Stephen A. Smith has always been critical of Kalen DeBoer. Right from blasting DeBoer for the Vandy loss to outrightly calling Kalen DeBoer “unfit” for the team. The prominent sports host never pulls any punches when the topic is the Bama head coach. Even after Alabama’s turnaround after the FSU loss, Smith wasn’t “sold” on Kalen DeBoer. And guess what? It looks like he still isn’t! At the same time, he thinks one person can take the Tide to ultimate glory.

Smith appeared on ESPN College Football at the ‘Magic City Classic’ with Cam Newton and others and declared Alabama to exceed expectations. “They won on the road in Georgia. They just beat Tennessee. They handled Missouri. They handled Wisconsin. Obviously, you’re looking at the kind of things that they’re doing… Could they win the national championship? The answer would be yes,” said Stephen A. Smith. However, he didn’t credit Kalen DeBoer at all; instead, he showed some skepticism with the head coach due to the FSU loss.

“I can’t definitively say they’ve proven they’re the best team. But I would tell you they’re right in there in the conversation. I mean, when I think about how they looked against Florida State, obviously that was a bad thing,” he said.

It took some time for Bama fans to get over that Week 1 loss, but six back-to-back wins (4 against ranked teams) have meant that the discourse has shifted around the head coach. Even in his press conference, DeBoer looks like a different person altogether. He speaks with the authority his predecessor displayed every time he addressed the media. It also helps when you go to Georgia and Missouri and take care of business. But what will it take Stephen A. to change his opinion? No one knows. May be he can learn a thing or two from Paul Finebaum.