The University of Alabama football team is in a situation where it has to prove itself right and everyone else wrong.
For the players, they want to turn this season around and show it has the best team. Alabama hosts Missouri this week for homecoming on Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Crimson Tide’s aspiration for the College Football Playoff remains alive, regardless of two losses, but only by a slim margin. It cannot afford a loss Saturday to Missouri, and everyone knows it.
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Alabama has re-focused itself on doing the little things right, but will it be enough?
Desmond Howard, a College Football analyst for ESPN, feels the Tide is in an identity crisis.
“It feels like Alabama is a team who is stuck between who they were and who they want to be.”@DesmondHoward says the Crimson Tide has an identity problem on its hands 😳 pic.twitter.com/cjHuFGJWQ8
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) October 22, 2024
“Alabama is a team who is stuck between who they were and who they want to be,” Howard said. “That is what happens sometimes when you have a regime change like they have had in Tuscaloosa. This is a cultural issue. I don’t think it is a talent issue, especially when you have the biggest win of the season against Georgia and then you follow it up with the worst loss against Vanderbilt. I think they have the talent, but it is the matter of the transition is not as seamless or as smooth as everyone anticipated it would be.”
Alabama has an opportunity to fix this issue and develop an identity starting this weekend.
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Stephen M. Smith is the senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
