Kalen DeBoer Outlines How to Avoid an Upset Against Unranked Road Opponent

Alabama has lost to four unranked opponents on the road/neutral site in the Crimson Tide head coach's less-than-two-year tenure.

Oct 18, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer looks on after the game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Leong-Imagn Images | David Leong-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama has had some very high highs during head coach Kalen DeBoer's tenure, but it has also had some very low lows.

The Crimson Tide defeated three ranked opponents last season, and is already up to four this year. However, four of Alabama's five losses in the DeBoer era have come to unranked teams either on the road or in a neutral setting.

Nevertheless, Alabama is currently one of the hottest teams in America, as after its season-opening loss to unranked Florida State on the road, the Crimson Tide is on a six-game win streak and is No. 4 in the AP Top 25. After UA defeated Georgia in 2024, it became the No. 1 team in the nation but lost the following week to Vanderbilt. It set off a chain reaction of three more losses.

The Florida State loss in late August clearly hasn't created a downward spiral, and as Alabama is set to face unranked South Carolina on the road on Saturday, DeBoer shared why some of those previous losses occurred.

"I think there's different reasons," DeBoer said during Monday's press conference. "I think there's been times where neither side of the ball could really overcome the momentum swings, and it just built on itself. I think starting games quickly at least one side of the ball, getting stops or putting a score on the board.

"But I think a lot of it is just execution in critical moments — converting a third down when it's really loud on the first drive of the game, or getting the ball in the end zone, or getting a big stop — those things are the things that you need to have. And then as the game goes on and it is close, again, I talked about critical moments. I said it all offseason, 'Be great in the critical moments.' There's been some close games."

The Gamecocks are 3-4 this season, despite being ranked No. 13 in the preseason AP Top 25. That said, DeBoer believes that head coach Shane Beamer and company have the home environment to cause upsets, and execution in critical moments will be the key to success against South Carolina.

"A critical moment doesn't always mean the fourth quarter, it could be at the end of the second quarter and getting a stop and find a way to put it in the end zone yourself, as the clock is running out," DeBoer said. "So be great in those critical moments. There's different things for different sides of the ball — staying on the field offensively, converting and making them line up and play another snap defensively.

"I really feel like when our fight is there as a team, with the experience that we've been through, it's added to resiliency, its added to a belief, it's to a consistency and a toughness, again, mental, physical and emotional, that our team really is counting on each other to get the job done."