Why Alabama Isn't Embracing a Championship Mentality Just Yet

ATLANTA — After finishing last season with a 9-4 record—its worst since 2007—Alabama football is excited to enter Year 2 of the Kalen DeBoer era in 40 days against Florida State.

The Crimson Tide missed the 12-team College Football Playoff last season, but it is widely expected to turn things around and return to The Standard. This is due to a variety of factors, perhaps notably the fact that Alabama didn't lose a single scholarship player in the spring—a tremendous accomplishment in today's college football.

While Alabama's successful offseason has turned a lot of heads, the Crimson Tide isn't embracing the ultimate goal of winning the National Championship just yet.

"Well, with a championship mindset, you don't just be a champion on Saturday, you've got to be a champion every day," Alabama defensive lineman Tim Keenan III said at SEC Media Days. "But first, before you can be champion, you have to learn how to win and you have got to know what it takes to be a champion. So right now, we've got our head down, and we're going 1-0, we've got to execute the plan and just got to keep the main thing the main thing."

'Go 1-0' was a common phrase used by last year's team, as looking ahead of the schedule could make a player lose focus on what's right in front of them. Alabama left tackle Kadyn Proctor is projected to be a top-10 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but "not worrying about the future and worrying about right now" is his current mindset and he plans for it to stay that way for the next several months.

"We obviously know that we haven't won a championship in a long time, and that's everybody's goal at the end of the season," Proctor said. "But it's all through preparation. We're trying to do our best [to go] 1-0 day in and day out, but there's always that hunger, yearn, burn and desire to go in every game and have that focus and level of intent to do so."

Proctor explained that the comfort level for the team between DeBoer's first and second years has seen a great increase. The coaching staff has played a "big factor" in instilling the 1-0 mentality and it's being pushed on a daily basis. This is most evident on the practice field.

"I think the biggest thing I learned [from last season's struggles] is that every week, every day at practice is important," Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said. "It doesn't matter who we're playing or where we play, it's just from the Monday [practice] to the ball being kicked off—care you ready to go? I think the intensity has to be there every day, whether it's in the media room or on the practice field.

"I think with that, if you could look at yourself in the mirror and say that you gave everything you got, that's the way to look at it. I think that's a big thing I would take from last year is emphasizing how important the week of practice is and leading up to the game."

Lawson opened up about how former Alabama coaches and national champions like Nick Saban, Paul W. "Bear" Bryant and Gene Stallings built The Standard and the players are truly embodying it heading into DeBoer's second season.

"When you walk in the facility, you see guys that came before you, you see all of these first-round draft picks, you see all of these National Championship rings," Lawson said. "You know the standard when you walk in that building, so it's something that we don't take lightly at all and the older guys are trying to imply it to the younger guys and teach them The Standard so that they can uphold it when we're no longer here."

The Crimson Tide will face the Seminoles in Tallahassee on Aug. 30 at 2:30 p.m. CT. That said, Alabama plans on going 1-0 many times before the season opener.

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