This past Saturday, the Alabama football program opened up their first Nick Saban-less season since 2006 with a dominant 63-0 win over Western Kentucky in front of over 100,000 fans inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Tide out-gained the overmatched Hilltoppers by a whopping 455 yards, and Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe was only required to throw nine passes all game. All things considered, it was a tremendously successful debut for new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, but in reality, it was only the second biggest win over the last week for one of the NCAA's most prestigious programs.

Just one day before Alabama's shutout victory over Western Kentucky, Kalen DeBoer had the opportunity to implement a tradition in Tuscaloosa that he started while he was coaching the Washington Huskies. The program, called “Tide Teammates,” gives sick children who are fans of the Alabama football program a chance to meet their heroes, and on Friday morning during Alabama's final walk-through before their season opener, it was a 10-year old by the name of Suzannah Earnest who was introduced to the team.

“Suzannah was diagnosed in 2022 with Friedreich's ataxia, a progressive genetic condition. There are only 5,000 known cases in the United States, and most people with FA need a wheelchair within 10 to 15 years of diagnosis,” writes ESPN's Chris Low. “She's also dealing with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which impacts her heart.”

Not only did the Earnest family get to meet with Coach DeBoer and the Tide, but Suzannah got the chance to get down on the field and run a play, receiving a handoff from her favorite player.

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“She was ready to go Friday when her favorite Alabama player, Milroe, broke the huddle and handed the ball off to her. It was supposed to be a running play, but Suzannah called an audible and threw a two-handed pass. She eventually got the ball back and was escorted into the end zone by her Crimson Tide teammates.”

For Suzannah, it's a memory that will last a lifetime. For the Alabama football program, it was an insight into the mindset of the man who has the tough task of replacing football royalty in a town that brings championship expectations into every season.

“It's like that in everything we do, practice, meetings or anything outside of football,” Milroe said. “You see how real Coach DeBoer is. He's always who he is, and he trusts us to be who we are. That's what every player wants.”

Alabama's next opponent is the University of South Florida, who gave the Tide everything they could handle in the second week of the 2023 season.