The more i look back at Alabama last year, the more i realize how bipolar this team was. They’d shut out a top 20 team and then lead by 30 to another upper half SEC team, and then proceed to only get a field goal against one of the weakest Oklahoma teams of the last decade. At their best, they are playoff contenders (see Mizzou, the first half of the Georgia game, and LSU), and at their worst, they are ReliaQuest runner-ups (see the first three quarters of the USF game, Vandy, Oklahoma)
my personal take is that alabamas bipolar team was pretty obviously a combo of 2 things, 1. Deboer was playing with sabans players especially milroe and he also is just one of those guys who needs people to believe in him to play well he’s shown that he is humble and a coachable player, and i think deboer in his efforts to not be as controlling as saban was, ended up not supporting some of the players as well as he could have and 2. I think honestly the guys just got a taste of freedom they -
didn’t have with saban, and went wild i mean they clearly got way to cocky and didn’t think they would need to show up to some of the games they lost i think they misunderstood how determined teams would be to beat them, and how hard they would have to play for EVERY game I think NIL also doesn’t help with the ego problem I think next year he should have a better idea of how to manage the team, and more of his own recruits