Alabama’s football program began its first season without Nick Saban since 2006 with a resounding 63-0 victory over Western Kentucky in front of nearly 100,000 people at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday. The Tide outgained the overmatched Hilltoppers by 455 yards, and Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe only had to throw nine passes throughout the game. Overall, it was a highly successful start for new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, but it was just the second biggest win in the last week for one of the NCAA’s most respected teams.
Just one day before Alabama’s shutout victory over Western Kentucky, Kalen DeBoer got the opportunity to put into practice a Tuscaloosa tradition he created while coaching the Washington Huskies. The “Tide Teammates” program allows sick children who are fans of the Alabama football program to meet their heroes, and on Friday morning, during Alabama’s final walk-through before the season opener, a 10-year-old named Suzannah Earnest was introduced to the team.
Suzannah was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia in 2022, which is a degenerative hereditary illness. “There are only 5,000 known cases in the United States, and the majority of people with FA require a wheelchair within 10 to 15 years of diagnosis,” writes ESPN’s Chris Low. “She’s also dealing with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which impacts her heart.”
Not only did the Earnest family get to meet Coach DeBoer and the Tide, but Suzannah also had the opportunity to run a play and receive a handoff from her favourite player.
“She was prepared to go.” Friday, her favourite Alabama player, Milroe, broke the huddle and passed the ball to her. It was meant to be a running play, but Suzannah called an audible, tossed
A two-handed pass. She eventually recovered the ball and was led to the end zone by her Crimson Tide colleagues.”
Suzannah’s memory will last a lifetime. For the Alabama football team, it provided insight into the psyche of the man who faces the difficult challenge of replacing football royalty in a town where championship expectations are high every season.
“It’s like that in everything we do, practise, meetings or anything outside of football,” Milroe told reporters. “You can tell how genuine Coach DeBoer is. He never changes who he is, and he trusts us to be ourselves. That’s what every player desires.
Alabama’s next opponent is the University of South Florida, which gave the Tide everything.
Leave a Reply