There's a rare moment behind the scenes of Nick Saban's Alabama football program that remains on the internet. It's Saban, speaking to his 2017 team moments before the national championship game against Georgia.
The man who would win that game, along with five other national titles in Tuscaloosa, was reassuring his squad about its place in the college football universe.
"This game is all about what we do," Saban said. "It's all about us, just like it's been all year long."
For nearly two decades, he was correct on a grand scale. College football was about what Alabama did.
Even in Kalen DeBoer's first season, the center of the sport remained in Tuscaloosa. Then came the start of the 2025 campaign.
"It wasn't about Alabama tonight," Florida State head coach Mike Norvell said Saturday after his team finished embarrassing the Crimson Tide in a 31-17 victory. "It was about us."
Maybe the flags were the first sign of trouble. As Alabama players left the tunnel to begin DeBoer's second season in charge after succeeding Saban, they were accompanied by two of them, one white, one crimson.
Both were upside down. Inconsequential to the outcome, but indicative of mistakes left uncorrected until it was too late.
That was the game in a nutshell. The Crimson Tide came out looking improved, beginning with a 16-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a touchdown and took 8:50 off the game clock.
Last year's Alabama team had trouble sustaining drives, so chalk it up as an encouraging sign. That was the last one though.
After an offseason where the Tide's coaches and players signaled a return to the heights of the Saban era was close, it turned out that all the 2024 issues were back.
UA had penalty problems, organization problems and execution problems. It couldn't stop a sawed-off mobile quarterback in Tommy Castellanos.
It was rare for anyone to feel comfortable trash-talking Saban's Alabama program. When Vanderbilt's Nifae Lealao did it in 2017, it worked out poorly, and the Commodores went down 59-0.
Castellanos felt emboldened before even playing a game for the Seminoles after he came in from Boston College.
"I dreamed of playing against Alabama," Castellanos told On3 in June. "They don't have Nick Saban to save them. I just don't see them stopping me."
Alabama players swore up and down, beginning at SEC media days, that "all disrespect will be addressed." Then, Castellanos and Gus Malzahn, the former Auburn head coach who's the offensive coordinator in Tallahassee now, gave the Crimson Tide fits.
Instead of fixing the problems that caused Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia and Oklahoma's Jackson Arnold to lead their teams to upset wins last year, Alabama watched it happen again. "Watched" is probably the correct verbiage too, with players visibly seeming to quit on plays at times.
Malzahn and Castellanos both cut promos on Alabama after the game, the coach via social media, his quarterback by putting catchphrase T-shirts on sale.
Florida State even did its best to let Alabama back in the game. The Seminoles had trouble closing in the second half, but the Crimson Tide couldn't ever capitalize, failing to sustain just like last year.
"That's the thing that is frustrating," DeBoer said, with FSU fans performing the War Chant within earshot of his postgame press conference. "You win the game, and you look at those drives, and you're saying, 'Hey, there's first downs that you're piecing together. You're giving yourself chances.' But when you lose the game, you look at it, and you gotta understand that there's gotta be a competitive stamina."
The players who were supposed to be difference-makers simply weren't on Saturday. Ryan Williams was invisible before his late-game concussion. Kadyn Proctor allowed more pressures than any of the Tide's other offensive linemen. Two veteran inside linebackers, Deontae Lawson and Justin Jefferson, both looked lost.
Florida State beat Alabama in all three phases of the game. The team that went 2-10 last season and rebuilt in desperate fashion via the transfer portal took down what was supposed to be the sport's Tiffany program, and didn't leave any doubt as to the better squad.
"They've done extremely well throughout the years, and the guys that that we competed against," Norvell said. "But my focus, not at one point, was ever about them. It was just about this team going to be what I believed it could."
Saban almost never lost games like this. He went 124-4 vs. unranked opponents.
DeBoer has equaled those four losses in one season and one game. It's raising serious questions about program discipline, certainly not a place Alabama wanted to be with plenty of losable games still ahead.
"I think we got a little complacent and thought we won it in the first drive," quarterback Ty Simpson said. "That's not how it is. Credit to those guys. They played hard for four quarters, and we kind of took it for granted."
At least Alabama was still worth rushing the field against, at least one more time. A security worker at field level wasn't sure whether Florida State fans would even think it was worth it.
The goalposts at Doak Campbell Stadium survived at least. After the clock hit zero, fans spilled out onto the playing surface but seemed more interested in celebrating their team being back than the demise of the Alabama dynasty.
"We're so back," one shirtless reveler yelled into an iPhone in the midst of the chaos as the sky opened and rain dumped onto the mosh pit. "This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, mama."
There surely was some animosity toward the Crimson Tide, as FSU fans haven't forgotten their undefeated 2023 squad that got snubbed for a playoff spot in favor of one-loss UA. Or that Norvell was reportedly the other finalist for the job DeBoer, now dejectedly walking through the crowd with an assist from security, landed after Saban retired.
Still, the focus of the scrum was much more focused on their team's revival, as opposed to Alabama's misfortune. That's in stark contrast to the crowds at Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma last year, which offered much more vitriol at field level.
There likely won't be a field rush if Alabama falls at Georgia in its next road game. The Bulldogs have never incurred an SEC fine for their fans storming the field, and Kirby Smart's team will likely be favored.
"We're not gonna live in regret," DeBoer said after the loss. "Not gonna live in regret. We gotta go fix it and be better because of it."
Nice words, for sure. But until they're put into action, Alabama isn't the program college football centers on anymore.
"The ultimate disrespect is when somebody takes what's yours," Saban said before his Tide beat Smart's Georgia for his second-to-last title.
As of Saturday, what was once the Tide's divine right is gone. And just ask Nebraska, Tennessee and Miami- it's hard to get back.