One embarrassing play summed up Alabama’s defensive effort vs. Florida State

If you're hoping that looking back on yesterday's defensive performance in a 31-17 loss to Florida State will provide a glimmer of hope that maybe things weren't as bad as you initially thought while watching the game, think again. It's worse than that.

Blame Kane Wommack's scheme all you want, but scheme doesn't have a thing to do with effort. And Alabama's defense played with a shocking lack of effort and zero sense of urgency on Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee.

And yes - the lack of effort goes directly back to Wommack, Kalen DeBoer, and the entire coaching staff. The team plays with the same fire consistently shown by their head coach on the sideline. Which is to say, it's completely non-existent.

There are plenty of examples of Alabama's minimal effort on defense against Florida State. The linebackers played timidly, perhaps none more so than fifth-year senior and team captain Deontae Lawson, who looked far less than 100% from last season's ACL tear. Justin Jefferson and Nikhail Hill-Green didn't play any better.

But the most startling example of lackluster effort came from starting safety Bray Hubbard, a guy who stood in as a team captain yesterday in place of an injured Tim Keenan, who didn't make the trip to Tallahassee.

Kane Wommack has to make personnel changes on defense after embarrassing effort

That is NOT Alabama football. Hubbard had no sense of urgency whatsoever and just jogged over to the play with a stunning indifference. That cannot be allowed to stand.

Hubbard deserves to be benched. He's not the only one. If Wommack and DeBoer don't have the guts to do it, then they'll prove what most fans already believe: that they aren't cut out for this job.

Maybe you have to play younger players who don't understand the defense that well. So be it. Someone has to be willing to play harder than what we saw on the field in Tallahassee. And at this point, I'll take younger kids who will pin their ears back and bust their butts over spoiled veterans who clearly don't care.

And maybe a benching will serve to light a fire under the veterans who were so disappointing on Saturday. In any case, something has got to give moving forward.

In an era where you are expecting fans to invest in the program like never before, they deserve a better product than this. You can't expect fans to care when the players clearly don't.