The Alabama Crimson Tide kicked off their 2025 season with a road matchup against Florida State. Unfortunately, the result was a 31-17 loss with another gut-wrenching performance on both sides of the football. Here are my initial takeaways from Saturday’s game:

-Alabama’s offense looked impressive on the opening drive of the game. It was a 17-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a two-yard touchdown pass from Ty Simpson to Josh Cuevas, and it took almost nine minutes off the clock. There was a little bit of everything too. The running backs got involved on the ground, Simpson used his legs and made some things happen with his arm. There wasn’t nearly as much ground success on the second drive, but Simpson made some key throws, including multiple to Germie Bernard. They even got into the red area following a completion to Isaiah Horton, but a four-yard loss and a false start caused a manageable 2nd-and-4 to turn into a 3rd-and-13. That, on top of a sack on third down, set up new kicker Conor Talty for a 53-yard field goal that he came up short on. From there, things were never the same offensively for the Crimson Tide.

-Simpson had some good moments, but there were too many inconsistencies in there. He didn’t always see the field like he needed to, and the slow internal clock created moments where he needed to use his escapability to extend plays. Unfortunately, he was wildly inaccurate on the move, and we even saw him pass up an easy first down run to throw an incompletion on a critical down that resulted in no points. The offensive line did him no favors at times, but some of that “running for his life” was self-inflicted. I’ll give him credit for trying to have positive body language through a struggling process, but he was clearly overwhelmed at times. Hopefully, he’s able to build off the good, but the upcoming game against Louisiana-Monroe needs to be a confidence builder for both Simpson and the offense.

-Richard Young got the start at running back with Jam Miller sidelined, but as expected, we did see heavy rotation at the position. Daniel Hill subbed in early on the first drive, then redshirt freshman Kevin Riley was surprisingly the third man up over Louisiana transfer Dre Washington. Riley was easily the most explosive running back, which was reflected by his 35 total yards (31 rushing, 4 receiving) on six touches while averaging an impressive 6.2 yards per carry. The other three backs combined for just a 2.6-yard average (14 carries for 36 yards). I thought Young started the game extremely strong with an impressive north-south running style that highlighted his physicality, but things quickly fell off for him and the running room wasn’t really there. Riley has earned more opportunities going forward.

-On the first drive, the offensive line was as advertised. There was pretty consistent movement off the line of scrimmage, including one play where Kadyn Proctor and Kam Dewberry completed washed a defensive lineman, but Florida State settled in and made life extremely difficult with Tony White’s constant slants, angles and stunts upfront. Once Alabama stopped having the early-down success, everything else fell apart too. Proctor seemed to struggle when defenders were able to tee off in those obvious passing situations, and he was far from the only one. I don’t understand how guys can continue to struggle to overcome adversity. It’s been a pretty consistent problem for several years now, both under Kalen DeBoer and even Nick Saban. The offensive line is a perfect representation of that, and something must be done to remedy the ongoing situation.

-I was surprised at how many freshmen I noticed get meaningful playing time. There were the obvious ones such as Dijon Lee at cornerback, defensive lineman London Simmons (especially with Tim Keenan III being sidelined) and even tight end Kaleb Edwards, but there were several rotational pieces who we didn’t expect. Players such as Wolf linebacker Justin Hill, wide receivers Lotzeir Brooks and Derek Meadows and others. It was early and often too. Obviously, that speaks to the impression this freshman class is making, but that didn’t translate to many — if any — truly impactful plays. Lee was beat deep by Tennessee transfer wide receiver Squirrel White, but I’ll have to go back and see if anything else stood out. Several of these guys, plus older players such as Riley and defensive lineman Kelby Collins, weren’t even included on the depth chart, and yet, they still played.

-Alabama missed Keenan. I do think a lot of the run-stopping issues came from the second level, but going from a fifth-year senior at nose to a redshirt freshman in Jeremiah Beaman and true freshman in Simmons had an even bigger impact than we were expecting. They had moments, but Florida State ran for 230 yards and four touchdowns while seeing four different players average 4.4 yards or more. You also had the undisciplined late hits from veterans such as James Smith and Domani Jackson, which also contributed to extending drives and helping Florida State build confidence. Overall, it was an incredibly frustrating performance, and the Seminoles did a nice job of using Alabama’s aggressiveness against them at the right times. It felt like guys were too aggressive getting upfield on early downs, but were then too worried about losing containment with Tommy Castellanos on money downs, which led to them slow-playing a pass rush and giving him time to sit back and create — whether that be from the pocket or when he’d finally have time to find a crease.

-I thought Deontae Lawson was moving well early, and it seemed like the lost weight had helped him regain some of his sideline-to-sideline ability that had been lacking at times in 2024. But that quickly changed with the fifth-year senior not being able to sustain how he looked early. That was moreso to be expected with him coming off a major knee injury, but it hindered Alabama’s defense at times. If I’m remembering correctly, he started off platooning some with Colorado transfer Nikhai Hill-Green, especially early on. Justin Jefferson was seeing a lot of snaps, but then we saw Jefferson head to the sidelines with Lawson and Hill-Green playing alongside one another. Once again, I’ll have to go back to confirm that, but it felt like a true three-man rotation. Maybe that’ll change once Lawson gets back closer to 100%.

-This loss feels like it comes down to Alabama’s inability to overcome challenges. There was clear control early, but once Florida State started to get anything going, the Crimson Tide couldn’t counter punch. The Seminoles even gifted Alabama with the second-half muffed punt that wasn’t in any way forced by the Tide, and they still couldn’t do anything with it. Digging double-digit deficits in the first half has been a major problem in three of Alabama’s five losses under DeBoer. Today, it was the 17-7 deficit in the second quarter. Against Michigan, it was down 16-0 in the first quarter. Vanderbilt? Down 13-0 midway through the first. Even when given opportunities to claw their way back, once that happens, Alabama has been unable to recover under DeBoer. It’s become a massive problem.

-Ryan Grubb did what we’ve seen him do at previous stops. I understand the ground game started to struggle after the first drive, and I also understand that going down multiple scores early might’ve gotten Alabama out of its comfort zone, but I still thought Grubb got a little too pass-happy at times. Six straight pass attempts to start the second half after getting a defensive stop? Hindsight is 20-20, but I still didn’t agree with that type of lean while constantly choosing to spread Florida State out with empty, even if it helped present easier pictures for Simpson to read. With that being said, Hill was wildly disappointing with his opportunities. After picking up seven yards on his first carry, he only had two yards total on his other two.

-I want to own my part for being wrong about this team. Sure, this is the season opener, and things can change, but it seems I drank the Kool-Aid a little too much. Don’t get me wrong, everything seemed great on paper, and once again, everyone was saying all the right things, but a lot of the 2024 issues immediately crept back up in 2025. And until those things are resolved, I’m going to be more reserved in buying in. I still believe this team has immense talent and ability, but that’s not translating right now. Simply put, after one game, it’s pretty evident that I was wrong this offseason. I’m always going to own that.

*Note: This article will be updated with more observations.