Alabama football’s Florida State opener could define its 2025 season

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ATLANTA — Kadyn Proctor knows what Florida State quarterback Thomas Castellanos said. And he’s not giving in. 

It’s outside of Alabama football’s overall focus, he said, one that is set on the day-to-day, the current moment. The Crimson Tide hasn’t made it to fall camp yet, Proctor said. 

“We’re not really giving into whatever anybody else is saying,” Proctor said at SEC media days. “It’s all internal. Keeping it in house.” 

Kalen DeBoer knows how big Alabama’s opener against Florida State is. 

It’s the only game the Crimson Tide coach brought up unprompted. It’s a test against a team that has “something to prove, as well.” It’s a true road game, a setting Alabama struggled with in its first year of the DeBoer era with losses to Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Oklahoma away from Tuscaloosa. 

But to DeBoer, it all boils down to one simple reality: Florida State is first up for Alabama. It’s the opponent currently in the way of each of the Crimson Tides 2025 hopes. 

“We don’t need to look anything beyond that as far as our preparation or what might lie because none of it matters unless we take care of business and do what we’re doing, being our best in that week one game against Florida State,” DeBoer said.

For fifth-year defensive lineman Tim Keenan III, Florida State is Alabama’s first chance to debut the new-and-improved Crimson Tide: one that is dominant, that plays to the whistle, that gives opponents a beating. 

“Just taking it to the next man the best we can, as hard as we can,” Keenan said. 

It’s what Alabama did not do in 2024, falling to both the…


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Publish date : 2025-07-17 09:05:00

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