The Saban Bowl
Today marks the first Saturday of November, and for the world of College Football, this only means one thing. Purple and Gold will battle the Crimson and White. Yes, it’s Kalen DeBoer's first Saban Bowl, the #11 ranked Crimson Tide will be deep in enemy territory tonight in Baton Rouge against the #14 ranked Tigers. Like every game for Kalen DeBoer, the stakes are high. However much pressure you think is on the tide tonight, you might as well double that. If you can’t understand why, let me break it down for you.
Both the Bayou Bengals and Crimson Tide have the same record: 6-2. For Brian Kelly’s LSU, this is decent. Maybe not great. Most LSU fans would much rather be 7-1. Or far better yet undefeated. But 6-2 was the record that LSU had coming into this game last year. For Kalen DeBoer, this record is awful. When you coach the Alabama Crimson Tide, there is an expectation that you bring a championship to the program every damn year. Sorry Kalen, Bear Bryant was the original standard and then Nick Saban made it the gold standard. Anything less than a championship is a failure. Coming into last year’s Saban Bowl, the Tide were 7-1. Exiting that game, they were 8-1. This year with DeBoer has Alabama at 6-2, and to give you some context about how good Nick Saban was, the only times that Alabama had lost multiple games in a season since 2008 were the seasons of 2010, 2019, and 2022. 6-2 is a great record for any other team, but the Tide.
This discussion about record leads into what I really want to talk about, and why the pressure of this game is so high. Last week the first CFP rankings were released and the Crimson Tide were placed at #11, just inside the top 12 which meant that if the playoffs started today, they would be in the playoffs. I was someone who thought that Alabama being ranked in the top 12 was absolute stupidity. This year the Tides’s two losses came from at the time unranked Vanderbilt (now ranked #24) and at the time #11 Tennessee (now ranked #7.) For Alabama to be in the top 12 in the College Football playoffs was stupid, especially when teams like Texas A&M and LSU are easily better. LSU was ranked just outside the top 12, a ranking that I think will be changed next week.
Like I said before, the stakes are high for tonight. Whoever loses will be out of playoff contention for the 12-team bracket. If it’s Brian Kelly, the LSU Tigers will have had another disappointing season that resulted in no playoff birth and an embarrassing loss in their own stadium. If Kalen DeBoer loses…
The Tide’s season will be considered a disaster by Alabama fans, no playoff birth, a loss to a major rival, and once again no playoff birth will surely make Crimson Tide fans call for the removal of DeBoer in Alabama and banishment of his head coaching duties.
STAKES. IS. HIGH. I can’t imagine how Kalen DeBoer is feeling right now. It is a level of stress that I would wish on no man and unfortunately for Kalen DeBoer, I don’t think the Crimson Tide will be able to win this one. Alabama fans, one could definitely feel for you…
But I sure as hell will not feel bad for you. You guys have been on top of College Football for far too long and I’m sick of it. You guys have 18 national championships, you can breathe. Take some time off. See what it’s like to be the Iowa State Cyclones or the Arkansas Razorbacks of College Football. Arkansas isn’t a bad team at all! They just happen to not be good enough to compete for championships, and you know what? That is okay. Also, just because you might lose tonight doesn’t mean the end of the world. You guys will still be able to play in a bowl game! Who wouldn’t want to play in the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl?! I gotta be honest, I think you guys would enjoy it.
