‘We make them snap it again': Alabama identity has finally been found
The identity of an Alabama football team has always been the backbone of the program. Since the days of Wallace Wade and Frank Thomas, all the way through the likes of Bryant, Stallings, and certainly Saban, Alabama has always maintained a championship identity of toughness, intensity, and pride. After a first season riddled with highs and lows, and an anomaly of a week one loss, many questioned Kalen DeBoer's ability to uphold the Alabama identity.
That ability no longer warrants questioning. Alabama has made history through its first half of SEC play, accomplishing something no team in conference history has ever achieved. They played four consecutive ranked games, no bye weeks, no games in between. The Crimson Tide emerged victorious in every single game. Those four teams, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri, and Tennessee, hold a combined record of 23-1. This last month of Alabama football is unprecedented, and when you're talking about a program like this one, there aren't many precedents just lying around to set.
The question is, what changed? What makes the Alabama team that's run out on the field from week two until now so drastically different than the team that took the field last year and in week one? The answer goes back to the second word of this article: identity. Throughout the season, I've noticed something about this year's team that last year's team never possessed. This year's team is comfortable in close games, and they're comfortable on the road, two things the DeBoers' first team struggled with.
On Wednesday's 'Hey Coach Show with Kalen DeBoer,' coach DeBoer said something while discussing defensive mindset that stuck out to me: "We've just got to make them snap it again." While it sounds simple, it's something few programs across the country are able to accomplish. You're essentially trying to strike fear in the most confident 20-year-olds on earth, in the environment they feel most comfortable in. It's something that, if we're being honest, only Alabama has been able to accomplish at nearly every point in the history of their program. That identity didn't truly find its high gear until the arrival of Saban, but when it did, the world was put on notice.
For the better part of two decades, teams feared Alabama; they chalked it up to at least one loss on the schedule before the first tackle was ever made. But here recently, the rest of the country seems to believe that identity is not only fading, it's already moved itself out of Tuscaloosa.
Coach DeBoer has done nothing this season but remind people to just slow down, step back, and realize Alabama isn't going anywhere; it may just look a little different. Gone are the days of one team running through the conference like a hot knife through butter. Today's college football landscape is one of parity, which makes life all the more difficult for the top dogs of the sport.
Alabama can now drop a game on any given Saturday, which is why coaching and team identity is more important than ever before. But coach Kalen DeBoer has not only stepped up to the plate, he's spent this season knocking balls out of the park left and right, at home and on the road, and he's doing it all against the best America has to offer. Many thought the 'Alabama identity' hit the road a while ago, but the truth is, it might just be stronger than ever.
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