Ryan Williams won’t be 17 anymore when the 2025 Alabama football season begins. The Crimson Tide wide receiver, the most famous minor in college football during his true freshman year, will be facing enormous expectations as a sophomore, with a new quarterback and facing defenses that have plenty of tape on him.

MOBILE, Ala. — Kalen DeBoer knows Alabama football has to be better. Standing outside of Hancock Whitney Stadium for the 2025 Senior Bowl, the Alabama football coach harkened back to his expectation for the Crimson Tide when he first took the job: to perform at a championship level.

Ray Perkins, who started with an 8-4 record in 1983, led the Crimson Tide to a 5-6 record in 1984 with losses to Boston College, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Tennessee and LSU. Alabama entered the season No. 9 in the AP poll, and finished the season unranked.

Jason Jones is now on staff for the Tide, helping coach defensive backs alongside Maurice Linguist, who largely focused on UA’s cornerbacks last season. He’s one of two additions to the staff, along with Chuck Morrell, who got a promotion to inside linebackers coach.

MOBILE, Ala. — Standing outside Hancock Whitney Stadium at the Senior Bowl where former Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe was getting looked at by NFL scouts, Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer spoke glowingly of what was to come for the Crimson Tide at quarterback.

Despite missing the College Football Playoffs in his first year as the Alabama head coach, Kalen DeBoer “actually handled (Year 1) properly from a strategic standpoint,” says college football analyst Josh Pate.