Alabama's Season Switches to 'Urgency' Mode after Second Loss to Tennessee

The Crimson Tide still has a path to the College Football Playoff with the expanded 12-team field, but after a second loss, there's little margin for error.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer during an SEC conference game between Tennessee and Alabama in Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024. / Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.— There was a different vibe in the Alabama football postgame press conference among head coach Kalen DeBoer and the Crimson Tide players on Saturday night down in the bowels of Neyland Stadium than three weeks earlier after the loss to Vanderbilt.

Frustration oozed from the first-year Alabama coach as his team suffered its second straight road loss with the 24-17 defeat to Tennessee and now sits at 5-2 (2-2 SEC) with five games to play. Since 2008, Alabama has lost multiple regular season games only three times (2010, 2019 and 2022), and this is the earliest in a season the Crimson Tide has lost multiple games since Nick Saban's first season in 2007.

So Saturday night's postgame feelings were something Alabama players and fans haven't experienced in 18 years. Because the College Football Playoff has expanded to 12 teams and the Crimson Tide's signature win over Georgia, there is still hope for this Alabama team to make the playoff and compete for a national championship. But it won't have a shot if it continues to play like it did against Tennessee.

And DeBoer knows that.

"I know there's enough guys that still believe, that still want to go do what we want to do," he said after the game. "There's a lot of season left for not just us, but everyone. It's gonna go fast if we don't take advantage of it. That urgency's got to be there–– there's no question."

Since Alabama jumped out to a 30-7 halftime lead over Georgia, the team has looked lost for much of the time and lost two of three games. The lone win required a last-play interception at home against unranked South Carolina. The Crimson Tide has been outscored 116-90 over the last 14 quarters.

"We just can't mesh right now the offense and defense together and play great team football,," DeBoer said. "There's times where we've got to be able to separate ourselves and have that killer instinct, and right now, we don't do that."

The defense played well in the first half, holding Tennessee to 143 total yards, forcing three turnovers and keeping the Volunteers off the board. But it was a different story in the second half when Tennessee put up 24 points and 270 yards in the second half alone.

The offense was inconsistent from the start but held a 17-14 lead with just under 14 minutes to go in the game after a Justice Haynes rushing touchdown. But Alabama's next four possessions after the touchdown were: three-and-out, three-and-out, turnover on downs on four plays and an interception.

Even the special teams struggled at times against Tennessee. Alabama missed out on opportunities to pin the Volunteers deep in their own territory, and kicker Graham Nicholson was well short on a 54-yard kick.

Against Vanderbilt, the offense played well, but the defense couldn't get off the field. The next week against South Carolina, the defense played pretty well outside of one series, but the offense struggled to play consistently. The Crimson Tide is still looking to put together a complete performance in all three phases of the game.

Alabama also isn't playing disciplined football. The Crimson Tide was penalized 15 times for 115 yards in Saturday's night's loss, including a costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on wide receiver Kendrick Law on a third down late in the fourth quarter which set Alabama up with a fourth-and-22 instead of a more manageable fourth-and-7.

"We can't kill ourselves like that," DeBoer said. "There's times that you see that we're locked in, but we've got to be better. We've got to be better. There's no question. You can't win a football game when you have mistakes like we had out there and all the penalties."

Alabama has winnable games ahead with home matchups against Missouri, Mercer and Auburn with a road trip to Oklahoma. The toughest test left is the Nov. 9 matchup at No. 8 LSU. But the Crimson Tide has a lot to clean up in order to ensure that any of those games end in victory.

In other words, Alabama likely has a path to the playoff if it wins the rest of its games, but up unto this point, the Crimson Tide has not looked like a CFP team. This doesn't mean that the team, or it's leaders are throwing in the towel. DeBoer said he still sees a lot of belief in the locker room, and Alabama's players still think they can be a playoff team.

"This one’s tough," Alabama defensive back and captain Malachi Moore said after the game. "We played our hearts out there today, but just came up short. We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board, but everything’s still in front of us. [With the] 12-team playoff, it’s a lot that goes on week-to-week with team’s losing, close games and everything. We just can’t worry about any of that stuff and just got to win out from here on out and just be brutally honest with each other and continue to strive to be great every day.”

Fifth-year defensive lineman Tim Smith said the sense of urgency within the team is to make sure a loss doesn't happen again. Transfer wide reciever Germie Bernard "a thousand percent" belives that Alabama can still make the playoff.

"We’re Alabama," Bernard said. "It’s the standard here. Guys are very resilient here. They want to win. The standard here is to win. We have to find ways to do that. We have to be critical within ourselves and just continue to move forward and be optimistic through it all.”

The fact that Tennessee fans still stormed the field at Neyland Stadium and ripped down the goal posts in jubilant celebration showed how Alabama is still perceived. Despite the No. 7 ranking and previous loss, the Crimson Tide is still the standard for other pograms around the SEC and country. Alabama's win over Georgia showed it can beat anyone, but the performance the last three weeks has proved that it's just as beatable.

As a program, Alabama has bounced back from losses to make playoff runs before. But this isn't the first loss for the Crimson Tide this season. The team already had the opportunity to bounce back from the Vanderbilt loss, and they haven't been able to do it thus far.

"We get a chance to get back home, but we've got to go to work first before we play that game and find a way to make that next big jump," DeBoer said. "You know, a lot of guys that we've gotta now incorporate into schemes offensively and defensively with some guys going down. They're getting an opportunity now too to help build depth, but we've got to make the plays to go win right now, and that's where we're just falling short. Make sure our minds are right. Make sure our heart's in the right place. And then all I know is you just go back to work. That's the only thing you can do. That's what I've always done. And these guys, just having a talk in the locker room, I really firmly believe that that's what they want to do too."

See also: Jalen Milroe Can't Deliver in Biggest Moments for Alabama in Loss to Tennessee

Everything Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel Said After Defeating Alabama

What Kalen DeBoer Said After Alabama Lost to Tennessee