Alabama may have received a top-five spot in the first College Football Playoff rankings, but ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith isn’t convinced the Crimson Tide deserves the benefit of the doubt. With two losses already on their record, Kalen DeBoer’s team faces a difficult road test against Lane Kiffin’s LSU, and the analyst believes another defeat could leave Alabama outside the playoff picture.
Speaking on ESPN’s First Take, Smith questioned the team’s ability to meet expectations under DeBoer. He acknowledged Alabama’s history of responding when people underestimate it but argued that the opposite has happened when the Crimson Tide enter games with solid expectations.
“They can be the great equalizer. The question is, will they?” Smith said. “We always sit up there and crown Alabama. Every time there’s limited expectations, they rise to the occasion. When they have lofty expectations in the Kalen DeBoer era, they disappoint us.”
Alabama enters the November 7 game with a 6-2 record, as the highest-ranked two-loss team in the country, ahead of unbeaten UCLA and several teams with fewer losses.
Many have questioned the ranking, since Alabama’s two losses came against Georgia and Tennessee. The latter hurt the most. The Volunteers beat the Crimson Tide 26-10, one week after Alabama had already lost to Georgia.
Smith pointed to those games when he asked whether Alabama has been consistent enough to deserve its spot.
“They got boat-raced by Indiana in the playoffs. They waved the white flag. They got their asses kicked in the SEC Championship Game against Georgia,” Smith said, referring to Alabama’s previous postseason disappointments.
“And then the next week, after that great show, even though they lost the game, we were expecting them to do something, and then Tennessee boat-raced them, ran all over them,” Smith said, recalling last season’s playoff and SEC Championship Game losses.
The committee’s decision to rank Alabama No. 5 also drew criticism from former Crimson Tide running back Damien Harris. The two-time national champion asked why his former program sits eight positions above Tennessee despite losing to the Volunteers by 16 points.
“I am shocked by this. I mean, and I don’t even say this for any other reason than anybody else would. Nobody expected this,” CBS’s Damien Harris said.
Harris asked a similar question about the committee, wondering if it was judging every team the same way.
All of that puts a lot of weight on the LSU game. The Tigers are 6-2 but sit at No. 14 in the CFP rankings. A home win over Alabama would help Kiffin’s team in the playoff race and would damage Alabama’s case.
Smith believes the game could expose Alabama’s weaknesses again.
“This is the problem. They got two losses. A third loss should put them in a position where they miss the playoffs. Their playoff hopes, as far as I’m concerned, are on the line,” he added. “I think Lane Kiffin’s gonna have these boys ready at LSU, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they won this game.”
Another storyline is building around LSU before the game. Former Baylor head coach Dave Aranda is reportedly thinking about joining Kiffin’s staff as an analyst. He reportedly spent a few days in Baton Rouge and watched the Tigers practice, but nothing has been made official.
Aranda knows the place well. He was LSU’s defensive coordinator from 2016 to 2019 and was part of the 2019 team that won the school’s most recent national title. Baylor fired him in October after a loss to Kansas, and he left with a 40-40 record.
Once the LSU game is over, Alabama still has Vanderbilt, Chattanooga, and Auburn left. Those games give the Tide a chance to build its playoff case.