Coming off the big win over LSU, Alabama has to quickly refocus as it heads back on the road to face Vanderbilt in Nashville this weekend.
Alabama moved to 7-2 after the 31-13 win in Baton Rouge and is now in prime position to make it to the College Football Playoff. That is, if the Crimson Tide can avoid what would be a substantial upset this week at Vanderbilt or at the end of the month in the Iron Bowl at home against Auburn.
Kalen DeBoer is no stranger to winning big games as the head coach at Alabama. Unfortunately, he's also no stranger to massive letdowns. His first big win as the Tide's head coach was in 2024 against Georgia. He followed that up with a loss the following week at Vanderbilt as a three-touchdown favorite.
Alabama is in a similar spot heading to Nashville next weekend. Alabama opened on FanDuel as a 19.5-point favorite over the Commodores.
It has been a tough year for Vanderbilt in the team's first season of the post-Diego Pavia era. But the 'Dores did just score a major win over Mississippi State this past weekend to gain some momentum heading into this game against the Crimson Tide.
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DeBoer has been in this spot in November before, and he hasn't been able to avoid a potentially crippling loss.
In his first season in Tuscaloosa, Alabama earned a dominant 42-13 win in Baton Rouge to state a loud College Football Playoff case. After a cupcake game against Mercer the following week, Alabama went on the road to play a .500 Oklahoma team in Norman. It turned out to be an ambush, with the Sooners stunning the Crimson Tide 24-3 and ending Alabama's playoff hopes.
Fast forward a year later, Alabama followed up a 20-9 home win over LSU with a 23-21 loss at home to Oklahoma that threatened to derail the Tide's playoff hopes again.
This spot, the first Power Four game after facing LSU, has been unkind to DeBoer. He's 0-2 in this exact situation and 0-1 in Nashville as Alabama's head coach. While the playoff committee is clearly high on the Crimson Tide after last week's Top 5 ranking, losing to either Vanderbilt or Auburn down the stretch would be considered a bad enough loss that it would threaten to knock them out of the 12-team playoff field.
So Alabama cannot afford a letdown performance this week. It would serve to ruin the win in Baton Rouge and effectively flush it.
DeBoer proving he can get the job done in this exact spot in November is the next step in his growth as he looks to lead Alabama back to the College Football Playoff for the second straight season.
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