The Alabama Crimson Tide are rolling after beating the Georgia Bulldogs this past weekend. It was the No. 17 Tide against the No. 5 Bulldogs in a big spot in Athens, and Kalen DeBoer’s team walked away with a statement win heard ’round college football.
The final score was 24-21, so it was a close contest that could have gone either way, but after Georgia scored a touchdown with 6:30 to go in the third quarter, the Tide defense pitched a shutout.
It was a massive performance, and the vibes around this Crimson Tide team are so much different from what they were even just a few games ago when they lost to Florida State to start the season.
Are they championship vibes? College football analyst Joel Klatt certainly seems to think so. In fact, he believes this team is indistinguishable from the squad that lost to Florida State back in late August.
“I haven’t seen a team improve as fast as Alabama has,” Klatt said on “The Joel Klatt Show” on Monday (h/t On3). “From the Florida State tape, and the loss, to now beating Georgia — it’s like two different teams. The uniforms are the same, the coaches are the same, a lot of the players are the same, but the tape is vastly different.”
Alabama has proven it has a championship mentality
Alabama is now 3-1 and ranked No. 10 in the nation. The Tide aren’t a guarantee to make the College Football Playoff just yet, because their remaining schedule is still tough, but this is a team that has proven it can take the big punches and bounce right back up off the floor.
That’s the type of grit that championship teams are made of. Football is a game of adversity from the first whistle to the last, and the teams that know what it feels like to get knocked down and make a comeback from the sting and hurt typically have the mental fortitude needed to win championships.
That’s exactly what Klatt now sees in Alabama. Perhaps that team was always there all along, but beating Georgia on the road proved it.
“I see buy-in, I see effort and I see a championship team with Alabama,” Klatt said. “This team, and this quarterback, can beat anybody. They just ended the longest win streak in college football — 33 games. No one had beaten Georgia in Athens since before COVID.”
Regarding quarterback Ty Simpson, he completed 24-of-38 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions against UGA.
Regarding the rest of Alabama’s schedule, the Tide will need to keep digging down deep in order to make a true run. Still remaining are games against No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 19 Missouri, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 13 LSU and No. 5 Oklahoma.
