Forget Georgia, Kalen DeBoer and Alabama must focus on Wisconsin first

Kalen DeBoer and the Alabama Crimson Tide have a problem on their hands as they head into Week 3 of the college football season.

The problem is this: A trend that reared its ugly head in DeBoer's first season may be creeping up on him and the Crimson Tide now that they're in Year 2.

The standard at Alabama is the standard, and that's winning championships. Nick Saban's six title wins ensured that much.

Those shoes were always going to be tough to fill, for DeBoer or any other coach, but the baseline expectation was still that Alabama would beat the teams on its schedule that it would normally beat.

That hasn't been the case so far in the DeBoer era, though, and that's why the folks over at ESPN are putting Alabama's coach on the hot seat watch.

To be named alongside embattled Florida head coach Billy Napier is not a good thing for DeBoer, but that's where we're at, just 15 games into his tenure in Tuscaloosa.

"Like Napier, DeBoer is dealing with the concern that he hasn't remedied a bad habit from 2024 — losing to unranked opponents, which Florida State was coming off of a 2-10 season," ESPN's Adam Rittenberg wrote in a new college football coaching landscape feature. "His four losses to unranked foes match Saban's total from the previous 14 seasons. Although many are justifiably looking toward Alabama's Sept. 27 visit to Georgia, a team DeBoer beat last fall, the Tide's ability to take care of their opponents before (Wisconsin) and after (Vanderbilt) seems equally important."

Forget about Vanderbilt for a moment, because that's in the future, and No. 6 Georgia comes before the Commodores on the schedule.

Good coaches know that you have to take it week-by-week and game-by-game, but Rittenberg's point here stands. Heck, even if Alabama were to beat Georgia on Sept. 27, if the Crimson Tide were coming off a loss to a decidedly mediocre Wisconsin, would that even matter in the grand scheme of things?

Alabama Crimson Tide must beat Wisconsin Badgers in Week 3 

By all accounts, this is a Wisconsin team that Alabama should pummel, especially at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Luke Fickell has the Badgers at 2-0 on the season, but their wins are against Miami (Ohio) and Middle Tennessee. In general, he's a middling 15-13 as Wisconsin's head coach, and this is far from the tough-running and dominant defensive program that it was even just a few seasons ago under Paul Chryst.  

Heck, the last time Wisconsin won double-digit wins was in 2019, and their high-water mark under Fickell has been seven wins.

The point is, under Saban, Alabama would in no way get caught looking ahead to Georgia. The team would be completely focused on beating what should be an inferior opponent handily while at home, but that focus seemingly no longer exists under DeBoer.

That's not to say he can't get Alabama back to that level. He proved at Washington that he can be a championship-level coach.

The trends are suggesting that Alabama under DeBoer plays down to its weaker opponents and plays up to the challenges, though. 

Anywhere else, and that's something a coach could work through. At Alabama, though, that could quickly get DeBoer a pink slip.

Forget UGA. He needs his team locked in against the Badgers in Week 3.