Alabama Crimson Tide News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Alabama offensive lineman Tyler Booker. Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports

Alabama has players-only meeting after lackluster win over USF

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 9/18/23

Although they left South Florida with 17-3 win over USF on Saturday, it’s clear all is not well with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Offensive lineman Tyler Booker disclosed during a recent appearance on “The Next Round” that the team held a players-only meeting following the USF victory in which they had a bit of a “come to Jesus” moment in order to start with a clean slate ahead of this weekend’s clash with No. 15 Ole Miss.

“Everybody got stuff off their chest,” Booker said. “I think everybody is on the same page now. … I wouldn’t say there was any fractions. We need to put an emphasis on togetherness. I’m not saying we weren’t together, but we’re just emphasizing it more now. … Because if we all do our job as a unit … then there’s really nobody that can stop us.”

Alabama dropped from 10th in the AP Top 25 poll in Week 3 to No. 13 this week, marking the first time it’s fallen out of the top 10 since a September 2015 loss to Ole Miss.

The win over USF was the Crimson Tide’s first since 2007 against a non-Power 5 opponent in which they did not score 20 or more points (they won the previous 42 such instances with an average margin of victory of 40 points per game).

I believe Alabama had players disagree with the staff’s QB decision and give no-show effort in response

Never thought I’d see it pic.twitter.com/dI062lMK7b
— Josh Pate (@LateKickJosh) September 18, 2023

Alabama experimented with both Tyler Buchner and Ty Simpson at quarterback against USF before turning the reins back over to Jalen Milroe for Ole Miss. Buchner completed just 5 of 14 passes for 34 yards before giving way to Simpson, who threw for 73 yards and ran for a fourth-quarter touchdown.

However, neither showed enough potential to keep Milroe, who has 449 yards passing, five touchdowns and two interceptions plus 92 yards rushing and two touchdowns, on the bench heading into the most important stretch of the season.

Although head coach Nick Saban didn’t directly address any details regarding the players-only meeting, he did suggest that he has no problem with his team trying to find ways to rally around each other.

"I think this was the first game where I saw some guys a little frustrated,” Saban said, via 247Sports. “I think the frustration came maybe because we weren’t as focused as we needed to be, which is my responsibility. … We talked (after the USF game) about how everybody needs to buy into doing the things they need to do to make their contribution to the team to play winning football.”

More must-reads: