TALLAHASSE, Fla. — Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said after a disappointing 31-17 loss to Florida State on Saturday that there are “no excuses” for what happened.
The Crimson Tide came into the game as a nearly two-touchdown favorite. But after a successful opening drive, they could not run the ball consistently, nor could they slow down Florida State and its new-look rushing game.
With two minutes left in the game, Florida State started celebrating on the field, while Alabama was left searching for answers — particularly in a season that started with College Football Playoff hopes in Year 2 under DeBoer.
“I choose to believe we’ve got a good football team,” DeBoer said. “But we can’t play on our heels. We’re not going to be what we think we can be, what we want to be, if that’s the case. And that falls on everyone. I don’t just point the finger at the players.”
Alabama started the game with a 16-play, 75-yard drive in which it set the tone up front, converted on third and fourth downs and could seemingly do no wrong. Even without starting running back Jam Miller, Alabama used an effective rotation and new starting quarterback Ty Simpson made some clutch throws.
But it was a slog after that, as Florida State adjusted defensively and started to turn the pressure up on Simpson. According to ESPN Research, the Seminoles pressured Simpson on 16 of his 51 dropbacks. He was 1-of-10 for 30 yards with three sacks when pressured.
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Without Miller, Alabama used four different running backs, but they were ineffective. The longest run of the day was 13 yards.
“I think that we got a little complacent and we thought that we won on the first drive, and that’s not how it is,” Simpson said. “Credit to those guys. They played hard for four quarters. We kind of took it for granted. We got to sit here and finish drives. The first drive, no negative plays — and we just got to keep going.
“We got to understand we can’t play good for just one drive. We’ve got to go string together, keep playing, keep playing, don’t look at the scoreboard.”
Meanwhile, Simpson was not on the same page with Freshman All-American receiver Ryan Williams, who left the game late with a concussion. Simpson was just 5-of-11 targeting him, including 0-of-3 on passes thrown more than 5 yards downfield.
Florida State coach Mike Norvell praised his team for being physically dominant — a far cry from where the Seminoles were a year ago, a 2-10 team that could not run the ball. Norvell hired Gus Malzahn, who had his own share of success against Alabama when he was head coach at Auburn, as his offensive coordinator.
The Seminoles rushed for 230 yards, compared with 87 for Alabama.
Afterward, Malzahn said on X: “Felt like old times tonight.”
Perhaps one factor was the Crimson Tide played without starting defensive tackle Tim Keenan III. But even without him, Alabama did not make many plays behind the line of scrimmage, with just one sack and three tackles for loss.
“There’s no excuses about what happened,” DeBoer said. “We step on the football field. They step on the football field, and we got to play ball. We got to play our style of ball. Last year isn’t this year, and it’s going to be an uphill climb for us, but you can’t think of it in the big scope of things. You’ve got to focus on the moment. And the next moment is, ‘What happens tomorrow?’ And we’ll find out. We’ll find out.”
Alabama lost by two touchdowns in a season opener for the first time since 1970 (a 21-point loss against No. 3 USC). Now the Crimson Tide have to find a way to regroup with a tough season ahead, and pressure mounting on DeBoer.
“We’ve talked all along about chemistry on this team and talked about how close we are and how hard we’ve worked doing a lot of the right things,” DeBoer said. “We’ll find out if that sticks.”
