It was not that long ago that Alabama was expected to contend for national championships annually. Under Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide won six national titles from 2007 to 2023. While they have been a playoff-caliber team the last two seasons under Kalen DeBoer, the standard no longer seems to be the same, or at least from a national perspective. Paul Finebaum shared his thoughts on the matter.
During Friday's edition of The Paul Finebaum Show, the ESPN college football analyst fielded calls in the fourth hour. Finebaum was asked if he liked Alabama's chances of winning its first national championship since 2020 this season. He did not. While he did say positive things about the program DeBoer is running, he ran into the same concerns as everyone: the offensive line and running game.
Finebaum got to the point on why he is dubious of Alabama's chances of winning a national title.
"I don't, no," Finebaum said. "I think they'll have a good team. I think they're a playoff team, but I don't know if they have the firepower to win it all. I think they potentially have a good quarterback, but do they have an offensive line that can protect that quarterback? Do they have any chance of running the ball? ... I have to see a little more to believe it."
This is Finebaum tempering his expectations for Alabama, as well as potentially hedging his bets. Alabama can overcome a lot of these issues by way of the RPO from the quarterback position. Of course, the offensive line must hold up, as well as the two quarterbacks vying for the starting job in Austin Mack and Keelon Russell. Either way, Finebaum views Alabama as a good, but not great, team.
Here is the fourth hour of The Paul Finebaum Show where Finebaum raised his Alabama concerns.
DeBoer has kept Alabama's floor quite high, but he has work to do to keep the ceiling from caving in.
Paul Finebaum doubts Kalen DeBoer's chances at winning a national title
What Saban did during his time at Alabama may never be replicated. Alabama fans must come to grips with that, if they have not already. If all goes according to plan, DeBoer could win a national title at Alabama, but it may be more of the Gene Stallings variety. It may not be singular, but any notion of a repeat may be out the window. Georgia could be the last college program to repeat in as we know it.
What is important to understand is that until DeBoer makes it a point to get better at running the ball, national pundits will continually short his team's chances of winning a national championship. Finebaum has long been a champion of Alabama, but even he sees the predicament at hand. DeBoer is still trying to win like he did at Washington. That worked in Seattle, but the SEC is totally different.
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Ultimately, DeBoer has to decide what is good enough and what will be tolerated under his watch to help redefine the Alabama standard. Saban set the bar incredibly high. Finebaum and college football analysts everywhere saw it firsthand. The question remains is how much rope will the Crimson Tide faithful give DeBoer? His first two years on the job have been fine, but there must be improvement.
For better or worse, Alabama fans must trust the process to hope DeBoer will prove Finebaum wrong.
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