Alabama’s Week 1 performance was one to forget for Crimson Tide fans.
But one notable sports personality thinks their loss on the road to Florida State is more an indictment of Alabama’s conference.
In the middle of the Crimson Tide’s 31-17 loss in Tallahassee, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy called out the SEC.
“I told everybody who would listen FSU was easy money. The SEC is a joke,” Portnoy posted on X hours after his duties for Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” before the Ohio State-Texas game.
In June, Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos — who transferred from Boston College — made plenty of headlines when he took a direct shot at Alabama.
“They don’t have Nick Saban to save them,” he said. “I just don’t see them stopping me.”
That proved to be true, as Castellanos passed for 152 yards and ran for 78 more with one touchdown as Kalen DeBoer’s Crimson Tide did not play like the eighth-ranked team in the nation.
After a 9-4 season in his first year as head coach, DeBoer’s second campaign started with a Week 1 loss — the first time Alabama dropped its opener since 2001.
That led to plenty of talking heads and pundits sounding the alarm, and among those was ESPN’s take master Stephen A. Smith.
“I’m sorry folks. I really am. But it just seems to be as if the days of Nick Saban’s @AlabamaFTBL is looooonnngggg gone,” Smith wrote on X toward the end of the game, echoing Castellanos. “Sacks surrendered. Dropped passes. A QB who’s not a real scrambler/runner, and doesn’t appear to have a strong enough arm to throw on the run. Maybe this turnover by Lucas of @FloridaState, but I doubt it.”
Junior quarterback Ty Simpson threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns, averaging just 5.9 yards per completion.
Alabama never really established the run game, either, rushing for just 74 yards on 29 carries.
At the end of the day, it was the unranked Seminoles celebrating and their fans storming the field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium while Alabama searched for answers.