NCAA Football: South Carolina at Alabama
USATSI

A college football season is always going to be filled with some dramatic swings, but nothing has been as dizzying as the last three weeks for Alabama. A thunderous first quarter and late-game dramatics delivered one of the best wins of the year as the Crimson Tide toppled Georgia in an instant classic in Week 5, propelling Alabama back to No. 1 in the rankings. But everything since — first the upset loss at Vanderbilt and then Saturday's 27-25 home win against South Carolina — then has been anything but characteristic of what we look for in a No. 1 team -- or even an SEC title contender. 

It's prompted many to wonder: what's wrong with Alabama? 

It's funny to consider that we would panicking about a team that is 5-1 and led by one of the most explosive quarterbacks in the entire country. Alabama has the talent to win every game left on its schedule, be in the running for the SEC Championship Game, and in that scenario almost certainly be a lock for the 12-team College Football Playoff. 

But talent is not the issue in Tuscaloosa. Even taking into accoun the personnel losses from last year's CFP team, the roster has more future pros and former blue-chip high school prospects than most teams in the country. 

The issue is that Alabama is a talented team that has not been playing winning football, and when you're not playing winning football, any game is going to be a struggle to win. 

Some of the issues appear to be more recent, but others have been ongoing throughout the entire 2024 campaign. Alabama entered the South Carolina game ranked No. 108 nationally in penalty yards per game (73.2) and No. 112 in penalties per game (8.0), then proceeded to get flagged seven times for 67 penalty yards. The problems started early with a 13-penalty game against USF (some of which wiped touchdowns off the board) but continued with holding calls against Georgia and some incredibly costly penalties against Vanderbilt, including a duplicate numbers penalty that kept a Commodores scoring drive alive. 

First-year coach Kalen DeBoer has chalked up these miscues to understanding how games are called by the officials and reviewing mistakes after film review, but to fans (especially to Alabama fans), the penalties give the impression of a team that's a little bit loose on the details on game day. 

Other issues have been more recent, and arguably more concerning regarding what it means for Alabama moving forward. That includes how Alabama's defense has, for two games in a row now, struggled when it comes to getting off the field on third down. Vanderbilt converted on 12 of 18 third downs in the upset win and converted a fourth down with Diego Pavia's 36-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter. Given how much of a talking point that was through the week, the expectation was to see a better response from the Alabama defense. Instead, South Carolina converted on 7 of its 14 third-down attempts and added a fourth-down conversion. For perspective, this a Tide defense that allowed just 11 third-down conversions in the first four games of the season (4-0) but has given up 19 in the last two (1-1). 

When penalties, third-down defense and attention to detail are the biggest concerns, it's only going to make complaints and criticisms louder ... like Alabama's hands team treating the football like a greasy watermelon when South Carolina is trying to pull off a miracle. 

In fairness to DeBoer and his staff, some cracks in the foundation of Alabama's dynastic status began to show even before Nick Saban retired. The Crimson Tide were playing in far more one-score games than they did at their program peak, and the Tide were one of the most penalized teams in the country in both 2021 and 2022. 

But when DeBoer accepted the Alabama job, he had to know that "fair" might not be in the equation when it comes to complaints and criticisms. Even if the post-2020 Saban teams were starting to take a step back in terms of dominance and distance ahead of the rest of college football, they still won two SEC dhampionships (2021, 2023) and finished ranked in the top five three years in a row. 

And that's what's really unsettling about Alabama's performance of late. Since the start of the second quarter in the Georgia game, the Crimson Tide have been outscored 99-82 and have rarely looked like a top-five team. Top-five talent? Sure. We see that any time  QB Jalen Milroe dazzles with another big play or the sheer athleticism advantage shows up with Alabama's defense forcing turnovers. 

But top-five talent is not going to get top-five results if things don't tighten up in Tuscaloosa. Alabama is set to face four teams ranked in the AP Top 25 across the next six weeks, including road trips to Tennessee and LSU. If Alabama can't be trusted to take care of the details at an elite level against Vanderbilt and South Carolina, then what suggests this group has the DNA to get it done in two of the most hostile environments in the SEC?

That's the challenge for DeBoer and Alabama: to make the necessary improvements so that these flaws do not resurface in the most important games of the season. While Georgia is arguably the best team on Alabama's schedule, and that win will help any tiebreaker scenarios when it comes the SEC title race, a second (or third) loss before the end of the season will dramatically alter the Tide's postseason outlook. 

There is already a belief that "Alabama ain't Alabama" anymore. Not with Saban gone and not with the kind of form the Tide have shown the last two weeks. But the truth is Alabama will still be Alabama if it finishes the season competing for championships. Every year that doesn't happen will take a little bit more of the mystique away from a program that is dealing with the dizzying reality that it's no longer the king of college football.