ESPN feels Alabama football’s game against Tennessee in October will make or break the Crimson Tide’s 2025 football season.
The Crimson Tide lost to the Volunteers on the road 24-17 on last season. This defeat was pivotal in the Tide’s failure to make the playoffs.
Alabama will host Tennessee in 2025.
“Alabama faces some key games the first half of the season, including a trip to Georgia on Sept. 27, but the so-called must-win game in 2025 is the Oct. 18 home matchup against Tennessee, aka the Third Saturday in October,” Chris Low wrote. “The last thing Kalen DeBoer wants in his second season at Alabama is to lose back-to-back games to a rival the Crimson Tide have dominated for much of the past two decades. The Vols have won two of the past three games in the series. But that’s after Alabama won 15 in a row under Nick Saban. Tennessee last won back-to-back games in this rivalry in 2003-04. The game also comes at a point in the season when Alabama needs to be playing its best football. It is sandwiched between trips to Missouri on Oct. 11 and South Carolina on Oct. 25, and following the game against the Gamecocks, Alabama gets a bye before taking on LSU at home. In short, it’s difficult to see the Crimson Tide making the playoff if they lose at home to the Vols.”
Alabama will be looking to have a bounce-back season in year two of the Kalen DeBoer era.
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