This is an opinion column.

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The halfway point of the college football season is here. We’ve seen enough to know that Alabama isn’t trending in the right direction with its new coach. Meanwhile over in Georgia, coach Kirby Smart is breaking bad. The midweek mailbag is nationwide.

Brad in Los Angeles writes …

We’ve heard numerous times during broadcasts how [defensive coordinator] Kane Wommack has brought an NFL defense to Alabama. But isn’t there a reason they don’t run NFL defenses in college? Especially with a nearly all-freshmen defensive backfield?

It was always going to be hard with all these freshmen, and there is much reason to hope that the end of the year might be better than the beginning. But really, was this the right move in any sane calculus of the situation?

I suppose it makes sense if you’re looking to next year or the year after when these guys have got it figured out. But if Bama goes down the tubes on the way to figuring it out, those guys will be gone to the portal, sucking our would-have-been future recruits along with them. I’m not sure today’s world lends itself to the long view. Have our defensive coaches bitten off more than their players can chew?

Andy in Mobile writes …

Love your column as well as your dedication to the craft of writing. Big fan! The thought occurred to me that what we’re dealing with (at UA) this year is the occasional mental phenomenon of playing to our level of competition.

Competition stout? Bring your best game.

Start winning against the big boys early on? Aww, let’s let them back in the game.

Playing a cupcake? Mail it in.

Playing someone in-conference that you’re supposed to beat? Let’s keep it interesting. No one ever says that consciously, of course. It’s just what happens, and it’s 90 percent mental. And to quote Yogi, the other half is coaching.

It’s exciting to watch, unless you’re like all Alabama fans who aren’t interested in “exciting” – we want dominance.

ANSWER: The mailbag is proving to be a valuable community resource for readers, thinkers, schemers and fans. Sagacious observations and insightful questions. For the philosophy scholars among us, Socrates would be impressed. It was he who knew that the best way to learn was by asking questions. I think the best place to start is with the idea that the SEC isn’t the NFL.

The reality of it is that the SEC is more like the NFL than ever before. Not only are the players getting paid, but quarterbacks and defensive captains now have radio capabilities in their helmets to hear play calls from coaches. In addition to that change this season, college football has borrowed two-minute warnings from the NFL and also injury reports. There are other advancements, too.

If the SEC is now a college version of the NFL, then it only goes to reason that the win-loss columns and scoreboards are going to reflect the NFL, too. As former Alabama player Ha Ha Clinton-Dix pointed out last week, Alabama fans just need to be happy with wins at this point because that’s the reality of pro football.

Look at the standings going into Week 7. Thirteen teams already have at least one loss in the league … and Vanderbilt is ahead of Alabama!

SEC defenses borrow plenty of concepts from the NFL, and that trend is only going to continue. But I like the suggestion that Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer and defensive coordinator Wommack might be too ahead of the curve. Remember, teams don’t have to win every game this season to make the playoffs. Some teams will make the playoffs with two losses. As for Alabama, I think the Tide needs to win out after that stunning loss to Vanderbilt, but I wouldn’t mind being wrong on that assessment.

Alabama has been vulnerable to begin the season, but this team is more than capable of making vast improvements from week to week. For that matter, the same is true for Auburn.

I suggested this on the “Beat Everyone” podcast this week, but I’ll double down here: More than anything, it seems like Nick Saban’s players are having a tough time adjusting to DeBoer and Wommack’s styles as motivators.

Take for example Malachi Moore. Why is he backsliding? This is a player who is a two-time captain. Why is throwing tantrums and getting called for personal fouls? What gives? For years and years at Alabama, there have always been players in the defensive secondary who are like Saban clones on the field. Minkah Fitzpatrick was that player. Eddie Jackson was that player. Moore is the last of those players, and he’s clearly not gelling with Wommack.

Earlier this week, Moore was asked a question about how to improve the defense after reviewing film. He said that getting in plays from the sidelines a little faster would help. It felt like a direct shot at the coaching staff.

Dumbing the defense down this season for the transition from Saban to Wommack might have helped, but would that have been the best long-term plan for Alabama? I guess we‘ll see after the trip to Knoxville. They say that defense travels, but Alabama’s stayed at home the last time the Tide went up to Tennessee.

