Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer Had Simple Explanation for What Led to Upset Loss to FSU

Kalen DeBoer thinks Alabama's slow start was to blame for their upset loss to Florida State.

Kalen DeBoer's Alabama team suffered an upset loss to open the 2025 season on Saturday. / Melina Myers-Imagn Images

The first truly shocking upset loss of the 2025 college football season took place during Week 1's action on Saturday in the form of Florida State's physical, dominant win over No. 8 Alabama, 31-17.

It's an inauspicious start to Kalen DeBoer's second season helming the Crimson Tide, and matters are not helped by Nick Saban's ever-looming shadow. Even with the Hall of Fame head coach retired, expectations are still incredibly high in Tuscaloosa. A season-opening loss to an unranked Seminoles squad, one in which Alabama looked outmatched on nearly every snap, means the pressure is already on DeBoer to figure out what went wrong and ensure next week is a much different story.

For his part, DeBoer had a pretty simple explanation for how things went sideways for Alabama on Saturday: the team started too slow.

"The name of the game is, we can't be hesitant early on," DeBoer said in his postgame press conference following the defeat. "We've got to start faster in all ways. ... We gave them hope and confidence in the first half there and then what it does is, it puts you in a spot where you've got to be perfect. You're playing from behind and you've got to be perfect. The stress on the guys to make every play becomes greater and greater.

"I choose to believe we've got a good football team, but we can't play on our heels. We're not going to be what we think we can be, what we want to be if that's the case and so that falls on everyone."

Alabama entered the locker room down 17-7 at halftime of Saturday's contest and gave up 126 rushing yards to Florida State. The Crimson Tide failed on both sides of the ball, and DeBoer clearly is not happy about it.

A lot to address as Alabama prepares for the school's home opener against Louisiana-Monroe next Saturday.

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