Paul Finebaum questions if Alabama's program is too loose under Kalen DeBoer

After Alabama’s first loss of the season, Paul Finebaum questioned if the Crimson Tide were too loose under Kalen DeBoer.

This wasn’t an ordinary loss. It was an Alabama loss to Vanderbilt and the latter’s been near or in the basement of the SEC for years. 

Finebaum noticed the looseness of the team and DeBoer throughout the week, which was a stark contrast to Nick Saban.

“He’s calm, he’s cool, he came on our show Wednesday,” Finebaum said on The Matt Barrie Show. “And we went back and talked about the Georgia game. Can you imagine trying to get Nick Saban four days after a major win, ‘Coach, I know you got Vanderbilt. Let’s go back and talk.’ First of all, he wouldn’t have done the interview. 

“And then I’m watching SportsCenter Thursday night. There’s Jalen Milroe. I mean, that did not happen under Nick Saban, for a reason, Matt and I think what’s what we’re going to hear is this program is a little bit too loose. Whether it’s NIL, I don’t really know what it is. I like it, until I didn’t like it Saturday afternoon.”

This was a big upset of Alabama, make no mistake. But as Finebaum mentioned, DeBoer didn’t suffer the worst loss in history.

“I mean, there have been bigger upsets in college football history,” Finebaum said. “I was (thinking about) to Jim Harbaugh and Stanford beating a No. 2 USC. But even Stanford at the time wasn’t a great power, but it had had moments. But when you talk about college football and you mentioned Vanderbilt, you immediately get a laugh …

“In the 70s and 80s, it was like, ‘Oh, you got Slippery Rock for homecoming.’ Now it’s Vanderbilt, and even though we both know what’s going on there, they always find a way to blow it. And so this time, it didn’t happen. And it just seems surreal.” 

As DeBoer pointed out postgame, Alabama has no choice but to move forward and try and win the next game.

“But the guys in the locker room, you just talk about there is only one option, it’s to move forward,” DeBoer said. “It’s to get back to work. I feel we’ve got a great football team. We weren’t at our best today, and we’re gonna find out really how much we care about each other and what it looks like moving forward. 

“We’ve been tested different ways really in a lot of the games here this season, and this is a different type of test for us now and our response.”