As Roq Montgomery planted the Alabama football flag into Camp Randall’s FieldTurf, the student sections already held more yellow-jacketed security guards than Wisconsin fans. Count the Crimson Tide’s first road quiz of the season as a passing grade.
Alabama’s football chief operating officer, Ellis Ponder, blew his whistle at Montgomery, hustling the offensive lineman to the locker room. Still, he couldn’t dull the Crimson Tide’s revelry at its first road win.
“We kept on attacking,” quarterback Jalen Milroe said after leaving the field. “Kept on building, regrouping, and we did a really good job just coming together as one.”
There were real questions about the Crimson Tide entering the Wisconsin game. One week prior, UA had been drug to hell by South Florida, facing a real chance of losing until the final six minutes, when the offense found another gear.
Turns out, when the five best offensive linemen start playing together, good things happen. Kadyn Proctor returned, Tyler Booker moved back to guard, Elijah Pritchett took over at right tackle and suddenly the offense had time to move.
Defensively, Alabama faced a Wisconsin team down its quarterback after Tyler Van Dyke suffered a season-ending knee injury early. Still, the Crimson Tide did everything it needed to, totally stifling the Badgers on the way to a 42-10 win.
“On the road, there was a business-like approach to us in the locker room pregame,” Kalen DeBoer said afterward. “There was a lot of energy, a lot of fire. I think that’s just these guys and their passion. It’s impressive being in here, and it’s impressive at halftime, as you’re gaining momentum, that they can just really have that confidence, the energy being sustained. It’s something I’m really learning about our guys.”
So far so good for the DeBoer era. Before the South Dakota native’s coaching tenure began, Gene Stallings, who led the Tide to the 1992 national championship, offered up a word of advice.
Stallings, who lost his first three games with Alabama, recommended DeBoer do his best to avoid that fate.
“I do not advise anybody go into Alabama and start out (0-3), Stallings said in April at a charity event in Tuscaloosa. “We finished pretty good, but we didn’t start out that way.”
DeBoer has Alabama undefeated through that period. He’s conquered all challenges so far, from Western Kentucky and South Florida, to the words of his predecessor.
Now it gets a bit more difficult. The measuring stick game is here, and the closest thing to Nick Saban’s Alabama visits Tuscaloosa on Saturday.
Kirby Smart’s Georgia team is also undefeated, and is also coming off a bye. The Bulldogs didn’t play well against Kentucky last time out, squeaking out a one-point win in Lexington, but should be fired up, and remains ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll.
“Georgia’s a great team,” Alabama tight end Josh Cuevas said Friday. “We all know it. I mean, even if you don’t come to Alabama, you know that rivalry is always going to be there.”
It’s been a chaotic moment since the college football universe collectively started at UA on a gameday. The offseason of transition since the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl loss to Michigan is well documented.
It’s also supposed to be Georgia’s moment. Saban is gone, and the throne is up for grabs more than ever before.
Alabama opened as a home underdog, and if that holds, it’d be for the first time since 2007.
The stakes are all there. ESPN’s College Gameday is in town, a former president is using the game as a political stunt and the 6:30 p.m. CT game on ABC is the centerpiece of college football’s Week 5 schedule.
Alabama has passed every quiz to this point. But the real test is here. America is about to get its first look at DeBoer’s Crimson Tide against a legitimate national championship-contending opponent.
After three games to warm up, UA thinks it’s ready.
“They’re a great team,” Cuevas said. “We respect anybody who we play. But, I mean, we’re going in as Alabama football. They gotta play us too.”
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