Joel Klatt: If I'm Alabama, 'I am dumbfounded, panicked' after loss to FSU

Four teams lost this weekend in the Top-10. However, the one no one was expecting is the one that Joel Klatt is most concerned about moving forward after Week One.

On his show on Monday, Klatt reacted very negatively in recapping No. 8 Alabama’s upset loss to Florida State on Saturday. Like those down in Tuscaloosa are, Klatt is in a panic about the Crimson Tide coming out of their opener as he’s as concerned about them as he is any team in the country this morning.

“If I’m Alabama, I’m panicked,” said Klatt. “I’m not worried about Texas. I’m not worried about Clemson. I’m not worried about Notre Dame. All three of those teams lost. I am dumbfounded and panicked about Alabama.”

Alabama lost 31-17 to Florida State in Tallahassee on Saturday afternoon. It started great and at least ended in a comeback attempt but, all in all, the Tide got outplayed in essentially every sense. That was reacted to throughout the weekend and with clips from the film going around online, with several questions about their effort and toughness – especially inside when it came to both lines as far the run game, and certainly so defensively.

Those were among the three biggest issues from the loss to Klatt, as he noted how they got outphysicaled, outran, and, honestly, outplayed effort-wise in a way that he knew did not live up to the program. That was from top to bottom for him in his criticism to the staff’s game plan and the players’ performances for ‘Bama, although trying not to put much if any blame for this on their new starter in QB Ty Simpson.

“Florida State was the more physical team than Alabama, and not all that close. They were more physical, Florida State was the faster team than Alabama – not all that close. The last one is why I’m most panicked for Alabama. Florida State beat them, badly, in the effort game,” said Klatt. “Where was the effort? Where was the pride? This was a program that had the best players in the sport playing as if their life depended on it, for 15 years. They would play like they were desperate for their next breath of air. They played hard – hard – all the time, because that was the standard. That Alabama team on Saturday? That was a shell of its former self. Where was the effort? Like, where was the pride?”

“There were All-Americans on that offensive line getting dominated, dominated. Where was the defense? Ty Simpson didn’t have a chance. There’s zero way I would sit there and watch that game, and watch some of that film and say like, ‘Ah, man. Ty Simpson wasn’t good enough’. No, no, no. This wasn’t a Ty Simpson problem. This was an everybody else problem. They got beat, up and down the field at both lines of scrimmage. Their defensive line wasn’t good enough. Their offensive line wasn’t good enough,” said Klatt. “And, what was the game plan? Why is Ryan Williams all of a sudden in the slot? Ryan Williams is an elite outside receiver – elite. When he’s in space, not many people in the country can cover him, if any. To that point, he only took 20% of his snaps last year in the slot – 20%. On Saturday, 90% of his snaps were in the slot. Going over the middle, in order to get hit? No wonder he got beat up so bad. He couldn’t affect the game because he was in the slot. I was shocked. They kept dragging him into the safety, dragging him into the safety and he kept taking shot after shot after shot until he couldn’t even finish the game. What was that? Like, shocking.”

What was even worse to him was that this didn’t come in a top-ranked matchup on their schedule, despite it being a game between two of the sport’s bigger brands. We all know what Florida State was a year ago and the assumption was they may not be too much better this fall. Instead, FSU, as an unranked team, knocked off Alabama, with that version of the Tide being a big problem for them considering what’s still to come over the next three months.

“This was not a top-ten matchup. This was a Florida State team trying to pick themself up out of the gutter. They won two games last year – two! Most of their losses, they lost by ten or more,” said Klatt. “This was not Miami-Notre Dame, Clemson-LSU, or Texas-Ohio State. No, no, no. Listen, if Alabama went in there and they lost to a top-five team and it’s like, okay, maybe they just need some more time to rebuild? No, no, no. They went in and faced a team that was trying to drag themselves out of the gutter, and they did and credit to them. Florida State looks to be an elite team in the ACC once more, and that quickly. But, what happened to Alabama?”

“We’ll see what happens with Alabama the rest of the year, but look at the schedule. Look at the schedule,” Klatt said. “Based on what we saw on Saturday, with their O-line getting decimated, their defensive line get decimated, with their plan being what it was with Ty Simpson running for his life, with the lack of effort that we saw from Alabama? They’ve got to go to Georgia. They’ve got to play Tennessee. They got to go to South Carolina. They play LSU, the most complete team of the week in college football. They’ve got Oklahoma. They’ve still got the Iron Bowl. This could very easily, very easily, be a four-loss team – very, very easily a four-loss team, maybe five.”

There’s a reality check currently going on, both in that state and nationally, when it comes to Alabama coming out of game one in year two under Kalen DeBoer. That’s with their outing in that loss being so far off from their standard, and with the chance now that this season could go very wrong for the Crimson Tide.

“If I’m a ‘Bama fan, I am panicked right now, because this isn’t even close. It’s not even close,” said Klatt. “‘Bama has now lost four games versus unranked teams in the Kalen DeBoer era. They only lost one game to an unranked team the previous 16 years. Like, this is – man, it’s just so, ugh. It’s hard to watch a program go through this. It really is – an elite-level program.”

“I’m just putting out the alarm bells right now. If that doesn’t change in a hurry, in a hurry, then this program? They are going to be in a dip, man,” Klatt said. “The panic meter for me for ‘Bama is at 10, an absolute 10.”