Okay, so get this: Alabama, the freaking Crimson Tide, has a real problem showing up to games on time. Seriously. It’s like they hit snooze for the first quarter, sometimes even the first half, before deciding to actually play football. They might be a fearsome unit once they get going, but this casual relationship with timeliness is starting to annoy a lot of people, especially the fans.
The “We’ll Get There When We Get There” Offense
This isn’t just a one-off thing. Two weeks ago against Kentucky, the Tide straight up bumbled around. We’re talking an opening-drive pick-six and some totally ineffective playcalling. They went into halftime down 17-13. Then, poof, like magic, they scored 32 unanswered points and pulled out a 45-17 win. Yeah, the final score looks pretty, but trust me, it was made like sausage: you don’t wanna see how it happened. Then, last week against Florida State? It was Déjà vu all over again. They fell behind a disbelieving home crowd, 21-6. Again, they woke up, ran up an efficient 20 straight points, and won 50-36. Head coach Kalen DeBoer isn’t blind to it either. He said after the FSU game, “We’ve got to start faster. This is two games in a row now where we’ve found ourselves behind. Probably two different scenarios on how that happened, but, nonetheless, we’ve got to do a better job coming out of the gates.” You can say that again, Coach!
Fans Are Fuming, But the Team Isn’t Backing Down
That FSU game, especially the early struggles against a team they absolutely should have stomped, brought out an unfamiliar sound in Bryant-Denny Stadium: boos. Loud ones. And the team heard ’em. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb didn’t hold back during his press conference this week, even name-dropping the “boo birds” who were less than pleased. He straight up said, “I told the guys, I said, ‘Shoot, guys, if you’d have quit as fast as some of your fans, s,-t, we wouldn’t have won that game.’” Look, he later apologized to the fans, but you gotta admit, he had a point about the team rallying from early, self-inflicted adversity. It’s not like Alabama in the DeBoer era hasn’t folded before; remember last year’s 38-3 blowout Rose Bowl loss to Indiana? This year, Grubb has really scripted a quick-strike offense that takes advantage of new quarterback Keelon Russell’s skills. But here’s the thing: those booing fans aren’t wrong. Alabama shouldn’t be getting pushed around early like this. Not if they want to break out of their current 8th-to-12th-ranked stagnation.
This tardiness isn’t a full-blown crisis yet, but it’s gonna be if it keeps up. Nick Saban might be gone, but fair or not, the expectations of national excellence are still very much there. The Tide needs to figure out how to hit the field running from the jump, because eventually, those late starts are gonna cost them big time.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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