This is an opinion column.

Football is like rock ‘n’ roll. There are 1,000 ways to do it right.

For example, Guns N’ Roses and the Beatles.

Both bands are great. Both rock pretty hard. Neither band is as good as Jimi Hendrix, but that’s the topic of a different column.

The reason those iconic bands work in vastly different ways is because rock ‘n’ roll is more about an attitude than it is about the music.

Football is more about the violence than it is about the scheme.

Take Alabama’s beat down against Georgia in the SEC championship game.

Did Georgia really have the better tactics in that game? Was Alabama and coach Kalen DeBoer out-schemed by Georgia?

No, of course not. It wasn’t about that. Georgia just lined up and beat the dog hair off the Crimson Tide.

A scheme didn’t hold Alabama to minus-three yards rushing and pile drive the Tide into the dirt with a 28-7 loss. It was violence that did that.

There are different ways to run the ball. Doing it successfully all comes down to one thing, an attitude.

Alabama goes to Oklahoma for the first round of the College Football Playoff with something to prove. Can the Tide remain elite without successfully running the ball?

Clearly, the answer is no.

There have been a lot of reporters and fans over the last couple weeks who have convinced themselves that Alabama can win the national championship. Keep dreaming. Alabama is coming home with a loss on Friday night if it can’t run the ball.

Is the team that lost to Florida State and Georgia going to show up on Friday night in Norman, Okla., or is it going to be the one that strung together four victories in a row against then-ranked Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri and Tennessee?

Alabama had 117 yards on the ground in the first victory against Georgia. It wasn’t pretty, but it was at least enough to give quarterback Ty Simpson some room to make plays.

Alabama rushed for 2.4 yards per play in its 24-21 loss to Oklahoma. The upshot? Without any hint of balance, Alabama’s offense left Simpson exposed and he turned the ball over twice.

DeBoer says he isn’t going to Michigan, but could the Wolverines send their running back to Alabama for the College Football Playoff?

Michigan running back Justice Haynes played at Alabama for two seasons before transferring last year. In 2025, Haynes rushed for 6.6 yards per carry against AP Top 25 teams. There’s your missing piece.

But Alabama’s problems running the ball aren’t about a single player. It’s about an attitude. That’s why Alabama fans remain unsure about DeBoer despite the Tide making the College Football Playoff.

This just doesn’t look like an Alabama football team. I hear that every week, and the fans are right.

If DeBoer loses to Oklahoma, then there will be a large portion of Alabama’s fanbase who want him to take that job at Michigan and enjoy life in the Big Ten.

The problem with DeBoer is that his teams appear to lack toughness. I know for a fact that that’s not Alabama football, and the SEC is taking notice.

Georgia’s Kirby Smart taught DeBoer a lesson in the SEC championship game, and when new Auburn coach Alex Golesh said emphatically in his opening news conference that Auburn would run the ball, you better believe he was taking a direct shot at DeBoer’s Crimson Tide.

Alabama goes into the playoffs allowing more yards per game on the ground than it gains (125.6 to 116.7). It’s an unimaginable reality, but that’s DeBoer’s Alabama, and it’s the sign of a soft team.

Since the beginning of the modern era of college football (1958), a national champion at Alabama has never come close to being out-rushed, and no team coached by Nick Saban ever won a national title while averaging fewer than 183 rushing yards per game.

Wasn’t this offensive line supposed to be one of the best in the country? What happened?

They even tried moving offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb from the booth to the field. What exactly did that accomplish? Alabama’s offense has been decidedly worse with Grubb on the sidelines (280 total yards against Auburn and 209 against Georgia).

TWO-OH-NINE.

That’s not rock ‘n’ roll. That’s an area code in California.

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