearly every time he dropped back to pass against Georgia’s defensive front.
According to DeBoer, Alabama has been dealing with some issues on the offensive line, with center Parker Brailsford not yet fully healthy. Defender Gino van der Mark also missed the game due to injury. No matter who can participate in the CFP, the overall performance must be better. Of course, Simpson and all of Alabama’s running backs need to improve, but help from the front line will only make the rest of the offense better.
Nick Kelly noted that, absent injuries, changing quarterbacks is not the solution for this team at this stage.
Did Simpson miss some shots against Georgia? Yes. Could he have played better? Yes.
But is he the No. 1 problem for the offense coming into the Georgia game? No, not even close.
Alabama’s receivers had their worst game of the season in the SEC Championship Game. According to Pro Football Focus, their pass turnover rate was 20.8 percent. That’s the highest mark since the Florida State game, when the Crimson Tide fell 14.8%. Alabama suffered six losses in the SEC Championship Game alone, compared with a total of 14 losses in the previous conference games.
Meanwhile, Simpson is facing the most pressure he’s ever seen in an SEC game. Georgia pressured him 18 times, PFF reported. The previous SEC high was 15 against Missouri.
Times were a lot different before people started talking about Tua and Jalen. Alabama is still beating most SEC teams, giving Tua more experience at this point in the season than any of Alabama’s 2025 backups. It wouldn’t make any sense to throw Austin Mack or Kieron Russell to the Wolves in the playoffs.
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Paul Myerberg has already started making predictions where he thinks Alabama will beat Oklahoma State before losing to Indiana.
Alabama 9 21, Oklahoma 8 16: Oklahoma State won an earlier game in Tuscaloosa, sparking Oklahoma’s rebirth as a playoff contender. This game will be a low-scoring, defense-focused affair depending on which team wins the turnover battle. This is good for the tide, but only marginally.
Emilee Smarr continues the series celebrating Alabama’s first national championship in 1925.
The starters who led Alabama football to its first national championship in 1925 are lauded in the program’s history, but the foundation of this storied franchise was equally laid by the depth of its secondary.
These players – a mix of future stars, versatile workhorses and stalwart relievers who battled through injuries – ensured that the Crimson Tide wouldn’t go anywhere, and many of them went on to compete in the program’s 1926 national championship. From eventual team captains to track stars, NFL champions and local legends, their contributions transcend the stat sheet and etched the identity of Alabama football.
Finally, the hiss of Notre Dame was unbearable. Initially, they gained sympathy because of the committee’s support for them, but they quickly reminded the college football world how powerful they were.
If Southern Cal had been a little better, or Syracuse hadn’t fallen apart, or Purdue had been further along in rebuilding, maybe things would have been different. But no program, not even Notre Dame, can truly win a national championship in this playoff era with two or three decent games a year, most of them early in the season.
By the way, Notre Dame’s 2026 schedule isn’t much better. Maybe Wisconsin, Michigan, Stanford or North Carolina will get their act together. But other than a home game against Miami and a trip to Southern California, everything was bad.
And things could get worse, especially if Notre Dame can’t reach a deal with USC to expand their longstanding rivalry. Texas is also feeling the pain of missing out on the CFP and has said it is canceling its series with Notre Dame in 2028-29. Athletic directors from other leagues learned of the memorandum of understanding giving Notre Dame priority for the playoffs on Sunday from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Drenger and threatened to exclude them from future schedules.
Notre Dame brass has reportedly been in contact with the Big Ten and SEC, but neither is likely to grant the sweetheart deal they reached with the ACC. Still, Notre Dame’s independence may not last long.
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That’s it for now. Have a nice day.
Curly tide.
