Kalen Deboer does not have exactly on the news, but probably missed Alabama fans by recognizing his first year to Tuscaloosa did not meet expectations.
If you need a refreshment, the Alabama went 9-4 in the first season of Deboer as a replacement for Nick Saban, who included defeats against Vanderbilt and a 6-7 team Oklahoma Sooners. It was the worst season in Alabama, on paper at least, since the first year of Saban in 2007.
Deboer has a naturally sunnier and more optimistic behavior than his predecessor, but still admitted that he had failed the program standards.
“We failed to make the playoffs. It’s as simple as that, right?” Said DEBOER during the dry media. “Give you a chance to go and compete for a championship. I think there are a lot of things that I am super proud of that have happened in the program that are part of the progress. Yes, we want now too.
“Yeah, we failed. Our guys, once again, I am proud of them and how they answered us not achieving the objectives that we have planned to have, to return to work, to focus on the essentials.”
The main objective, as Deboer has recognized, must be the crimson tide in the playoffs of 12 teams this season. The Alabama will have a new leaving quarterly – probably Ty Simpson – and a new offensive coordinator (Ryan Grubb), but many reasons to feel optimistic about its chances of improving on the disappointment of last season. A receiver room led by Ryan Williams looked stacked, the tide has not lost a player in the spring transfer portal and the defense returns eight runners. These returners include participants in the media day Deontae Lawson and Tim Keenan III.
A key will improve on the road, where the Alabama fought powerfully in 2024. The four losses of the four tides came from the Bryant-Denny stadium. This does not increase well with difficult road trips to Florida State during week 1, Georgia during week 5, South Carolina in week 9 and the regular season final in Auburn all on the calendar. Alabama had the advantage over Georgia during its culmination of the 2024 season, a fact that has surely not become impartial in Athens.
The opening of the season will be particularly interesting after the Florida State quarterrier, Thomas Castellanos, delivered the bin speaking of the offseason.
“They don’t have Nick Saban to save them,” Castellanos said last month. “I don’t see them stopping.”
Keenan and Lawson both had thoughts on Castellanos trash speeches.
“The lack of respect will be discussed,” said Keenan.
Said Lawson: “I mean I will not forget. I will not forget what he said.”
This is the kind of mentality that this Alabama team needs to kiss this season. For so many Saban years, the team had to face a non-stop “rat poison” as the former Tide coach liked to call him. They were almost always the pre-season team n ° 1 and a favorable title competitor. They have rarely lost more than one game in the regular season. It could sometimes be difficult to find an extrinsic motivation, to find real skeptics on the real quality of Alabama.
After a year of decline in 2024, this is no longer the case. And by recognizing the disappointment, Deboer tries to put the team on the Route de la Redemption.
“Sometimes there are ups and downs that you unfortunately have to live,” said Deboer. “But in the end, we will enjoy the failures we had and be better because of this.”
Stoic Napier tips his hand
If you know something about Billy Napier, you know that he is not an exaggerated praise. He is a discreet and land-to-terre coach reluctant to provide everything that even looks like a juicy quote. It’s the kind of guy you would like to hang out and talk about the ball, but you know that once the recorder lights up, he is going to be very careful.
This is why I found that even if he did it in his characteristic way of Napier that the Florida coach called this his best team he had in Gainesville. Like Deboer, this is not exactly news, but I liked that Napier was ready to adopt the increase in expectations of a Gators team which returns a lot of talents titled by the quarter-Arrière DJ Lagway.
“This is the most talented team we have had since we are in Gainesville,” said Napier on SEC Network.
This helps when you have one of the best QB back in the country in Lagway, which showed lightning of greatness last season and should take a big leap in 2025. It has a rare and revolutionary capacity which could pour huge dividends against what looks like another very difficult calendar for Gators. Florida took off after Lagway took office last season, and Napier and its staff did everything they can to try to maximize their time with it.
“We have built around the guy, there is no doubt,” said Napier. “The players want to play with DJ. We have built his class around that and certainly some of these guys who are in the recruit group were also part of it.”
The key, of course, will be to keep it healthy. Lagway was faced with a persistent shoulder injury that prevented her from launching during spring training. Napier said on Wednesday that they feel confident to know where the QB is – he even launched earlier in the day before his star’s return to Atlanta – and that he will be ready to leave.
Lagway has echoed the comments of his coach while addressing one of the rumors on the internet stranger on him.
You tried to keep Arnold
He was not surprising at a distance to see Jackson Arnold, an old five-star recruit, enter the transfer portal after a Yo-Yo 2024 campaign in Norman. When Brent Venables put in Arnold against Tennessee at half-time, this almost pointed out that the end was almost especially in the middle of the tension of rumors behind the scenes.
Arnold left for Auburn, Oklahoma won a leading transfer in John Mateer from Washington’s State (as well as his Ben Arbuckle OC) and everyone seemed to get what they wanted.
This made him all the more surprising that when Venables said on Wednesday that the Sooners had tried to keep Arnold before he finally landed in Auburn.
“I hate what happened – we wanted to keep it and try to keep it,” said Venables. “But he just needed a new start. I don’t want to speak for him. He was wonderful. I was never disappointed with him.”
The next quote from Venables on Arnold has added even more intrigue.
“Everything around him has not helped succeed,” said the coach. “He had no chance in some respects, in the circumstances, and had been very bad.”
There is no doubt that the Oklahoma offensive was a waste in 2024. Venables dismissed Oc Seth Litrell after only seven games in a season marked by broader receiver problems and an inconsistent offensive line.
MSU focusing on improving trenches
It was a difficult first year for Jeff Lebby in Starkville. Inherited from a program that was on his third trainer in as many seasons, Lebby lost his starting quarter, Blake Shapmen, at an end of season injury during the week 4. There was a tenacity in the state of the Mississippi who left the hard in matches against Texas and Georgia longer than expected, but all of this increased to a record of 2 to 10 disappointing.
When you only win two games, there are probably a lot of places where you can try to make improvements. For Lebby, it was quite simple: the state of the Mississippi had to become larger and better in the trenches to have a chance to participate in the ultra-physical and competitive dry.
“We had to change the melee lines first with the bodies,” said Lebby. “Bring 10 new lines (defensive), eight new (seconds), having the ability to change these first two levels defensively, it had to happen. And then the same thing offensively with the offensive line.”
This is part of a major list revision which includes 34 incoming transfers and a recruitment class of 27 players. The Bulldogs brought a huge nine offensive line players in addition to the aforementioned defensive line players of Lebby. This group includes possible starters at the center (Koby Keenum, Brennan Smith) and the right tackle (Blake Steen).
Football is a complicated sport, but Lebby also includes one of its most simplistic components. You need guys who can protect your quarter-tree and go after the QB of the opposing team. If you fail in these two areas, it will be terribly difficult to succeed even if you have talent for other positions.
Will it be enough to bring back the Mississippi State on the right track? Lebby knows that reinforcements must make improvements compared to a calendar which includes four University football The qualifying teams of a year ago Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Florida.
“This is what everything has been since December,” he said. “It’s about changing the result, finding a way to win, create this inside the locker room every day. For me, once again, we change the result because of the way we practice and our way of doing what we do throughout the fall and week.”
