Alabama football and coach Kalen DeBoer are coming off their first loss of the 2026 season. The Crimson Tide won't have time to lick any wounds in Week 7. Alabama visits Knoxville for the annual Third Saturday in October showdown against the Tennessee Volunteers in a top-25 showdown.
Fortunately for DeBoer, the third-year Crimson Tide coach has a pretty good record when coming off a loss.
Dating back to his first season as an FBS coach at Fresno State in 2020, DeBoer is 11-2 in his career following a loss.
DeBoer's 2020 Fresno State team suffered back-to-back losses in the final weeks of the regular season to Nevada and New Mexico in December. A year later, the Bulldogs went 10-3 with losses to Oregon, Hawaii and Boise State. None were in back to back weeks.
In DeBoer's first year with the Washington Huskies in 2022, his team finished 11-2 with a win over the Texas Longhorns in the Alamo Bowl. Both Washington losses that season were in back-to-back weeks at UCLA and Arizona State. The 2023 Huskies were undefeated (14-0) heading into the College Football Playoff national championship game against the Michigan Wolverines.
At Alabama, DeBoer is 6-0 when coming off a loss the previous week or game. The biggest win in that stretch was against Oklahoma in the 2025 College Football Playoff. Alabama erased a 17-0 first-half deficit to defeat the Sooners, 34-24, in Norman.
A year earlier, the Crimson Tide responded to a stunning 24-3 loss at Oklahoma in late November with a 28-14 victory over Auburn in the 2024 Iron Bowl. They defeated South Carolina and Missouri following losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee earlier in the year.
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Kalen DeBoer's career record when coming off a loss: full breakdown
DeBoer teams lost in the weeks before these results. Here's a look at how he and his teams responded the following week or game.
Fresno State
- Oct. 29, 2020: vs. Colorado State (W, 38-17)
- Dec. 12, 2020: vs. New Mexico (L, 49-39)
- Sept. 11, 2021: vs. Cal Poly (W, 63-10)
- Oct. 16, 2021: at Wyoming (W, 17-0)
- Nov. 13, 2021: vs. New Mexico (W, 40-9)
Washington
- Oct. 8, 2022: at Arizona State (L, 45-38)
- Oct. 15, 2022: vs. Arizona (W, 49-39)
Alabama
- Oct. 12, 2024: vs. South Carolina (W, 27-25)
- Oct. 26, 2024: vs. Missouri (W, 34-0)
- Nov. 30, 2024: vs. Auburn (W, 28-14)
- Sept. 6, 2025: vs. Louisiana-Monroe (W, 73-0)
- Nov. 22, 2025: vs. Eastern Illinois (W, 56-0)
- Dec. 19, 2025: at Oklahoma (W, 34-24)
Record: 11-2 overall.
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Alabama football schedule 2026
Kickoff for Alabama-Tennessee in Week 7 of the 2026 college football season is 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday at Neyland Stadium. The game can be seen on ABC. Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy will have the call of the game. Katie George will report from the sidelines.
The Crimson Tide (5-1 overall, 3-1 SEC) are No. 6 in this week's AP Top 25 and No. 7 in the US LBM Coaches Poll. Tennessee (5-1, 2-1) is No. 14.
All times Central.
- Sept. 5: vs. East Carolina Pirates (W, 48-10)
- Sept. 12: at Kentucky Wildcats (W, 45-17)
- Sept. 19: vs. Florida State Seminoles (W, 50-36)
- Sept. 26: vs. South Carolina Gamecocks (W, 49-18)
- Oct. 3: at Mississippi State Bulldogs (W, 56-23)
- Oct. 10: vs. Georgia Bulldogs (L, 20-17)
- Oct. 17: at Tennessee Volunteers, 2:30 p.m., ABC
- Oct. 24: vs. Texas A&M Aggies, 2:30 p.m., ABC
- Nov. 7: at LSU Tigers, TBA
- Nov. 14: at Vanderbilt Commodores, TBA
- Nov. 21: vs. Chattanooga Mocs, 1 p.m., SEC Network+
- Nov. 28: vs. Auburn Tigers, TBA
Record: 5-1 overall, 3-1 SEC.
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: What is Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer's record when coming off a loss?
