By Kevin Wilkerson, University of Alabama Alumnus
This is an opinion column
Okay Alabama football haters, take your shots at the team and its fans now. Say all the “Hoos-ier Dad’dys” you want, say (incorrectly) that the Alabama did not deserve to be in the College Football Playoff, that Nick Saban isn’t there anymore and that the dynasty is dead.
Tell jokes, act all smug with your social media posts and laugh all you want. Relish in the moments and send all your barbs our way.
We can take it. After all, we have 17 years of Nick Saban to celebrate, 25 of Bear Bryant before that and other titles under Gene Stallings, Frank Thomas and Wallace Wade dating back 100 years. There are 18 National Championships. No other program can touch it. We may not be on top now (and further from than what anyone thought based on the last game) but we have years of success to enjoy.
Yes, we hired a coach who can’t seem to realize that you don’t for fourth downs in your own territory with an offense that can’t run the ball. That the offensive line – long a strength of the program – isn’t physical enough and that the running backs are not big, fast and elite. Yes, we may have to swallow our Crimson pride and accept 4-loss seasons as the norm for the time being.
But no matter what happens in the near future, if Kalen DeBoer realizes he’s not at Sioux Falls or even Washington anymore where he could get away with experimenting thinks like fourth down calls in your own territory and running trick plays instead of bullying your way to success and actually succeeds, then who will be laughing then? If, on the other hand, he can only reach mediocrity and Alabama goes into a tailspin, the program will recover. It always has and it always will because it’s Alabama.
It put up with a coach named “Ears” that was so bad he did benched all his seniors – including future NFL Hall of Famer Bart Starr – and replaced him with Bear Bryant. After a couple swings and misses with Ray Perkins and Bill Curry, it had Gene Stalling lead it to a National Championship.
Even a 10-year run of mediocre Mikes – duBose, Price, Shula with a Dennis thrown in there for a while – was not enough to bring down the program. After that, Nick Saban was hired. And we all know what happened then (in fact, four of his former assistance are in the 2025 College Football Playoffs semifinals).
So get in all your jabs in now. Alabama is not on the canvas yet. It still has a lot of talent to beat some really good teams and DeBoer seems good enough of a coach to tease fans and wealthy boosters with the promise of better results in the future. But even if the bottom falls out, Bama will be back. It just may take a while.
Oh, and you will likely be hearing the name Alabams quite a bit come March Madness. Which will leave many of you to say “we can’t get rid of them!”
Kevin Wilkerson is a graduate of the School of Communications at the University of Alabama. He was Sports Editor of the Corolla, a sports writer for the Crimson White and was in the Million Dollar Band. He has covered Alabama and college football for daily newspapers and now publishes PubClub.com. This story was written by a human with no assistance from AI or ChatGTP.
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