Alabama football finished off a disappointing 2024 season with a disappointing performance in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Michigan. The Crimson Tide fell 19-13 to the Wolverines to finish the season at 9-4, its worst overall record since 2007 in Nick Saban's debut season in Tuscaloosa. It breaks a streak of 16 consecutive 10+ win seasons and leaves a sour taste in the mouth of Tide fans in Kalen DeBoer's first season as head coach.
There's no sugarcoating this one. Alabama came into Tampa as a 16.5 point favorite over a Michigan team that was missing a lot of key contributors who opted out to focus on the NFL Draft. Alabama was missing some depth pieces and star safety Malachi Moore, but avoided the opt-out bug and had a chance to finish the season on a high note against the team that beat them in the Rose Bowl last year.
Instead, Alabama came out flat and looked ill-prepared. The Tide had a turnover on downs in its opening possession of the game and then turned the ball over three times in four plays after that. Jalen Milroe fumbled a snap in a driving rainstorm, threw an interception, and then had the ball knocked free on a strip-sack.
Alabama trailed 16-0 late in the first quarter. It was too big of a hole to overcome against a Michigan defense that has had Alabama's number the last two meetings.
Alabama cut the Michigan lead to 16-10 at halftime, but managed just three second half points and got turned away at the end of the game in the redzone to ultimately lose.
3 takeaways from Alabama's loss to Michigan:
3. Alabama looked totally unprepared. Again.
One of the biggest long-term concerns displayed by this Alabama team with a new coaching staff is how unprepared to play they have looked multiple times this season.
The beginning of this game matched how unprepared the Crimson Tide looked against Oklahoma in a game that ultimately kept Alabama out of the College Football Playoff. For years, exterior factors like the weather did not impact Alabama. Not under Nick Saban.
On Tuesday against Michigan, it looked like Alabama was not prepared to deal with the elements. A wet football could not be corralled by the quarterback. Players were slipping all over the field because they didn't have the proper cleats on. And so on and so forth.
Alabama was not prepared in losses to Vanderbilt or Oklahoma in the regular season. It could be argued well that they weren't prepared in the loss to Tennessee, either. They were certainly not prepared for the ReliaQuest Bowl.
2. The defense came to play
The Alabama defense cannot be blamed for this loss, though I'm sure somebody somewhere is unhappy with Kane Wommack and his unit after this game. The fact that Alabama had any chance at all in this game following the brutal opening four possessions is strictly because of the defense allowing only a single touchdown despite being handed short fields.
After the opening barrage of points thanks to offensive ineptitude, Alabama only allowed three points the rest of the game, a fourth quarter Michigan field goal that put the Wolverines up by nine points.
Alabama allowed only 190 yards of offense and only 2.3 yards per carry on the ground. The defense came to play and is the only reason this game wasn't an outright blowout.
1. Jalen Milroe wasn't good enough today and he wasn't good enough in 2024
Some of the worst quarterback play seen at the University of Alabama in over 20 years was on display multiple times in 2024. It doesn't get much worse than the way Milroe played at Oklahoma, but he did what he could to top that today in what was likely his final game for the Crimson Tide.
Milroe was just 16-of-32 passing for 192 yards with a touchdown and an interception. His second quarter touchdown pass to Robbie Ouzts was the first time he had thrown a touchdown against a Power-4 opponent since the Tennessee game in mid-October.
Milroe also managed just seven rushing yards on the day and couldn't make up for his struggles with downfield passing with his legs. Receivers were frustrated all day, a microcosm of the season for them.
Germie Bernard in particular found himself open on several occasions just to not get a look from his quarterback. His frustration was visibly shown multiple times.
The play calling wasn't great, either, but Nick Sheridan and DeBoer were once again calling the offense with their hands tied behind their back because the quarterback simply wasn't good enough.
That had to be the end of Milroe as the Alabama QB. It's time for both parties to move on, and for DeBoer to identify the quarterback that is going to best run his offense the way it is supposed to be run. Because he's running out of mulligans.