Happy Friday, everyone. SEC Media Days are in the books, and Kristen Saban threw some water on the dumbest storyline of the week.
Days after rumors swept across SEC media days that Nick Saban, the former Alabama football coach who led the Crimson Tide to six national championships, was considering a return to the sideline, Kristen Saban posted a video on her Instagram story of her father leading the Crimson Tide onto the field.
AdvertisementHours later, she posted a selfie with a caption clarifying her previous post.
“Apparently some of y’all feel trolled by my last story of Nick’s walkout,” she wrote. “He’s not coming back to coaching, hate to break it to you. You had your time.”
The man would be a fool to return to the grind at his age, and Nick Saban is no fool. The man just won an Emmy for his work on television, and there are plenty of cars to be sold.
Following a 9-4 season, this year’s event had a different dynamic for Alabama. not many view them as the favorites this season, or even in the top two.
For so many of the Saban years, the team had to deal with non-stop “rat poison” as the former Tide coach liked to call it. They were almost always the preseason No. 1 team and a favored title contender. They rarely lost more than one game in a regular season. It could be hard, at times, to come up with extrinsic motivation, to find any real doubters of how good Alabama really was.
After a down year in 2024, that’s not the case anymore. And in acknowledging the disappointment, DeBoer is trying to set the team on the road to redemption.
“Sometimes there’s ups and downs that you have to go through unfortunately that we had to experience,” DeBoer said. “But in the end, we’re going to take advantage of the failures we’ve had and be better because of it.”
Alabama is tied with Ohio State for the highest blue chip ratio in the nation at 89%, so the talent is there. Brad Crawford is a bit more bullish on the Tide.
Kalen DeBoer loses once in regular season yet misses out on Atlanta: A best-case scenario could unfold for Alabama this fall if its only loss comes against LSU in November. In that situation, the Tigers would win the head-to-head tiebreaker and reach the SEC Championship Game, while the Crimson Tide would still lock in a CFP berth with extra time to rest and prepare. It would mirror the path Ohio State took last season after watching from home while Oregon and Penn State played in the Big Ten title game.
No coach in college football has a better career winning percentage against ranked opponents than Kalen DeBoer, and he’s poised to flex that this fall. Year 1 in Tuscaloosa was a bump in the road for a proven program leader who now enters 2025 with offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb back by his side and one of the league’s deepest defenses.
It is particularly true that missing the SEC Championship Game could be beneficial now that the playoff seeding has been fixed. A one loss team in the SEC will have a great chance to land a top four seed.
Success this season depends in large part on the offensive line.
When Keenan committed to Alabama, he knew he would be challenged up front. The defensive lineman feels the exact same way heading into Year 5 against the Crimson Tide’s offensive line.
“Going against guys like those guys, they’re hard workers, they’re strong, fast,” Keenan said. “It’s something to see.”
When Kadyn Proctor, the consistent 2026 NFL mock draft first-round pick, talks about his upcoming season with the Crimson Tide offensive line, it’s never in the context of what he can personally do. It’s always about the collective. And the unit’s sights are set high.
“The Joe Moore Award is definitely something that we want to win,” Proctor said. “That’s really not personal. That’s all of us. I want to see the whole offensive line succeed.”
If Alabama is even contending for this honor, it will all come down to quarterback play behind an elite offensive line and some of the best weapons in the nation. There is plenty to prove here, though. Parker Brailsford inspires confidence at center, but questions about elsewhere. Proctor has the tools but hasn’t been consistent, and Jaeden Roberts has been up and down as well. Wilkin Formby had a rough go of it last season, and he’s the presumed right tackle. Tyler Booker leaves big shoes to fill for Geno VanDeMark or Kam Dewberry.
Can this group put it all together? Sure, there is plenty of individual talent here. But jelling as an elite unit is far from a certainty.
Ty Simpson spoke about the team dynamic during last year’s transition.
A lot changed at Alabama after Saban retired. At the Manning Passing Academy in late July, redshirt junior quarterback Ty Simpson told The Advocate the players had to learn to trust DeBoer.
“Last year was so unique because the greatest coach of all time is not there anymore, and this stranger comes in and is like, ‘Hey, we’re going to do it this way,’” Simpson said. “Not many people — a lot of people trusted him, but they didn’t trust him fully. I think this year, everybody trusts him.
“Everybody understands, ‘Hey, this is our guy. Coach Saban is not coming back in the door.’ We’re going to make sure that all our attention is on coach DeBoer, and we’re going to do it his way.”
A new rule was clarified this week around defenses simulating the start of a play.
“The definition of a false start has forever been action that simulates the snap,” McDaid told reporters Tuesday in Atlanta at the SEC’s annual media bonanza. “That’s standard, action that simulates the snap is now put on the defense as well, and the officials are being asked to judge defensive movement in that light.
“We’re going to watch this defensive tackle [via video presentation] that’s lined up between the right tackle and the right guard, and you’re going to see he has two down teammates to our left of him, for what football coaches do call stemming. That action by the two that are stemming on our left, legal, but you can see in concert with that, we have a tackle between the right guard and right tackle who’s flinching. He’s simulating action at the snap, and it works. It makes the right guard move here.
“This is action that has now been written into the rules, codified that it’s illegal, it’s what we call delay of game defense. This is not a false start on the offense. The defense cannot simulate action of a snap for the purpose of trying to get his opponent to move prior to the snap.”
Basically, you don’t have to enter the neutral zone to get flagged. Making sudden movements toward the line of scrimmage will be enough. The interpretation of this will be interesting, as always. Linebackers often walk up into the gap to fake a blitz pre-snap.
Last, Trump is mulling an executive order to grant NCAA schools an antitrust exemption.
The draft, seven pages long and titled “SAVING COLLEGE SPORTS,” outlines directives from Trump to members of his Cabinet to create policy related to various aspects of college athletics. Those aspects primarily include directing the attorney general and Federal Trade Commission to: (1) provide college leaders with protection from antitrust law around the “long-term availability” of scholarships and opportunities for athletes; (2) prevent “unqualified and unscrupulous agents” from representing athletes; and (3) support uniformity by, presumably, preempting the varying name, image and likeness state laws.
The draft also requests the assistant to the president for domestic policy work with the U.S. Olympic team to provide “safeguards” for NCAA Olympic sports; and directs the secretary of education and National Labor Relations Board to implement policy “clarifying that status” of athletes, presumably as students and not employees.
As Dellenger also notes in the piece, the plaintiffs’ lawyers are not pleased.
“Plain and simple, college athletes don’t need Trump’s help, and he shouldn’t be aiding the NCAA at the expense of athletes,” said Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman who serves as co-lead counsel in the NIL litigation. “Mr. Trump boasts of his deal-making prowess. As a result of our case, college athletes are now free to make their own deals. For Trump to want to put his foot on their deal-making abilities is unwarranted and flouts his own philosophy on the supposed ‘art of the deal.’”
“Step back, Mr. President,” Berman added. “These fabulous athletes don’t need your help. Let them make their own deals. And the Supreme Court with your appointee, Justice Kavanagh, condemned the NCAA’s compensation rules as a violation of the antitrust laws, why give them immunity, Mr. President, in light of that ruling?”
The saga continues.
That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.
Roll Tide.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
