It’s not easy being the head coach of Alabama football. After their third loss of the season against a not-so-good Oklahoma Sooners team, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum sharply criticized head coach Kalen DeBoer while on The Matt Barrie Show.
“It was 2010 the last time Alabama lost three games. That was after their national championship season,” Finebaum said. “Let me cut to the chase. It was simply inexcusable. And you can blame anyone you want, but you would be smart to start at the very top, because that team did not look prepared. They didn’t look focused. They didn’t look like they had a clue what they were getting into.
“I don’t know how that could be the case because everyone who watches football knew that Brent Venables had an elite defense. They just have no offense because of all the wide receivers being hurt and in chaos at quarterback. And I just don’t understand it.”
The Crimson Tide could get nothing going in their 24-3 loss to the Sooners. Quarterback Jalen Milroe had an excruciating game. He completed only 11-of-26 passes for 164 yards and threw three interceptions. Meanwhile, Oklahoma controlled the ball with an excellent 260 yards rushing. They won the time of possession 34:11 to 25:49 over Alabama.
Alabama football still has a path to the College Football Playoff
With one week of regular season games and conference championship games still on tap, you just never know how the rankings will play this far out.
“That loss was a body blow,” Finebaum said. “I know what my good friend Heather Dinich is saying, that there is a path for Alabama. And maybe there will be, but the real question is why? I don’t understand how Alabama can be considered a legitimate playoff team.
“I realize that there are probably schools in there that aren’t legitimate either. But, I mean, they’ve lost to Vanderbilt, a five-loss team, and now Oklahoma, [another] five-loss team. If you were looking at a chart of the SEC, [Oklahoma is] probably 12 or 13 out of the 16 in the league, and the other loss is at Tennessee.”
The Crimson Tide do have wins against Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri and LSU. But is that enough?
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“I know they have a win against possibly the SEC champion, but please,” Finebaum said. “If they get in, good for them. I’ll be happy, and everybody will sing Kumbaya. But are they really a playoff team after what we saw on Saturday night? That was just hard to wrap my arms around.
“In the middle of the night, I’m getting texts from old-time Alabama fans who were going, ‘What have we gotten ourselves into?’ Because this is the same Alabama team in many ways — actually, it’s not — it’s a worse Alabama team what we saw against Vanderbilt. I mean, this team was completely clueless.”
Alabama football closes the regular season by hosting the Auburn Tigers on Saturday, November 30, at 3:30 p.m. EST.