Yahoo Sports' Preseason College Football Top 25: No. 11 Alabama strives to be a true national title contender again
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
College football officially begins this month.
Now that it's August, there are just weeks to go until Week Zero arrives on Aug. 29 and since the season is quickly approaching, we're rolling out our preseason top 25.
After revealing our teams in the back half of our top 25, we continue our previews of the top 12 teams in the country with a team that needs to rid itself of a Rose Bowl stench.
Previously: Teams Nos. 13-25, No. 12 Oklahoma
No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide
2025 record: 11-4
National championship odds: 15-1
Odds to make College Football Playoff: +155
2025 in less than 100 words
It was DEFCON 1 early for the Crimson Tide after Kalen DeBoer's squad was dominated in Week 1 by Florida State. FSU was back — we thought — and Alabama was in for a rough year. Well, about that … The Tide responded by winning eight straight games and took down four ranked opponents in Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Tennessee in that stretch.
After losing to Oklahoma in November, Alabama beat Auburn to clinch a spot in the SEC title game before getting blown out by Georgia. The Tide became the first three-loss team to make the College Football Playoff and exacted revenge on the Sooners. But the Rose Bowl was much like Week 1: an abject disaster. Alabama lost 38-3 to Indiana.
The QB
Austin Mack or Keelon Russell
Simply put, this is the biggest quarterback competition in college football and could have serious ramifications in both the SEC and College Football Playoff landscape.
Mack is very familiar with DeBoer; he transferred to Alabama from Washington when DeBoer was hired to succeed Nick Saban. Russell was the No. 2 quarterback in the class of 2025 out of high school — behind only Michigan's Bryce Underwood — and redshirted last season.
If Mack is the better passer, Russell is the guy who can add a Jalen Milroe-like dimension to Alabama's offense. The unit didn't utilize the QB run nearly as much in 2025 because that simply wasn't a part of Ty Simpson's game. If Mack wins the competition, then Alabama's offense will look a lot like it did a season ago. If Russell wins, then expect it to resemble the play-calling it had in 2024.
Non-QB to watch
S Bray Hubbard
There's a ton of talent in the Alabama secondary. Hubbard, Keon Sabb and Zabien Brown help form one of the best defensive backfields in the country and are a big reason why the Alabama defense should be very good again in 2026.
Hubbard finished third on the team in tackles with 79 and led Alabama with four interceptions and six passes defensed along with three forced fumbles. He was an integral piece of Alabama's defense after emerging as a key player in 2024 with 57 stops and three interceptions.
Hubbard, Brown and Sabb will be counted on to anchor a unit that allowed just 170 passing yards a game. Opponents haven't averaged more than 200 passing yards a game against Alabama since 2021 and there's no reason to think that streak won't reach five seasons in 2026.
Eric Edholm's 2027 NFL Draft prospect to watch
WR Ryan Coleman-Williams
Coleman-Williams enters the 2026 with a slightly different last name and, Bama fans hope, more of the star power he flashed as a freshman in 2024 and less of the inconsistencies of his 2025 campaign. Dropped passes and mental mistakes became all too frequent last season, and injuries affected him too. Some scouts have wondered if he had too much on his plate last season, with talk of distraction from various NIL deals. But at his best, the 6-foot, 180-pound Coleman-Williams is an explosive athlete with rare playmaking chops — he's lethal after the catch. Somewhat lost in the discussion of Coleman-Williams' potential is the fact that he only turned 19 years old in February, so with a bounce-back season in 2026, RCW could land in the first round and wouldn't turn 20 until the middle of draft season.
College fantasy football player to watch
RB Daniel Hill
Look, the Alabama run game absolutely has to be better than it was in 2025. Hill is the nominal starter and will have the first chance to seize control of the No. 1 job. But keep an eye out for freshman EJ Crowell too. The five-star prospect was the No. 2 running back in the class of 2026 and the No. 14 player in the country.
Alabama averaged just 3.4 yards a carry in 2025 after gaining 4.6 yards a rush in DeBoer's first season in 2024. A lot of that had to do with inconsistent offensive line play that should get better despite the loss of first-round pick Kadyn Proctor to the NFL.
But whoever ends up as Alabama's lead back also has to be better. Jam Miller led the team with 504 yards on 3.9 yards a carry. Hill had a team-high six rushing touchdowns but ended up with 284 yards and 3.8 yards a carry. Someone needs to average close to five yards a carry on decent volume for Alabama to have any real hope of being a national title contender in 2026.
Biggest game
Oct. 10 vs. Georgia
Georgia's win in the SEC championship game was just the Bulldogs' second over the Crimson Tide since the 2012 season. Alabama has won nine games in that span, though Georgia's only other win came in the 2021 national title game.
The two teams met again in December of 2025 after Alabama beat the Bulldogs 24-21 in Athens in September. That game gave Alabama a massive advantage in the SEC standings and the winner will enjoy that again. Especially as Alabama embarks on a five-game stretch that is one of the toughest in the country.
Why Alabama is No. 11
There's no way to sugarcoat it: Alabama is not what it was under Nick Saban. It's also still an incredibly good program and one capable of making the playoff. Both things are true.
Five years ago, you'd see a stretch of opponents like Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M, LSU and Vanderbilt and confidently say that Alabama would go 4-1 or even 5-0 in those games. Now? Alabama could easily do that. But would anyone really be surprised if the Tide went 3-2 or even 2-3?
It's a six-week period that is going to define Alabama's season, especially considering the Tide open SEC play with winnable games against Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi State and close it with a home game against an Auburn team that has yet another new head coach in Alex Golesh.
Even if Alabama gets through those games at 2-3, the Tide are plenty good enough to finish the regular season at 9-3 and still be in the fight for a playoff spot.
But how good Alabama actually is in 2026 will come down to a remodeled run game and the success of whomever ends up starting at quarterback. There's enough of an early-season cushion that DeBoer could make a September quarterback change if he doesn't like what he's seeing from either Mack or Russell. But this isn't a team that can afford to go into the Georgia game with any uncertainty at that position.
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos