Rolled Tide: Alabama's time as elite team might be finished

So much for preseason rankings. So much for reputation. 

The Alabama Crimson Tide have been one of college football's elite programs for the better part of the past two decades, and that standing helped them enter the 2025 season as the No. 8 ranked team in the country despite coming a four-loss season a year ago. 

But after Saturday's stunning season-opening 31-17 loss to Florida State, some really uncomfortable questions needed to be asked in Alabama.

Is second-year head coach Kalen DeBoer already on the hot seat after just 14 games? Because this is not what anybody had in mind for continuing on the legacy built by Nick Saban. 

And perhaps even more importantly, is Alabama's time as one of college football's elite teams finished for the time being?

If we are treating this as a "what have you done for me lately" situation, as all sports tend to be, then it's hard to argue that is not the case.

With Saturday's loss, Alabama is now just 5-5 in its past 10 games going back to the midway point of the 2024 season. Included in those five losses have been losses to unranked teams Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, Michigan and Florida State.

The Florida State team that beat them on Saturday was coming off a terrible two-win seasons. 

All of that together is what has to be concerning for the Crimson Tide. 

Saturday's game was not just a one-off, bad game to start the season type of loss.

It was a brutal performance on both sides of the ball as they had no answer for Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellano on defense, while quarterback Ty Simpson looked lost while constantly facing a relentless pass rush. 

Alabama not only looked slow at times, it was also pushed around. It was undisciplined. It was out-played, out-schemed and out-coached from pretty much the first quarter of the game. 

It was also a continuation of what we saw from the Crimson Tide in the second half of the 2024 season. 

They are not just losing games. They are losing games to teams Alabama used to rout. 

They are not just losing games to lesser teams. They are getting outplayed, and as they were on Saturday, they are also getting bullied and pushed around. 

Alabama is still going to get top-25 votes and probably still be ranked going into Week 2 of the season. But at this point that would be based on nothing more than hype and reputation. The current body of work is not that. We are starting to get a larger sampling to prove that. 

If Alabama wants to still be considered a top-tier program in the country it is going to have to start proving that again. Quickly.