One specific area Alabama's defense must address to be a contender in 2025, expert says
One specific area Alabama's defense must address to be a contender in 2025, expert says
The start of the 2025 college football season is 78 days away, and 85 days remain until the Alabama Crimson Tide open the season against the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee.
While SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and others are still trying to re-legislate Alabama's absence from last year's College Football Playoff, only 12 Saturdays remain until Alabama-FSU.
Both teams are looking for bounce-back years in 2025. The Crimson Tide want to improve on a 9-3 regular season in Kalen DeBoer's first year, which included a blowout loss to Oklahoma in Week 13 that ultimately kept Alabama from reaching the first-ever 12-team playoff field.
Florida State is in need of a hard reset. Mike Norvello's Seminoles followed up their 12-0 regular season and ACC championship from 2023 with a woeful 2-10 record last year that featured only one win vs. a Power Four school.
One potential concern for Alabama heading into 2025? CBS Sports and 247Sports analyst Brad Crawford believes it's on defense -- more specifically, the need for Kane Wommack's unit to establish a pass rush.
Per Crawford:
"Make no mistake -- this should be a stout defense for the Crimson Tide, especially considering cornerbacks tandem Zabien Brown and Domani Jackson are being discussed as one of the best in the conference. But if there's one area of concern, it's the ability to produce havoc numbers on the interior and edge since Alabama's inexperienced beyond James Smith and nose tackle Tim Keenan III. The Crimson Tide need a difference-making campaign out of LT Overton, who has best-in-the-conference type of potential."
Overton was recently named to the 2025 Lott IMPACT Trophy Watch List, along with linebacker Deontae Lawson. Lawson's 76 tackles were second on the team last year behind linebacker Jihaad Campbell, who departed for the NFL after a terrific junior season. Alabama's pass rush generated 25 sacks for 172 sacks yards. That ranked only 69th in FBS and was 14th out of the 16 SEC schools.
Year 2 of the DeBoer era in Tuscaloosa will coincide with Alabama's first ever visit to Doak Campbell Stadium on Aug. 30. The Crimson Tide and Seminoles will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC.
Alabama is No. 9 in Crawford's post-spring top 25 rankings. ESPN and USA TODAY Sports also have the Crimson Tide at No. 9 in their respective post-spring rankings.
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