Alabama Football and head coach Kalen DeBoer have been able to utilize a lot of disrespect from the media through the offseason and the early part of the 2024 regular season.
The talk was "would Alabama still be Alabama?" after the retirement of legendary head coach Nick Saban in January. There's no way they could win at that level, and regardless of how good of a football coach DeBoer has proven to be, he won't be able to fill the shoes of the GOAT. Georgia was the new king of college football and Alabama was going to slide back in a deep SEC.
No doubt, all of that was used to fuel te Crimson Tide's 4-0 start to the season. But in the aftermath of a 41-34 win over Georgia that included a blitzkrieg of a start where the Tide led 28-0 just 18-minutes into the game, there's not a lot of doubters left.
Instead, Alabama is No. 1 in the AP Poll, and widely considered a lock of the College Football Playoff, with ESPN's AllState Playoff Predictor giving them better than a 90% chance of getting in.
Now Alabama will be facing a different opponent. Complacency. Complacency-laced with rat poison, a favorite term of Nick Saban's.
DeBoer and the staff are going to literal lengths to ensure the team is aware of the pitfalls of rat poison heading into Saturday afternoon's game in Nashville against Vanderbilt where the Crimson Tide is a heavy road favorite.
Saw a couple of these at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility today.
— Charlie Potter (@Charlie_Potter) September 30, 2024
Clear messaging after a big win. pic.twitter.com/eQcCvpbD9v
Not exacly rat *poison*, but the metaphor is duly noted. DeBoer is dialed in with his team and heading into a game where they are heavily favored against a bottom-tier SEC team like Vanderbilt, it would be easy to start looking ahead.
Alabama has two games back-to-back that should be winnable with a home date with South Carolina following Vanderbilt. A road trip to Knoxville looms after that, but DeBoer and the staff are doing what they can to keep the Tide focused on one game at a time.