Since late August, the Alabama Crimson Tide have continued to be the topic of discussion in the news. And yet, they still stand as the ninth seed in the College Football Playoffs.
Feeling nauseous yet?
Because the 2025 season for the Alabama Crimson Tide has taken us on twists, turns, loops, ascensions, pitfalls, and everything in between.
Years from now, we’re going to be looking back at this season.
No, it won’t be whether or not the Crimson Tide win against Oklahoma in the first round of the College Football Playoffs, that game will just be a wrinkle in the story that is the 2025 season.
Instead, it’ll be the journey we have all taken to get to this point.
We’re four days away from Alabama heading to Norman to avenge the team that has embarrassed them twice in as many seasons.
The Sooners have figured out the Crimson Tide, and it doesn’t seem to matter who’s calling plays, who’s throwing the ball, or where the game is played.
But over the past week and a half, as the players prepare for the biggest game of their young careers, there’s been a whole lot of chatter surrounding their coach, and if Kalen DeBoer jettisons out of Tuscaloosa, and heads somewhere north.
DeBoer hasn’t given an inkling of vulnerability for the two years he’s been at the helm, nor has it seemed like his job was in jeopardy.
Yet, with a massive coaching carousel going around the college football world, it leads to speculation nationwide, no matter what kind of security a coach may have.
Two historically prestigious universities just had coaching vacancies and all of a sudden those universities wanted DeBoer as their coach, whether the feeling was mutual or not.
And that sparked chatter around social media. Fans were relentless and media personalities sparked the flame. College football was in a frenzy.
Yet, isn’t it funny how we got to this point?
It feels like just yesterday that Alabama dropped an opening week stinker against Florida State, where it lost 31-17.
Shortly after that loss, you would’ve thought there was a decade of ineptitude in Tuscaloosa and that DeBoer was on his last straw.
Fans were asking how much his contract buyout was, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky suggested that DeBoer wasn’t making it past September, and there were calls to pry Nick Saban out of retirement.
If you want to wonder what it’s like living in pandemonium, try being an Alabama fan after Week 1 of the 2025 season.
Fast forward to November of this very season.
After the loss, Alabama went on an absolute tear. It defeated Georgia in Athens, complete four straight wins against four ranked teams, defeated LSU, came back to win against South Carolina and pulled away a gutsy Iron Bowl win.
And in that time, Penn State wanted DeBoer before he shut that down, and just recently Michigan wanted him, before he was forced to shut it down.
Just months ago, this is a guy that supposedly “wasn’t seeing the end of September,” and now multiple programs want him to leave one of college football’s most sought after positions for other jobs.
Narratives work in funny ways, but DeBoer seems hell-bent on wanting to build something tangible with Alabama.
He’s already secured the fourth-best recruiting class of the 2026 class, and the work hasn’t stopped.
Win or lose, DeBoer has already stated he will be the coach for Alabama football next season, and for his sake, hopefully won’t have to listen to another coaching rumor for a long, long time.