Alabama football’s Kalen DeBoer shares his message with Crimson Tide amid CFP debate

The Alabama football program is currently hoping that their recent stunning Iron Bowl victory over the Auburn Tigers will be enough to convince the college football playoff committee to overlook their three ugly losses this year and move them into the to let a big dance. The Crimson Tide have been a model of inconsistency in their first year since Nick Saban left town, and under head coach Kalen DeBoer’s leadership, Alabama has looked like legitimate championship contenders at certain times and completely incompetent at other times.

Alabama will be watching from home as Georgia takes on Texas in the SEC Championship from Atlanta this weekend, and DeBoer recently stopped by ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show to make his pitch to the College Football Playoff committee.

“There is a committee that makes some difficult decisions, and we all understand that,” DeBoer said. “There are so many great teams in college football. But I know from the inside that we’re talking about being one of the twelve best teams in our opinion, and that’s not selfish, that’s not arrogance, that’s not the way I talk. But we understand who we are.”

DeBoer then talked about what the coming days will look like for the Alabama football program.

“This week is about training. It’s about taking care of things outside of football to make sure there are no distractions in our opportunity,” DeBoer said. “Kind of a reflection on our strengths on offense, defense and special teams. And to continue to instill confidence in these guys and remind us how far we’ve come.”

Will Alabama achieve the CFP?

Last year, Alabama football earned arguably the most controversial pick in College Football Playoff history by sweeping the undefeated Florida State Seminoles and then promptly losing to Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

This year they have a chance to catapult themselves up the controversy scale if they manage to do so with three defeats, bearing in mind of course that the format now allows for 12 teams.

Most recently, Alabama lost in disastrous fashion to the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman, and the team has struggled badly in wins over South Carolina and USF, among others.

Still, if there’s anything the Tide’s championship tradition has earned them over the years, it’s the benefit of the doubt, and we’ll now have the chance to see if that reputation has fully carried over into the post-Saban era or not.