Alabama's Season Just Got "Really Uncomfortable"

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- For the second time in three seasons under head coach Kalen DeBoer, Alabama will have multiple losses on its resume entering November, with the Crimson Tide now fighting for a playoff spot with five games left in the 2026 season (Texas A&M, at LSU, at Vanderbilt, UT-Chattanooga, Auburn). After almost a decade of dominance in the playoff era, when the Tide rolled out of Atlanta as SEC Champions with a playoff bid locked up the following Sunday, the Tide has gotten familiar sitting in angst on Selection Sunday as Rece Davis and the ESPN studio crew ask the question that has left pits in the stomachs of the Crimson Tide faithful: Is Alabama a playoff contender? We'll ask that question for the next month and a half as the Crimson Tide now finds itself in a familiar but uncomfortable spot.

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In 2024, when Alabama lost at Vanderbilt and at Tennessee, we asked the question for a month leading up to the Tide's primetime matchup with LSU. The Tide rolled over the Tigers behind four touchdowns from Jalen Milroe, and as we began to reach for the pen to write Alabama into the playoffs, Oklahoma told us to grab the pencil and erase the Tide's name from the playoffs after a 24-3 bludgeoning in Norman. Now, two years later, Alabama again leaves the Volunteer State with its second loss of the season.

Kalen DeBoer is no longer a stranger to the SEC. He's been to Tennessee. He's been to LSU. He's been to Auburn. He's been to Georgia. He's left three of the four with major, resume-boosting wins. Today, he left Tennessee still winless in the state, putting the Tide in an uncomfortable position; a blunt message he had for his team as the Tide listened to "Rocky Top" and "Dixieland Delight" through the catacombs of Neyland Stadium.

"I just said it’s going to be really uncomfortable," DeBoer said after the game. "It’s not like I didn’t feel like they didn’t practice. We had a lot of motivation to come back and have a great week and prepare for this game, but moving forward, it’s going to be another level of uncomfortable a lot of guys haven’t been through the last year or last two. I know they feel it, and our older guys had mentioned that even a few weeks ago just what it’s going to be like here on this stretch."

News flash: It's been uncomfortable for the last three years.

Alabama fell to 8-5 in regular-season road games under DeBoer on Saturday night. Three of those losses came as double-digit favorites over unranked teams. The other two came to a top-15 Tennessee team that Alabama was favored by at least a touchdown over. For a fanbase and a program that touted such a long winning streak against unranked opponents, and won 16 of 17 against Tennessee, it's in uncomfortable territory. On a day when five top-ten teams and eight top-25 teams went down, the Crimson Tide was among them, and the goodwill the Tide's coaching staff had built up this offseason: physicality, toughness, discipline, an elite quarterback, a renewed run game, playmakers at wide receiver, and the best secondary in the country, have all failed the Tide one way or another in each of the last two games. Alabama had a chance to prove that things were different in year three under Kalen DeBoer, even getting the benefit of the doubt after last week's loss to Georgia, staying put at No. 6 after a three-point loss that featured a handful of questionable calls. Instead, Alabama reverted to the things people questioned when DeBoer first arrived: physicality, toughness, discipline, a lack of a run game, and a defense that bends and breaks under pressure.

The Tide was doubted entering the season, picked to finish sixth in the SEC, and was left out of numerous playoff predictions. After a 5-0 start that included two ranked wins on the road, Alabama was picked to compete for a bye in the College Football Playoff. Even after a loss to Georgia, Alabama was picked to compete deep into the playoffs after matching the Bulldogs' physicality. Now, the margin for error has evaporated. The Tide will be back competing for a playoff spot with a host of SEC teams that have either one or two losses on the season:

Georgia (one loss)
Tennessee (one loss)
Ole Miss (one loss)
Kentucky (one loss)
Texas (two losses)
Auburn (two losses)
Missouri (two losses)
LSU (two losses)
Mississippi State (two losses)
Alabama (two losses)

Over half the league is (currently) alive in the playoff race, and the Tide will surely be behind several (if not all) one-loss teams when the new AP Poll drops Sunday afternoon.

Alabama will churn on, though. The message after last week's loss to Georgia will be the same this week after losing to Tennessee: flush last week, and focus on one game at a time.

"The key is that you just hone in on one game," DeBoer said. "Don’t look at the big picture, just hone in on one game. And believe that you have a team that can get it done. I felt like at the end of the game, just looking at the guys in their eyes and stuff, that they were scrapping until the end and were going to keep playing. That’s what this is going to be about moving forward is continuing to believe that we’re going to find a way. You’ve got to pick up and come to work. You just mentioned the SEC and all the teams - everyone’s going through it, so who’s going to respond and get it done.

"We’ve been through this before, and we’ve gotten it done. So we’ve got to make sure we get it done here moving forward. I told the guys, this is a team that can do it. This is a team that can do that. You’ve gotta catch some breaks, stay healthy, but that’s everyone across the board.”

In 2024, Alabama didn't get it done. In 2025, the Tide entered November with just the week one loss to Florida State before falling to Oklahoma at home and Georgia in the SEC championship. How will Alabama respond as the 2026 team again has its back against the wall?

Alabama falls to 5-2 (3-2) in the 2026 season, while Tennessee improves to 6-1 (3-1). Alabama's next contest will come at home against the Texas A&M Aggies next Saturday, October 24. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.

Coverage of No. 6 Alabama's road trip to take on No. 14 Tennessee on the Third Saturday in October is brought to you by Pearl River Resort and the Sportsbook at Golden Moon Casino.