Paul Finebaum: Loss in bowl game would be 'catastrophic' for Alabama, Kalen DeBoer

After missing the College Football Playoff, the Reliaquest Bowl is now an important outing to end this season for Alabama.

Paul Finebaum stressed that about the Crimson Tide’s matchup with Michigan in Tampa on New Year’s Eve on Monday. He said there would be a big difference in a win to finish at 10-3 as compared to a finish at 9-4 to end their first year under Kalen DeBoer.

“I think the 10 wins will be nice. I think he’s beating a very discounted Michigan team,” said Finebaum on ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’. “The win would be nice – nice being the operative word.”

“A loss would be absolutely catastrophic because, you know, suddenly, you go from a 10-3 season that should have been better, that could have been better to a 9-4 season that looks absolutely disgraceful,” Finebaum said.

That difference is due to ‘Bama not being in the CFP like they may similarly have in years past.

“The mystique of Alabama took a major hit yesterday. That’s a spot that we’re so used to Alabama getting in,” Finebaum noted. “You know, for all the folks out there who continue to talk about this dynasty of Alabama? I mean, we don’t need to say it’s over. It’s been over. But anyone who doubted it was over? Just rewatch the show yesterday and see them missing the playoff.”

So, with no conference title and no chance at a national title, Alabama wants to at least go into the offseason with the right perspective. That’ll be much easier by extending their streak of double-digit win seasons while also avoiding their most losses in over a decade and half with a bowl game that’ll give them the opportunity to do both.

“I think it’s very important because Nick Saban? As you mentioned, that game, the game, what was it, two years ago in the Sugar Bowl. Other than going back to, I think, ’08, and, obviously, following the ’13 season, Alabama has done a really nice job of using that bowl game to solve the wound of a disappointing season,” added Finebaum.

Alabama and Michigan, and, actually, DeBoer too, will run it back, albeit in a meeting with much less stakes, almost a year to the day as their game just last season in the Rose Bowl. Of the two teams, though, the Tide, and DeBoer as well, have more at risk with how a fourth loss could look after the debut of his tenure in Tuscaloosa.

“So, you know, who’s going to play in the game? Who’s really going to care about the game? Kalen DeBoer better and I know he will. But he’s got a great deal on the line,” Finebaum said.