TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Ryan Williams gathered the Alabama receivers together for a little video game play on Friday night.
He battled teammates in EA Sports College Football 25, a way to relax a day before kickoff of the biggest college football game of the season yet: No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama.
As is often the case, Williams, the Tide’s 17-year-old receiver, played the video game with his own team. While engaged in a tight battle with a teammate, Williams furiously moved the pieces on the virtual court using his controller until one of his defensive backs, fellow freshman Zabien Brown, snatched a ball out of the air for an interception that game sealed.
Williams celebrated the victory and the next day, hours before Alabama played the real game against Georgia, he delivered a message to Brown: You get the winning choice!
It worked.
On Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium, in front of a rocking crowd, Alabama defeated former U.S. President Donald Trump, Kid Rock and Hank Williams Jr., Georgia 41-34.
It was the final exciting chapter of a heated series between the SEC’s undisputed dynasties. The Tide blew a 28-0 lead, needing an acrobatic 75-yard touchdown catch from one freshman (Williams) and a last-second interception from another (Brown) to prevent what would have been a disaster.
On the national stage, in a top-five matchup, the Tide’s two rookies had their coming-out party. Their quarterback, Jalen Milroe, delivered a Heisman Trophy-worthy day. Their defense ultimately did enough. And their coach, Kalen DeBoer, not only picked up his first SEC win, but also a victory over a two-time national coach and former Alabama assistant in Kirby Smart.
It was exciting. Exciting. Explosive. Emotional. A bit tiring too.
DeBoer gave this description early in his postgame press conference: “There’s a lot going on there.”
There’s actually a lot going on.
From leading 28-0 early in the second quarter to trailing 34-33 late in the fourth, DeBoer was three minutes away from a humiliating collapse not long forgotten in these parts. And then, well, then came that rookie duo of Williams and Brown, each wearing the No. 2 jersey. “Two No. 2s,” DeBoer said with a smile.
After Georgia took its first lead of the game with 131 seconds left, Williams nailed that 75-yarder on the very first play of Alabama’s drive. It was something to behold, a back-shoulder fade from Milroe down the sideline that Williams reeled in, much like a returner holding a punt. What happened next was one of the most incredible moves you’ll see from any player this year. He shook two defenders with a 360-degree turn and then charged past them for the score.
“I thought, ‘I can’t be tackled!’” Williams said afterward. “I made a spinning move. It was like slow motion.”
Later, on the Jumbotron, he caught a replay of the spin. It seemed faster. He was sure things were slow on the field.
No, no. There’s nothing sluggish about Ryan Williams, a unanimous five-star prospect from Mobile who was good enough in high school and therefore reclassified from the class of 2025.
“That man always plays with the ball,” Milroe said.
Earlier in the game, he threw himself a pass: one of six catches for 177 yards. Not bad for a kid – yes, kid! — who was born in the year 2007. He won’t turn 18 until February.
But after Williams’ acrobatic catch and that vicious spin, Georgia marched right off the field. The Bulldogs reached the Alabama 20-yard line before Brown stepped in front of quarterback Carson Beck’s back-shoulder attempt into the corner of the end zone.
He grabbed the ball out of the air, just as Williams predicted.
‘I told you! I told you!” Williams barked at him as he returned to the sideline.
During an earlier back-shoulder touchdown at Georgia, Brown turned the wrong way. This time he knew that if Beck tried again, he would be heading in the right direction.
“It doesn’t even feel real to me,” Brown said afterward. “I can’t even remember.”
They won’t soon forget it here: the two number 2s.
The fourth quarter theatrics unfolded after a shocking collapse by the Tide.
Alabama scored touchdowns on its first four possessions and led 28-0 three minutes into the second quarter. The starting quarterback, Milroe, completed his first eleven passes and ran for over 100 yards on his first nine carries. The defense picked off two passes in the first half, forced two punts and led Georgia to safety.
And then, in the second half, it all went wrong. At one point, Beck completed consecutive passes of 67 yards (touchdown), 47 yards, 30 yards, 8 yards (touchdown), 34 yards and 21 yards. He brought the Bulldogs back from what seemed like death. He brought them so close to what their coach longs for.
This seemed like the perfect moment for Smart to get Alabama, as perfect a moment as any.
His team got the annual “wakeup call” against Kentucky two weeks ago; it had a bye week to sort things out; it faced an Alabama team with a quarterback whose season-long inconsistencies actually led to his benching last season; and, oh, perhaps the most important piece of all this: there was no Nick Saban.
Perfect, right? A good time to unleash Alabama’s nearly two decades of Saban-led dominance against UGA, to show the country who really runs the SEC, to illustrate the power of Georgia football, to celebrate the rookie head coach, DeBoer, into the league in its first conference game.
Everything pointed here. It all pointed to this. This was Georgia’s night!
And then, in what felt like a blink of an eye, a snap of the fingers, Smart’s nightmare returned: the Alabama boogeyman.
This time there is no Nick Saban to blame, and no former boss to boss him around on the other end of the phone. Just a 49-year-old, first-year Alabama coach who isn’t from around here.
Let’s admit we were all wondering if sporting director Greg Byrne had made the right hire, if so fit would work – a South Dakotan in the Deep South. And even though we’re only four games in, the fit seems pretty good, like a tailor-made suit: fresh and cool.
From an altitude of 30,000 feet, Saturday’s stunner in Tuscaloosa is remarkable.
Five years ago, DeBoer starred as Indiana’s offensive coordinator in a truly meteoric rise that has led to this: He now has a roster of some of the most talented players in college football at his disposal.
Perhaps the most talented is Milroe, the latest in DeBoer’s recent line of quarterback greatness: Michael Penix at Indiana; Jake Haener at Fresno; Penix again in Washington.
Milroe improves life before his eyes. That back-shoulder 75-yard fade to Williams? He lost that ball earlier this season when the Tide called the play, DeBoer said. Not on this evening. Not when Alabama needed it most.
Milroe became the first player in AP polls history with 300 yards passing, 100 yards rushing and two rushing scores against a top-five opponent. A remarkable statistic perhaps, surpassed by only one of his coaches: DeBoer is 13-1 in his last 14 games against ranked opponents.
“Trust the process,” Milroe said afterward, taking a cue from his former coach.
Of course, he says, it’s “cliché,” but it’s true.
The two, DeBoer and Milroe, argued on the sidelines after Georgia took the lead. They talked about never having any regrets, the coach said. Compete to the end. Fighting through adversity. Bounce back.
And then that 75-year-old got to one of those No. 2s.
“A lot of our plays have opportunities where you find that one-on-one [matchup] and if you like the match, go after it,” DeBoer said.
The coach smiled: “He clearly liked what he saw and went after it.”
