For the first time as the head football coach of Alabama, Kalen DeBoer suffered a loss on Oct. 5 with a shocking upset defeat to Vanderbilt. DeBoer handled the loss as well as any coach could have, reassuring his team that entered Week 6 ranked No. 1 that there is still a lot of time left in the season.
Speaking to the media on Oct. 7, DeBoer revealed what his message was to his frustrated players. The first-year head coach told his team to “stay the course” and move on to their Week 7 matchup against South Carolina.
“You stay the course,” DeBoer said, via AL.com. “That’s what the message is to the team. Now, stay the course, right, but everything is always just digesting what happened, having some perspective, and having the answers for the guys. That’s what we have to make sure we do as coaches, so we can walk away understanding what we can control, how we need to fix it, and just knowing that the next game, there’s going to be different matchups that are strengths for us.
“There’s also going to be different matchups and ways that an opponent attacks us. I’m not just talking offensively, but defensively. We’ve got to be ready.”
As the successor of longtime head coach Nick Saban, DeBoer came to Alabama after leading Washington to a Pac-12 title in 2023 and finishing as runner-up for the national championship. Before becoming a Husky, DeBoer built his name up as the head coach of NAIA powerhouse Sioux Falls and eventually moved on to lead Fresno State to two years of success prior to landing in Seattle.
Alabama falls to No. 7 in the AP poll after loss to Vanderbilt
In response to one of the most surprising results in recent years, the AP rankings dropped Alabama six spots to No. 7 in their poll. The Crimson Tide fell to the same number in the coach's poll, though entered Week 6 ranked No. 2 by that organization, which had Texas at No. 1.
While the loss shook up the rankings, Alabama was not the only team to take a significant drop. Michigan also took a tumble, going from No. 10 to No. 24 in the AP poll after losing to unranked Washington in a rematch of the 2024 National Championship game. Similarly, Missouri went from No. 9 to No. 21 after falling to Texas A&M.
No team was hurt more than USC, who went from No. 11 to unranked after losing to Minnesota on the road. Louisville and UNLV also dropped out of the rankings on the heels of their defeats, though neither were ranked as high as the Trojans.