Alabama 2024 Season Review: DeBoer's 9-4 Debut
Alabama finished Kalen DeBoer's first season 9-4 overall and 5-3 in SEC play. The Crimson Tide beat Georgia, LSU and Auburn but missed the College Football Playoff and lost the ReliaQuest Bowl to Michigan.
The 2024 Record
Sports Reference lists Alabama at 9-4 overall and 5-3 in SEC play in 2024, with a final AP ranking of No. 17. Alabama averaged 33.8 points per game and allowed 17.4, then ended the year with a 19-13 ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan.
Alabama opened 3-0, beat Georgia 41-34, lost three SEC games during the regular season and fell to Michigan in its bowl game. The wins kept Alabama nationally relevant, but the losses kept it outside the playoff bracket.
The High Points
Alabama beat Georgia 41-34 in September, routed LSU 42-13 in November and closed the regular season by beating Auburn 28-14 in the Iron Bowl.
The Georgia win was the peak because it showed Alabama could still beat an elite opponent in a high-leverage regular-season setting. The LSU win showed the offense could separate against a ranked SEC opponent away from Tuscaloosa. The Iron Bowl win mattered differently: it did not erase the earlier losses, but it protected Alabama's rivalry position and gave DeBoer a clean first answer to the most important in-state question.
The Losses That Defined the Ceiling
Alabama's losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Michigan kept the season from becoming a playoff campaign. The Oklahoma loss was especially important because it damaged Alabama's late-season postseason case before the Iron Bowl win.
The Vanderbilt loss was the result that changed the tone of the season. The Tennessee loss showed Alabama could still be dragged into a lower-scoring SEC game it did not finish. Oklahoma then made the margin for error disappear before rivalry week. The bowl loss to Michigan closed the file as a 9-4 season rather than allowing the year to end with a postseason reset.
A useful way to read the record is by separating reputation from resume. Alabama's brand kept every week under a larger microscope, but the actual schedule record says the team was good, inconsistent and not quite playoff-caliber by the end of the year.
Iron Bowl Lens
The 2024 Iron Bowl gave DeBoer a rivalry win in his first year and left Auburn below bowl eligibility. Alabama finished the season 9-4.
Jalen Milroe's 2024 Iron Bowl line also fits the whole season: high-end physical talent, decisive rushing production and enough volatility to keep the game from becoming routine. Alabama committed four turnovers against Auburn and still won by two touchdowns, which says something about both Alabama's floor in the rivalry and Auburn's inability to capitalize.
DeBoer opened his Alabama tenure with a winning record and an Iron Bowl win, while the four losses kept the team out of the SEC Championship Game and College Football Playoff.