TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Nothing Tommy Castellanos ever did as a quarterback at Boston College got the attention of Alabama football fans, but in June, following his transfer to Florida State, he made a lot of them learn his name.
“They don’t have Nick Saban to save them,” he said. “I just don’t see them stopping me.”
Turns out, he was right on both counts.
Indeed, second-year coach Kalen DeBoer will have to be the one to save the Crimson Tide, because Week 1 is too late for the solution to come from anyone but him. And Castellanos, as he promised, made relatively easy work of the Alabama defense.
FSU 31, Alabama 17.
So after an offseason of change − from a new offensive coordinator to a new quarterback, from some new faces in the lineup to what was supposed to have a new resolve − one thing appears not to have changed for Alabama football.
It still looks nothing like a championship product. At least not with one game down and 11 to go.
In the same state where the Crimson Tide closed out the 2024 season with a dismally forgettable performance in a ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan, it turned in another stinker on Saturday to open 2025. Alabama brought an end to fall camp more than a week ago, but if anything was made clear in Tallahassee, it’s that DeBoer’s team still needs a lot more practice.
And a play-making pass rusher on its defensive front.
And a few more explosive plays on offense wouldn’t hurt, either.
What little went right for Alabama can be summarized far more quickly than all that went wrong, but the absence of a pass rush would have to rank atop a list of concerns entering Week 2.
Castellanos couldn’t have asked for cleaner pockets and went largely untouched as long as he wasn’t breaking out of the pocket to turn passing plays into runs. On several successful throws, no Crimson Tide pass rusher got anywhere near him. That doesn’t bode well for Alabama going forward, considering the Seminoles’ offensive line was patched together in the offseason with four transfer starters.
Offensively, Alabama looked sharp on its opening drive − a run-heavy, 16-play, 75-yard touchdown march for a 7-0 lead − but mostly dull thereafter. The Seminoles built a three-score lead in the second half, and Alabama’s new offensive coordinator and play-caller, Ryan Grubb, pocketed the run calls that were effective early.
Alabama is now 2-4 in road games under DeBoer.
And it’s a good thing for UA that no other opposing quarterbacks on the schedule called their shots.
So far, they’re 1-0 doing so.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
