What Kalen DeBoer said about Alabama preparing for an unpredictable Florida State team

Nov 23, 2024; Tallahassee, Florida, USA; Florida State Seminoles running back Kam Davis (3) runs the ball during the second half of the game against the Charleston Southern Buccaneers at Doak S. Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Melina Myers-Imagn Images

Week one of college football is a tricky week for preparation as teams do not have up-to-date film on what new players or new coaches’ schemes look like because it’s a new season.

Perhaps Florida State is the toughest opponent to play in a season opener this year because of the highly inconsistent seasons the team has had lately and all the movement in and out of the program this offseason.

Coming in from Boston College is quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who did not play the full 2024 season after he was benched after a couple of games. From a coordinator standpoint, the Seminoles now have former Auburn and UCF head coach Guz Malzahn as the play caller and brought in Tony White from Nebraska to be the defensive coordinator.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was asked what it is like preparing for a team like Florida State that has made numerous new additions following a 2-10 2024 season.

“From my shoes, you walk into offense, defense, specials teams [meetings], especially offense and defense, you see a lot of different film, being shown for different reasons,” DeBoer said. “Personnel, schemes, what they were last year, and then the same thing on offense. More on scheme and what they were a year ago as far as their talent returning. So, there is a lot, but you gotta make sure you’re not chasing ghosts and you’re trying to keep things simple for us and do what we do.”

When facing a team structured like 2025 Florida State in week one, there’s a heavy amount film Alabama has to watch to learn about each component of the Seminoles. DeBoer basically alluded to walking into different position groups’ film rooms and possibly seeing UCF film on one screen and Boston College tape on another and so on.

DeBoer acknowledged a few differences between Alabama and Florida State, but his approach leans on the idea of Alabama prioritizing the internal before the external, mentioning the Tide’s offense and defense has seen a lot of different style of play from each other in fall camp.

“We have enough that we see from each side of the ball,” DeBoer said. “We see a lot of variations of our offense. Obviously, a lot of variations from the defense, but there are certainly some things that we expect that are different than what we do on offense and defense whether it’s the style of quarterback that they have or what they do defensively as a system. There are certainly some differences, and we gotta be ready for anything and everything.”

Perhaps defensive coordinator Kane Wommack can be an important voice for the Crimson Tide this week and next because he’s been around Seminoles’ Malzahn plenty in his career.

“The evolution of his offense and the things he’s done, you know, what might he do based off this personnel?” Wommack said to media a few weeks ago. “When you’re looking at all of those things, you’re trying to kind of gauge what you anticipate they’re going to be, and then at the same time, you know that you’ve got to have answers if they go down this pathway or that pathway. So naturally, you’re going to carry a pretty heavy catalog and defense going into a game.”

Alabama and Florida State could turn out to be one of the most exciting week one games based on each team’s unpredictability heading into 2025.

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