Alabama football was a no-show in ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan | Goodbread
TAMPA, Fla. —Only five Alabama football players showed up for a ReliaQuest Bowl team excursion to the Busch Gardens amusement park Saturday.
If even that many showed up for the game on Tuesday, they were all on the defensive side of the ball.
The heavily-favored Crimson Tide completely flopped offensively in the first quarter, surrendering three costly turnovers that gave Michigan three drive starts in the red zone, and couldn't recover in a 19-13 loss to the Wolverines.
It placed an emphatic black mark on a mostly disappointing season under first-year coach Kalen DeBoer. And it was everything Alabama fans didn't want to see from a team in transition between 2024 and 2025: a listless offensive performance against a severely shorthanded Michigan defense.
For DeBoer, New Year's Day couldn't come soon enough.
There's much reevaluation needed, from the coaching staff all the way down to the bottom of the roster. The UA offense unquestionably needs the biggest offseason revamp, but there are deficiencies almost everywhere. And thanks to Tuesday's uninspired performance, he can locate most of them with a single game tape.
Underlying the loss was the worst quarter of football Alabama's offense played in the entire season, and that's a mouthful for anyone who saw its third quarter at Oklahoma. In rainy conditions, UA coughed up three turnovers in the span of four snaps – on a mishandled shotgun snap, an interception, and a strip-sack of Jalen Milroe – within the first 10 minutes of game clock. Throw in a turnover on downs that came by way of a sack allowed by left tackle Kadyn Proctor, and it was a quarter to forget by any measure.
This against a decimated Michigan defense that was without its best players, who opted out of the bowl to prepare for the NFL draft. It's top defensive linemen – Mason Graham, Josaiah Stewart and Kenneth Grant – all sat out. And yet the Crimson Tide's pass protection was, for the most part, dismal. Michigan blitzed for much of its pressure, daring Milroe to find open receivers quickly, and it paid off.
Alabama entered the game as a 16.5-point favorite for a reason.
The Wolverines were left significantly more shorthanded than Alabama by December roster attrition. Along with a gutted defensive line, UM star cornerback Will Johnson, its top receiver in tight end Colston Loveland and both its top running backs all opted out as well.
The UM fill-ins rose to meet the moment, however.
Alabama watched the moment pass by.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.