Alabama football’s streak of 10-win seasons that began in 2008 was snapped on Tuesday, when the Crimson Tide suffered an upset loss to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The loss showed striking similarities to two of UA’s regular-season defeats, to less-talented Vanderbilt and Oklahoma teams.

The Crimson Tide missed the College Football Playoff, didn’t play in the SEC championship game and couldn’t win its bowl, finishing the year 9-4 in Kalen DeBoer’s first year in charge. Not quite the standard set by Nick Saban.

After the game, DeBoer discussed whether the 2024 season was a success.

“Every time you’re in the locker room and you have something like this, it’s disappointing,” DeBoer said. “But I think there’s a lot of things that you take from it.”

DeBoer took over for Saban when the man who won six national championships in Tuscaloosa retired in January. He battled through a lengthy transfer portal window where Saban’s players had the option to leave the portal, and built a staff quickly after most schools were already done on that front.

He made sure to praise the players who stuck around at Alabama and comprised the 2024 team.

“They stayed the course,” DeBoer said. “There’s a whole lot more I just think that really goes into the last 12 months. People see what happens on a Saturday, but it’s guys choosing to stay here. Guys choosing to go from one week to the next when we’re on a little bit of a roller coaster through the middle of the season. As long as we learn from it, then, to me, it can be a success moving forward.”

Keeping that promise will involve doing what DeBoer said would make the Tide’s worst season since Saban’s first a success. Alabama struggled with consistency all year, one week beating Georgia or LSU, the next falling to Vanderbilt or Oklahoma.

The Tide has to let the lessons soak in.

“There’s some things that happened in the game today too, that we gotta learn from and make sure that those mistakes don’t hurt us a year from now,” DeBoer said. “I don’t care if it’s turnovers, penalties, it’s everything. So, to me, it’s a success if we move forward and we take advantage of the lessons, even though we don’t want to learn those lessons sometimes, right? Because they’re hard.

“We’re gonna learn those lessons and move forward and be better next year because of it.”

Alabama opens the 2025 season at Florida State on Aug. 30.