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Paul Finebaum: Alabama is an absolute trainwreck

Barkley-Truaxby:Barkley Truax•10/20/24•

BarkleyTruax

Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee Football | Randy Sartin-Imagn Images
(Randy Sartin-Imagn Images) Oct 19, 2024; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava (8) runs the ball against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the second half at Neyland Stadium.

Alabama dropped its second game of the regular season after losing Tennessee 24-17 in Knoxville on Saturday.

The loss puts the Crimson Tide on the outside looking in regarding the College Football Playoff after falling to No. 15 in the latest AP Top 25 poll. For Paul Finebaum, he didn’t hold back when laying out his opinon on Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer and his team’s performances across the last three games.

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“Alabama is an absolute trainwreck. There’s, there’s no sugar coating it,” Finebaum told Matt Barrie on Sunday. “And I’m sure Kalen DeBoer and his cast of minions can try to act like they control — I actually heard somebody say Alabama controls its own destiny. For what the end of the world?

“Why would you now believe that Alabama, after what we’ve seen the last three weeks, is now going to get off the canvas beat Missouri, which is not great, but still formidable, anybody is formidable for Alabama right now, and then go to Baton Rouge and beat LSU after what we saw from LSU last night.”

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Barrie noted that no one ever wants to be the person to replace a legend. After the standard Nick Saban set in Tuscaloosa over the past 17 years, he feels as though everyone in the building “relaxed.” That can be seen in misteps that have occured throughout the season that didn’t typically happen under Saban.

Both analysts admitted that this time last month, there weren’t enough good things they could have said about DeBoer and Alabama. As critical as Finebaum has been, he also aknowledged that Alabama still has time to turn its fortune around as well.

“We may wake up here in a couple of months and look back and go, ‘Wow, maybe we were wrong.’ But that’s part of the conversation that that exists here,” Finebaum continued. “But it’s not even — it’s not even the play on the field. It’s a lack of discipline.

“I mean, every time they had a chance to to put that game a little bit further away from Tennessee, or to come back in the game, they made a stupid penalty, they made a stupid decision. Ultimately, who does that rest with? Is that the players, or was that the coaching? To me, this does not look like a well-coached team.”

Alabama’s next two games against Missouri and LSU will make or break the Crimson Tide’s fate during their first season under DeBoer’s guide. They’ll take on Missouri on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.