When the University of Alabama ventured to Tallahassee for their 2025 season opener versus Florida State, nobody outside the Seminole training camp gave FSU any shot to knock off the preseason darlings of the SEC. There was not a hint, at least not anywhere I canvassed leading up to the game, of any sort of chance the ‘Noles could spring an upset. Then the game happened. And the Crimson Tide was humbled. Badly. The aftermath was nasty, if not brutal. Alabama, preseason favorites by some to win the CFB national championship, looked nothing remotely close to the team many experts anointed them to be. What they were, however, was the polar opposite. Listless, undisciplined, and uninspiring were some of the adjectives tossed around in the games’ aftermath. Nobody saw it coming. Florida State did. The Seminoles were not the 2-10 Florida State of 2024, and Alabama learned it the hard way. Since then, the Tide seem to have found their footing, blowing out an outmanned Louisiana/Monroe team and a “not your daddy’s” Wisconsin squad inside the friendly confines of Saban Field at Bryant Denny Stadium. Does Alabama have another “Florida State” in them? Have they righted the ship? Will they plow their way through the remainder of the season and proclaim their rightful place among the nations elite and draw a coveted bye in the CFB Playoff? Only the most delusional Alabama fanatic feels that way. Was the Florida State game an anomaly, some sort of football aberration, one that happens only once every Appalachian State versus Michigan kind of thing? Or could it be that Florida State was just that good, and caught an unsuspecting Alabama team off guard? I think the answer will come at approximately 10:00 PM CST on Saturday night between the hedges in Athens, Georgia. If you’re an Alabama fan, it is hard to forget what happened that fateful day in Tallahassee, the images of which are no doubt deeply etched within your collective minds. Never mind the fact the Tide have emerged victorious six times in their seven matches against Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs, the fact of the matter is that several of those games could have gone either way. And Smart knows it. So do smart Alabama fans. An Alabama loss will not end their postseason playoff aspirations, but another Florida State type outing will result in a Bulldog blowout. The question is, did Alabama “get it out of their system” in Tallahassee, or is history going to repeat itself? For Alabama, and perhaps even more so for head coach Kalen DeBoer, that question will be answered just in time for the 10:00 PM news to air on Saturday night.