This is an opinion column.

So much of Alabama’s offseason messaging surrounded the progress they felt from Year 1 of Kalen DeBoer to Year 2.

There was optimism that the troubled waters of a late-cycle coaching transition had smoothed, and the Crimson Tide were moving forward instead of patching cracks.

Those narratives crumbled in Tallahassee.

Backlash replaced positivity and fears of a 2024 reprise felt more than realistic.

A month later, the storyline flipped again.

Alabama is … back?

Perhaps premature to definitively declare the Death Star’s fully operational, but there’s reason to believe the trajectory is closer to preseason chatter than the FSU crash.

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