On Alabama Football invincibility and SEC honeymoons

A couple of SEC 'Honeymoons' were lost on Saturday. Neither one belonged to Alabama Football coach, Kalen DeBoer.

Some can say that the Crimson Tide mucking around with South Florida means a lost honeymoon for DeBoer. A different take is that no successor to Nick Saban would ever have much of a honeymoon anyway.

Confronting reality can be harsh and Alabama Crimson Tide fans don't take well to comeuppance. The reality is, that under Nick Saban, Alabama long held a status of inevitability. The status was well earned with nine SEC Championships and six National Championships.

Last January, before Saban's retirement, was the first time I paid attention to the argument the Alabama Crimson Tide had lost its inevitability. Tyler R. Tynes was at the Rose Bowl CFB Playoff Semi-Final. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Tynes described the game's second half, "The game was uncertain for most of the last moments. The only certainty felt like what always happens in these moments, when the mighty machine of Alabama makes its final adaptation and kills off another would-be from seeing the national championship game."

As we know, it didn't end that way. Tynes defined Alabama's overtime loss, "It almost didn’t seem real: but there on that field died the illusion of divine inevitability. Saban and the Tide were no longer the infallible beasts of college football."

Others, even staunch Alabama fans, can say inevitability had been seeping away since the 2021 season. And that is okay. Nothing lasts forever. Alabama Football, without Nick Saban can be great again. Believing it will happen sooner than later is not unsound.

SEC Football Lost Honeymoons

Two honeymoons for SEC football coaches were lost on Saturday. Once lost, they are rarely regained. The recipients of early season, 2024 reality are Auburn's Hugh Freeze and Kentucky's Mark Stoops.

In 12 Kentucky seasons, Mark Stoops has done in Lexington, what is almost impossible to do. Twice his teams have won 10 games in a season. Before Stoops, the last time that happened in Lexington was in 1977. The only other time was in 1950 when Paul 'Bear' Bryant was the head coach.

Stoops has done a great job for Kentucky, but with back-to-back, seven-win seasons, he has hit a wall in Lexington. The tipping point was Saturday. Coaches don't recover from losing 31-6 at home to a mediocre SEC opponent.

For Hugh Freeze, the honeymoon bust was more abrupt. On Saturday, Auburn was favored by double-digits against Cal. They lost 21-14. Far worse is the Bears were the physically tougher team. The worst for Auburn is the Tigers don't have a quarterback. Not having, an even competent QB is all on Freeze. Hugh held on to his Offensive-Guru status, long after it was deserved; if it ever was. Now he has a team with a shaky secondary and a plodding offense. A team appearing headed to seven wins, at best.

It is tempting to say that Freeze's burst bubble and lost honeymoon are fitting. I will not go that far, but some Auburn fans will. Sunday morning, one Auburn fan compared Freeze to Jimbo Fisher. In Lexington, fans are worrying about the cost of a Stoops buyout.

When Kalen DeBoer loses his first game at Alabama, it will be written his honeymoon is over. It can already be debated if he has one.