This is an opinion column.

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Happy New Year everyone, and even Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, who was hired to coach the Crimson Tide in T-shirts in the year after Nick Saban retired.

DeBoer should begin the New Year by burning every piece of clothing he wore on the sidelines in 2024. He needs a new look in 2025, and those black hoodies gotta go. It wasn’t the shirts that caused Alabama to look like drunk sailors on shore leave down at the Tampa bowl game, though, but rather the shoes.

These are very confusing times for college football.

Vanderbilt, for example, is already talking about winning the SEC in 2025. Then there’s Alabama, which is so awful these days that the team couldn’t even bother to wear the correct footwear against Michigan.

Playing in flip-flops in the mud and rain, Alabama slipped and slid and sloshed and goofed its way to a 19-13 loss to the Wolverines in the New Year’s Eve ReliaQuest Bowl. Back when Saban coached Alabama, the Crimson Tide was prepared for every possible scenario on game day. The new coach can’t even bother to properly dress himself or his team.

The game started in a downpour and it’s like Alabama had never played in the rain. Quarterback Jalen Milroe had three turnovers in Alabama’s first 10 plays. DeBoer looked like a wet cat on the sideline.

Remember when Alabama football was something to be feared? All Alabama is good for these days is making the Big Ten look like the NFC North.

The good college football teams play on New Year’s Day. Texas and Arizona State (noon). Ohio State and Oregon (4 p.m.). Notre Dame and Georgia (7:45 p.m.). For everyone wondering, Alabama’s ReliaQuest Bowl was the old Outback Bowl. The name might have changed, but it’s still the place the SEC sends its overrated teams that cried and cried about being left out of the College Football Playoff.

The CFP corruption committee got it right with Alabama, though. The Crimson Tide didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs after that loss to Oklahoma. DeBoer should have benched Milroe against Oklahoma and Milroe played even worse against Michigan. How did he regress so badly in 2024? Is DeBoer to blame? Offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan? In the end, Milroe finished the season with more interceptions (10) than Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne (nine).

Hopefully things will be better for Milroe next season whether that’s back at Alabama, at another school or in the NFL. Officially, Milroe has been non-committal about his future. He played like he was already out the door in 2024.

When I watched Alabama football last year — like I tried my best to do on Tuesday without screaming — it’s like I was looking at an old Auburn team coached by Gus Malzahn.

Terrible one minute.

Beautiful the next.

Tying my stomach into knots for four hours.

And then frustration at the end of the season.

No one really knows what to think about coach DeBoer after his first season at Alabama. He was gifted a roster that Saban would have put in the playoffs. Instead, Alabama was sloppy, predictable and unprepared. The grace period is over, though. DeBoer begins 2025 on the hot seat after his introduction to the SEC. He hasn’t proven anything and no one in Tuscaloosa cares anymore that he won a couple games in the old Pac-12.

Who will be Alabama’s quarterback in 2025? It’s one of the biggest questions in college football this offseason. Ty Simpson? Austin Mack? If those quarterbacks were any good, then wouldn’t they have played over Milroe at some point this season?

Incoming freshman Keelon Russell is highly rated, but no one can expect someone so inexperienced to be ready for the SEC. DeBoer certainly wasn’t ready for the big time, and all he did in 2024 was squander away the mystique of Alabama football.

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Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”