Alabama has a problem: It keeps showing up late
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If you're on social media for any length of time — well, first off, heaven help you, but that's not what we're talking about here today — you've probably come across the tales of Gen Z workers who just can't bring themselves to show up for work on time. Their reasons are their own — again, not what we're talking about today — but what's universal is how this casual relationship with timeliness infuriates their older millennial/Gen X/boomer bosses.
The Gen Z'ers playing football for the University of Alabama are better paid than the vast majority of their generation, but they too seem to have a real problem showing up to do their jobs on time. Once they get going, they're a fearsome unit, but the Crimson Tide tends to dawdle around for a quarter or a half before getting down to business. The Tide's tardiness isn't a problem yet, but it will be if it keeps up.
Against Kentucky two weeks ago, Alabama bumbled around with an opening-drive pick-6 and some ineffective playcalling to go into the half down 17-13. The Tide then scored 32 unanswered points to win 45-17, the kind of score that, like sausage, looks a lot better if you don't think about how it was made.
Then last week against Florida State, Alabama again fell behind 21-6 in front of a disbelieving home crowd. (Alabama appears to be the only school that can still rouse that old Seminole spirit in FSU.) The Tide then ran up an efficient 20 straight en route to an eventual 50-36 victory.
"We've got to start faster. This is two games in a row now where we've found ourselves behind," Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said after the Florida State game. "Probably two different scenarios on how that happened, but, nonetheless, we've got to do a better job coming out of the gates."
Alabama's failure to get anything going against a team it should have beaten by a million brought out an unfamiliar sound in Bryant-Denny Stadium: boos. And the team heard 'em.
Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb tipped his hand during his press conference this week, mentioning the "boo birds" who were less than pleased with the Tide's first-half effort. "I told the guys, I said, 'Shoot, guys, if you'd have quit as fast as some of your fans, s***, we wouldn't have won that game.'"
Grubb later apologized to Alabama fans, but he was right; the team did rally from early self-inflicted adversity. Alabama in the DeBoer era has quit early before; see last year's 38-3 blowout Rose Bowl loss to Indiana, to start. This year, though, Grubb has scripted a quick-strike offense that takes advantage of new quarterback Keelon Russell's skills.
Thing is, the "boo birds" aren't wrong, either. Alabama shouldn't be getting pushed around early like this, not if it wants to break out of its current eighth-to-12th-ranked stagnation. Nick Saban may be gone, but fair or not, the expectations of national excellence remain.
Alabama fans were too terrified to boo during the Saban days, fearing he would track them down personally at their homes and make them do Oklahoma drills. DeBoer doesn't inspire the same sense of fear, either in Alabama's fans or their opponents. Indeed, the Tide are running an extraordinarily vibe-free program, staying below the national radar except for the brief "something-might-be-happening-in-Tuscaloosa" cutaways when one of those first-half scores flashed across the screen.
That'll change. This week, Alabama draws South Carolina at home before heading to Starkville to face Mississippi State and Kamario Taylor. Alabama should be favored handily in both games — the line is -12.5 against SC already — but both are only the prelude to the meat of the Tide's schedule.
Over the course of five weeks starting in October, Alabama will face Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M and LSU, with the Vols and Tigers at home. Georgia, for instance, has already poured 63, 70 and 45 points onto the heads of its opponents; regardless of the quality of opposition, does that sound like a team that'll start slow against Alabama?
The Tide know they've got a problem, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. "Our guys have done a really nice job in terms of the sense of urgency that they have in practice or habits or at a very high level," defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said this week, "but those things have to translate to game day."
"What we just can't have is what we had on Saturday [against FSU] where both sides, really the whole team, we come out and don't make the plays that are out there," DeBoer said this week. "If you make a mistake at this level, the ball's gonna find you. Mistakes are going to be costly. Early on, we certainly did that. It gave them hope. It gave them life. That's exactly what we wanted to avoid, especially in this game."
There's a lot to like about the Alabama offense; against Florida State, Russell threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for 56 yards and a fourth touchdown. Wide receiver Lotzeir Brooks topped 100 yards receiving, and the Tide run game — which totaled 247 yards, Alabama's best since the Saban days — looks to have life again after a dormant 2025.
But it doesn't matter how much effort you put in when you show up late and the opposition's already been at it for an entire half. If Alabama wants to elbow its way back into the national conversation — and beating at least three of those four SEC foes would be a good way to do that — the time for slow starts is over. It's amazing what can happen when you get to work on time.
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