For Alabama football the 2024 year can be defined by the roller coaster ride that it was which including the most inconsistent team I can think of from recent memory. It started January 1st with a loss to Michigan in the Rose Bowl and ended the year with the Crimson Tide losing to the same team in Tampa.
In between then, we saw Nick Saban retire, Kalen DeBoer being hired, and a plethora of other events that had Alabama fans' emotions all over the place. DeBoer's first season as the head guy in Tuscaloosa didn't end as many thought it should have, but the overall future is bright, and can't wait to get to the 2025 season.
January 2024 was one of the emotional months for Alabama fans from losing Nick Saban, to getting DeBoer, and the loss of players to the transfer portal. After the initial shock wore off Coach DeBoer did work bringing back Ryan Williams into the fold, recruiting well, and finding some wins in the portal as well.
The excitement for what the offense was supposed to look like was the talk of many during the off-season but sadly this was the side of the ball which never got better. For all the original criticisms for defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, it was his unit which got better throughout the season and kept the Tide in every game during the season.
The excitement of being beating Georgia in September, to blowing out LSU in Baton Rouge, to an energized Iron Bowl win gave the fanbase much pleasure. In between these wins there was a lot of frustration from inconsistent plays which included horrific losses to Vanderbilt and a bad Oklahoma team, to a hang-on win against South Carolina, which ended up looking better at the end of the season. Despite these frustrating losses where the team looked out of sorts, especially on the offensive side of the ball, the Crimson Tide found themselves very much in the mix for a playoff berth.
Clemson hitting a last second kick in the ACC Championship Game as time expired more or less defined the Alabama season which was close but not enough. The frustration of inconsistent QB play, to the lack of a running game, to the offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan seemingly not being able to adjust schematically, were talking points for fans throughout the season.
It is funny how bad 9-4 feels and it will be interesting as this proud program goes into the off-season how will they respond? The spring and fall camps will have a lot of eyes on them with a QB battle on the horizon. This first year coaching staff learned a lot about the SEC in year one and how they use what they learned will determine the legacy of Kalen DeBoer and others on his staff at the Capstone.