Paul Finebaum: 'The mystique and the aura over Alabama has now been dented' after Vanderbilt upset
Paul Finebaum believes the magic around the Alabama Crimson Tide that Nick Saban cultivated and Kalen DeBoer continued with a win over Georgia has been dashed by the loss to Vanderbilt this past weekend.
Many believed it was a forgone conclusion that the Crimson Tide would waltz into Nashville and take care of business against the Commodores. However, this year’s version of Vanderbilt was ready to buck the dominance of the past, and Alabama was upended, falling as the No. 1 team in the country in shocking fashion.
After marinating in the loss for a couple of days, Finebaum joined Get Up on Tuesday to discuss where the Crimson Tide go from here. One thing is for sure, he believes the brand as a whole has been damaged, as he pushed back on the notion that Alabama is fine moving forward while speaking with Mike Greenberg.
“First of all Greenie, you attended and graduated from as much of an Ivy League school as you can get in the Big Ten in Northwestern. You think in a practical fashion. Fans do not. They only know what they see,” Finebaum said. “Had they lost to Georgia and then lost to Vanderbilt, it would still be bad, but they felt like the Saban era was over, DeBoer is our new guy. He’s going to do the same thing that Saban did. That’s how fans are. They’re irrational, and they just couldn’t handle this.
“The problem is the mystique and the aura over Alabama has now been dented, as well as a very difficult schedule, which includes road games at Tennessee, at LSU and at Oklahoma.”
One of the Alabama fans who Finebaum believes paints a better picture of how Tuscaloosa is feeling at the moment is Legend, a frequent caller into The Paul Finebaum Show. He called into the show and delivered an epic rant following the loss to Vanderbilt, and Finebaum drove home his point on where the Crimson Tide stand on Get Up utilizing his insight.
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“He’s actually representative of how Alabama fans feel,” Finebaum said, regarding the call. “This is not an outlier, this isn’t some crazy lunatic that we found in a closet. Alabama fans had the highest of highs beating Georgia and now they can’t believe it.
“You could have just picked a team in America and they would have been happier losing to Mercer, Georgia State, Slippery Rock, than Vanderbilt. And Legend said it all right there, you just don’t do it.”
While Alabama’s schedule doesn’t let up over the next couple of weeks, the Crimson Tide have a slight reprieve in Week 7, as they’ll face South Carolina. The game will be in Tuscaloosa, so even if their fans are feeling a bit disillusioned following the surprising loss to Vanderbilt, they’ll still show out and bring the energy for Alabama’s clash with the Gamecocks.
In a week, Kalen DeBoer has gone from the prince that was promised to a jester in the eyes of many, but it’ll be up to the Crimson Tide to right the ship and prove why analysts like Paul Finebaum are wrong for sticking the fork in them. There’s a ton of football left to play, count out Alabama at your own risk, even after their loss to Vanderbilt in Week 6.
On3’s Kaiden Smith contributed to this article.