Despite the fact that Kalen DeBoer has built forward momentum for Alabama football this offseason, and even rivals are starting to believe in how good the Crimson Tide can be in 2025, you don't have to look far to be reminded of what Alabama is trying to recover from.
The 2024 season was well beneath expectations in Tuscaloosa. A 9-4 season was a disappointing result, despite the fact that the Tide was replacing the greatest coach of all time. That season may have been easier to stomach if the losses had come to different opponents.
Instead, Alabama lost three of its four games to unranked opponents. Those were the types of losses the Tide was mostly immune to under Saban. At one point during his tenure, Saban led Alabama to 100 consecutive wins over unranked opponents, a streak that came to an end with a road loss to Texas A&M in 2021, though the Aggies were certainly bustling with talent despite not being ranked.
Getting back to beating the opponents you are supposed to beat will be a main goal for DeBoer and company as they look to get Alabama back to the standard built in Tuscaloosa.
That was certainly the theme of ESPN's article on each Top 25 team's "Archvillain" for the 2025 season. While Alabama is used to staring down the top teams in the country, according to ESPN, the team that could serve as the boogeyman for the Tide next season is a team that delivered a shocking loss to them a year ago: Vanderbilt.
This year's matchup with Vanderbilt will be the ultimate litmus test for DeBoer and the growth of this team. Because just like last season, Alabama will face off against the 'Dores the week after a major matchup with Georgia, this time in Athens.
Alabama will have a point to prove against Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt was an improved team last season, but Alabama's loss in Nashville was still one of the most shocking results of the college football season. It was also plenty fluky. Vanderbilt's post-game win expectancy in last season's game was 1.8%, according to ESPN's Bill Connelly. A pick-six thrown by Jalen Milroe on Alabama's opening drive of the game was very likely the difference in what was a five-point loss.
This Alabama team knows it can't take anything for granted, against any opponent, this year.
Nick Saban said something prior to Alabama's matchup with LSU in 2020 that should be adopted as the official mantra of the 2025 Crimson Tide. He said in a pregame interview, and I'm paraphrasing, that LSU probably felt like they could have success against Alabama, stemming from the Tigers' win in Tuscaloosa the year before. He went on to say that Alabama needed to change the way they think.
Last year showed the first real chink in the Alabama armor since the berth of the Saban dynasty. It's on DeBoer, the new coaching staff, and a talented roster, to change the way people are thinking about Alabama.
That starts with Vanderbilt, a team that has an aura of confidence from last season's win that has them readily trash-talking the Tide. That cannot be allowed to go unpunished.
Regardless of what happens he week before in Athens, a second straight loss to the Commodores would be devastating for what DeBoer is trying to build in Tuscaloosa.