TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Kalen DeBoer doesn't lose very often, and when he does, it's almost always bad news for the next opponent on the schedule.
Throughout his head-coaching career, DeBoer has only dropped back-to-back games twice — 2020 at Fresno State (lost to Nevada then New Mexico) and 2022 at Washington (lost to UCLA then Arizona State).
No. 6 Alabama fell to new No. 1 Georgia 20-17 at home this past Saturday evening. The Crimson Tide is in the midst of the gauntlet portion of the schedule, as it aims to get back in the win column this upcoming Saturday on the road against No. 14 Tennessee. UA has lost each of the last two trips to Knoxville, and another L could do some harm the rest of the way.
“You can’t win a lot of games if you’re losing back-to-back," DeBoer said during Monday's press conference. "So we've had good football teams that I’m fortunate to have been a part of. So you do face good teams, and these are two teams back-to-back that we’re facing with Georgia and now Tennessee, that you've got to be on your A-game.
"And again, we fell short this last weekend. You just do your due diligence and reset every week. You go back to work. Don’t let the highs be too high, don’t let the lows be too low. I’ve told the team, you can’t let Georgia beat us twice. What I mean by that is, you've got to pick up. You can’t be feeling sorry for yourself or anything like that."
Alabama has a 24-hour rule after games, where regardless of the result, players and coaches are free to do whatever they want on Sunday. The Crimson Tide doesn't run a full practice on Monday either, but rather a walkthrough in the evening.
The team begins its week of full practice on Tuesday morning, and DeBoer expects the energy from last Tuesday to be the same as today's. He emphasized that the excitement of going to practice after a loss is "what you came here for," and to "take advantage of the opportunity to go out there and play in an awesome environment" that is Neyland Stadium.
Alabama's offense struggled against the Bulldogs, as it scored its fewest points in a home game since 2011. As previously stated, the Tide had a tough time in Knoxville the past couple of trips, with the 2024 offense only scoring 17 points.
Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb wasn't with the team that season, but when asked what the biggest point of emphasis going into Tuesday's practice would be, working around the crowd noise of "one of the loudest places in the country" was the first thing he addressed.
"And I think for us, I know there were some issues with that back in ’24 early in the football game, if I remember correctly, so just showing the guys that and helping them learn from those things," Grubb said.
"And we don't want this to get on top of us because obviously there's 100,000-plus there, just like we have at home, and so that’s something they're going to have to be aware of right away. And then I think for us it's going to be guys settling in new spots or helping out where we need to be helped out, and just being ready to take on whatever is called upon
"...But the boys will be ready. They're going to have a great practice tomorrow and a great walkthrough tonight.”
The Third Saturday of October is set to kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT. Alabama has until then to fix its recent mistakes before going into perhaps the toughest environment it'll endure this season.
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