Alabama football finds itself looking for answers and trying to stop sliding.

Each game, the Crimson Tide looks less and less like the team that dominated the first half against Georgia at the end of September.

The latest example: Alabama‘s 24-17 loss to Tennessee on Saturday at Neyland Stadium. It marked the second loss in the past three games for the Crimson Tide.

It‘s also the first time since 2007 that Alabama has lost twice before November; that was Nick Saban’s first season coaching the Crimson Tide.

The last question of Kalen DeBoer’s press conference after the game, the Alabama coach was asked what his message to the fans would be. He then shared the message to the players and the fans.

“I told the guys, the message to them is, get back after it,” DeBoer said. “Get to work. First of all, do some soul searching. Look inward. I know there’s enough guys that still believe. That still want to go do what we want to do. There’s a lot of season left for not just us but everyone. It’s going to go fast if we don’t take advantage. That urgency has got to be there.”

Next up, Alabama will play Missouri at home for its homecoming game next Saturday.

“But we’ve got to go to work first before we play that game and find a way to take the next big jump,” DeBoer said.

He added that Alabama is falling short of right now of making the plays to go win. DeBoer wants his group to “make sure our minds are right.”

“Make sure our hearts are in the right place,” DeBoer said. “And then all I know is you just go back to work. That’s the only thing you can do. That’s what we’ve always done. That’s what these guys, just having a talk in the locker room, I really firmly believe that’s what they want to do too.”

Here’s where the message to the fans popped into his answer.

“Don’t lose belief in these guys because there’s a lot of guys making some big sacrifices in ways that you’ll never know,” DeBoer said. “People will never know, because they just keep plugging away. It might be physical things and stuff like that, but they’re working hard and they have a lot of pride in who they are individually in who we are as Alabama.”

And then DeBoer’s press conference ended. DeBoer walked out of the room underneath Neyland Stadium to start preparing for next week, as Alabama tries to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.