I’m not worried about Alabama’s ability to recruit. Saban was an elite communicator, but these days money talks.

The freshmen will improve. They always do. But, ultimately, Wommack is going to need his own players to get the most out of his defense. That might sound like blasphemy, but the extreme differences in coaching styles between Saban and DeBoer are proving to be a problem for Saban’s players.

Tom in Asheville, N.C., writes …

Thanks for the useful reminder that Nick Saban wasn’t fielding his first team from the survivors of the Bataan Death March. Mike Shula was a good recruiter and left him a strong base. I started ushering at Bama games in 1963 and to me, the biggest differences between 2007 and 2024 are that Saban and DeBoer are different people, and that the conditions surrounding college football are profoundly different. I won’t get into a “bring back the good old days” rant, because that’s a selective trip down memory lane, but Coach DeBoer is coping with a new team that is swimming in new waters as well, both on and off the field.

Some of our problems are the plain vanilla ones of youth, inexperience, injuries, and perhaps recruiting misses. Growing pains of the coaching staff should be mixed in, and, with that, I see a strong team with good potential that has some growing to do. It also appears talent has become evenly spread across all of college football, and that will add to the Tide fan’s anxiety levels. Buckle up and stay tuned!!

ANSWER: I followed up with Tom to make sure he was doing OK after the flooding in Asheville. He said the mental toll of everything has been exhausting. Tom’s house was on higher ground, but cadaver dogs are in the area searching for around 200 missing people. Our thoughts and prayers have been with everyone affected by these storms. Tom said that reading the columns and mailbags have been a nice way to take a break.

Years ago when I was at the Miami Herald, I wrote a column after Alabama’s 2010 BCS National Championship noting that Shula deserved some credit for Alabama’s success that season. Paul Finebaum was still writing for Mobile at the time, and he fired off a column in response. To sum it up, Finebaum didn’t want Shula getting any credit.

Shula is a man of great integrity, and he restored those values at Alabama. For that, he deserves more respect. Here we are at another period of change in Tuscaloosa, and it’s DeBoer’s turn to lead Alabama through a new world. Like Shula, DeBoer seems like a great guy. Is he the right guy for the job, though? I still believe in him. It’s too soon to doubt DeBoer, but if he can’t get Alabama to improve this week, for The Third Saturday in October, then the panic meter will be pegged out at level 10.

I’m still picking Alabama to win the game, though. This is a talented team and quarterback Jalen Milroe remains one of the best players in college football.

Edward somewhere on I-70 writes …

You totally nailed it! My friend and I have never laughed so hard at one of your [columns]. I’m on I-70 between Breckenridge and Denver and were literally trying to keep from driving off of the cliff on both sides of the road. We would love to have ice cream with you and your dogs!

ANSWER: Please kidnap Coach Prime and bring him to the SEC.

Derek writes …

You suggested that [Kirby Smart] faked not remembering and that his only “excuse” was not remembering. And that single excuse lacked credibility. Any straw man you build just to burn down will suffice if your intent is to make it up as you go.

Kirby’s version as accepted by everyone involved and in charge is: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do it, didn’t know I had. I get that it shouldn’t happen.

You have every right to write a story from those objective facts. Maybe everyone at the sec office and in Starkville and in Athens is too permissive. Write that.

Inventing facts, ignoring the actual facts, and extrapolating inferences from the made up facts is journalistic BS. As is your continued obsession with making speed demons into Aaron “double murderer” Hernandez and Chris “it’s time to die [expletive]” Rainey among many others during Meyer’s tenure.

Everyone who gets in criminal trouble at or above the rank of a DUI gets a suspension. Without exception.

ANSWER: Georgia fans have every right to defend their coach, but he was wrong and should have been suspended for shoving Mississippi State quarterback Michael Van Buren, Jr. SEC commish Greg Sankey looks weak and desperate for spinning the facts, but he’s a great lawyer. Remorse for getting caught is not a fact. Not remembering is an unacceptable excuse. Drive your NIL hot rods responsibly, kids.

MAILBAG

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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.”