Alabama still has 'a lot of potential' despite loss to Texas

Alabama suffered an early loss to Texas on Saturday, but the good news is there’s still plenty of time for it to rebound. The Crimson Tide entered the year with SEC Championship and College Football Playoff aspirations, and those goals are still well within reach.

Texas isn’t in the SEC just yet, so that loss won’t count against Alabama’s conference record. Teams with one loss routinely make the CFP, and one would think even a two-loss Crimson Tide team could stand a shot if it were to win the conference title.

Still, it’s clear there’s some issues to address if Alabama wants to accomplish those goals. BamaOnline‘s Tim Watts told On3‘s Andy Staples he had questions entering the year, and they’re still unanswered after Saturday.

“To me, I think a lot was to be determined,” Watts said. “I felt Bama was a good team. I still think they’re a good team and have a lot of potential, including winning the SEC or going to the SEC Championship and making the College Football Playoff. Obviously, you’ve got things to clean up, but I still feel that way.”

Alabama entered the contest against the Longhorns ranked No. 3 in the AP poll after beginning the year at No. 4. Watts continued to say that he didn’t quite understand the hype for the Crimson Tide, who had an ongoing quarterback battle that lasted until the opening week of play.

“All of a sudden you had a lot of people picking them as national champions or beating Georgia in the SEC Championship,” he said. “I was just curious, what are they basing that on when they didn’t even know who the quarterback was when they were making those predictions? Don’t you want to see who’s taking snaps and figure that whole thing out?”

Jalen Milroe ended up winning that battle and looked good in Week 1 against Middle Tennessee. However, he struggled against Texas and was sacked five times while throwing a pair of interceptions, including one in the fourth quarter that set the Longhorns up at the goal line. As for the Crimson Tide defense, they didn’t record a single sack or interception as Quinn Ewers threw for 349 yards and three touchdowns.

Watts reiterated that it’s still early in the season, giving Alabama a chance to correct those mistakes.

“Again, there’s a lot of football to be played,” he said. “We look back six weeks from now and maybe Texas is the No. 1 team in the country and that loss you’re like, ‘Bama did a pretty good job.’ Or Texas has two of those losses that they seem to have in their past and you’re like, ‘that really is a bad loss.’ So much left to be determined.”

The Crimson Tide aren’t the only preseason top 10 team to suffer a loss already, joining LSU and Clemson. Many more teams will inevitably join them and the landscape will look a lot different a few more weeks down the road.

There’s less margin for error now, but it’s still possible.

“I think at the end of the day, Alabama will be fine,” Watts said. “Maybe not by Alabama standards. That’s such a high bar to set. Fans still want the 2011 defense and those guys that were just monsters. They’re the reason we thought so much of those teams. …It’s just hard to put those groups together.”

Alabama will look to rebound from the loss to Texas when it faces South Florida at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.