With two losses, Alabama is already generally viewed as being on the outside of the projected College Football Playoff picture.
A third loss would be fatal to those hopes, and an Alabama captain knows it.
“Our mindset now is that every game is a one-game season,” guard Tyler Booker told The Next Round on Monday morning. “Like, we win or die, essentially. Every game from here on out is must-win. That was our mindset prior, but now it’s real. That’s where our mindset is right now. Win or go home.”
Booker, a junior, was asked by The Next Round to describe the potential of the 2024 team.
“The potential of this team – I wholeheartedly believe that we have the potential to win a national championship this year, but potential is nothing without result,” he said. “We are a decent team with a lot of potential, and we have to continue to tap into that potential, week by week, every day during practice. Even today as we go in and continue to watch film. We have to continue to tap into that potential and reach that maximum potential. Who cares about, ‘Oh, the 2024 Alabama team could have really done something,’ if we haven’t done it.”
In any previous season, two losses would have buried Alabama’s hopes to win a national championship. The Tide still has the seventh-best betting odds to win a national title, buoyed by the new 12-team playoff format. Even if Alabama misses the SEC championship game — and it faces long odds to make a trip to Atlanta — it could earn an at-large bid to the playoff as a two-loss team.
“We never want make losing acceptable, or seen as typical,” Booker said. “Like, OK, the playoff opened up, so we can afford to drop a couple games. No, that’s never our mindset. It’s just, any given Saturday, but we just have to make sure that we’re just on the right side of that any given Saturday statement for the rest of the season.”
