TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Ryan Williams gathered the Alabama receivers Friday night for a bit of video-game playing.
He battled teammates in EA Sports College Football 25, a way to relax a day before kickoff of college football’s biggest game of the season so far: No. 2 Georgia at No. 4 Alabama.
As is often the case, Williams, the Tide’s star 17-year-old receiver, played the video game with his own team. While engrossed in a tight battle with a teammate, Williams furiously moved the pieces on the virtual field using his controller until one of his defensive backs, fellow freshman Zabien Brown, snatched a ball out of the air for a game-sealing interception.
Williams celebrated the victory, and the next day, hours before Alabama played the real game against Georgia, he delivered a message to Brown: You’re gonna get the game-winning pick!
Nailed it.
On Saturday, at Bryant-Denny Stadium, in front of a rocking crowd, former U.S. president Donald Trump, Kid Rock and Hank Williams Jr., Alabama took down Georgia, 41-34.
It was the latest thrilling chapter of a heated series between the SEC’s unquestioned dynasties. The Tide blew a 28-0 lead, needed an acrobatic 75-yard touchdown catch from one freshman (Williams) and a last-second interception from another (Brown) to avoid what would have been a disaster.
On the national stage, in a top-five duel, the Tide’s two rookies had their coming-out party. Their quarterback, Jalen Milroe, put together a Heisman Trophy-worthy day. Their defense did enough in the end. And their coach, Kalen DeBoer, grabbed not only his first SEC victory but a win over a two-time national championship coach and former Alabama assistant in Kirby Smart.
It was exhilarating. Exciting. Explosive. Emotional. A bit exhausting, too.
DeBoer offered this description while beginning his postgame news conference: “A lot happening there.”
A ton happening, in fact.
From up 28-0 early in the second quarter to down 34-33 late in the fourth, DeBoer was three minutes away from a humiliating collapse not long forgotten in these parts. And then, well, then came that rookie duo of Williams and Brown, each of whom dons the No. 2 jersey. “Two No. 2s,” said DeBoer with a smile.
After Georgia took its first lead of the game with 131 seconds left, Williams grabbed that 75-yarder on the very first play of Alabama’s drive. It was something to behold, a back-shoulder fade from Milroe down the sideline that Williams hauled in not unlike a returner corrals a punt. What happened next was one of the most incredible moves you’ll see from any player this year. He shook two defenders with a 360-degree spin and then burst past them for the score.
“I was like, ‘I can’t get tackled!’” Williams said afterward. “I did a spin move. It was like slow motion.”
Later, on the Jumbotron, he caught a replay of the spin. It seemed faster. He was sure that, on the field, it was slow.
No, no. There is nothing slow about Ryan Williams, a unanimous five-star prospect out of Mobile who was good enough in high school that he reclassified from the 2025 class.
“That man is always making a play on the ball,” Milroe said.
Earlier in the game, he tipped a pass to himself — one of six catches for 177 yards. Not bad for a kid — yes, kid! — who was born in the year 2007. He doesn’t turn 18 until February.
But after Williams’ acrobatic catch and that nasty spin, Georgia marched right down the field. The Bulldogs got to the Alabama 20-yard line before Brown stepped in front of quarterback Carson Beck’s back-shoulder attempt toward the corner of the end zone.
He snatched the ball out of the air just as Williams predicted.
“I told you! I told you!” Williams barked toward him as he returned to the sideline.
During an earlier back-shoulder Georgia touchdown, Brown turned the wrong way. This time, he knew if Beck tried again, he’d turn the right way.
“It doesn’t even feel real to me,” Brown said afterward. “I don’t even remember it.”
They won’t soon forget it around here: the two No. 2s.
The fourth-quarter theatrics unfolded after a shocking collapse from the Tide.
Alabama scored touchdowns on its first four possessions and led 28-0 three minutes into the second quarter. Its starting quarterback, Milroe, completed his first 11 passes and ran for more than 100 yards on his first nine carries. Its defense picked off two first-half passes, forced two punts and backed Georgia into a safety.
And then, in the second half, it all fizzled. At one point, Beck completed consecutive passes of 67 yards (touchdown), 47 yards, 30 yards, 8 yards (touchdown), 34 yards and 21 yards. He brought the Bulldogs back from what seemed like death. He brought them so close to what their coach so craves.
This seemed like the perfect time for Smart to get Alabama, as perfect a time as any.
His team two weeks ago got the annual “wakeup call” against Kentucky; it had a bye week to get things fixed; it was facing an Alabama team with a quarterback whose season-long inconsistencies last season actually led to his benching; and, oh, perhaps the most important piece in all of this: There was no Nick Saban.
Perfect, right? A good time to unleash on Alabama the near-two decades of Saban-led dominance against UGA, to show the country who really runs the SEC, to illustrate the force of Georgia football, to introduce the rookie head coach, DeBoer, into the league in his first conference game.
Everything pointed here. It all pointed to this. This was Georgia’s night!
And then, in what felt like the blink of an eye, the snap of fingers, Smart’s nightmare returned: The Alabama boogeyman.
There is no Nick Saban to blame this time, no former boss lording over him on the opposite sideline. Just a 49-year-old, first-year Alabama coach who’s not from ’round here.
We did wonder, all of us, let’s admit, if athletic director Greg Byrne made the right hire, if this fit would work — a South Dakotan in the Deep South. And though we are a mere four games into the tenure, the fit appears quite good, like a fine-tailored suit: crisp and cool.
From a 30,000-foot view, Saturday’s stunner in Tuscaloosa is remarkable.
Five years ago, DeBoer was calling plays as Indiana’s offensive coordinator in a truly meteoric rise that’s led here: He now has at his disposal a roster of some of the most talented tools in college football.
Maybe the most talented is Milroe, the latest in DeBoer’s recent lineage of quarterback greatness: Michael Penix at Indiana; Jake Haener at Fresno; Penix again at Washington.
Milroe is improving live in front of his eyes. That back-shoulder 75-yard fade to Williams? He misplaced that ball earlier this season when the Tide called that play, DeBoer said. Not on this night. Not when Alabama needed it the most.
Milroe became the first player in AP poll history with 300 yards passing, 100 yards rushing and two rushing scores against a top-five opponent. A remarkable stat, perhaps, topped only by one from his coach: DeBoer is 13-1 in his last 14 games against ranked opponents.
“Trusting the process,” Milroe said afterward, pulling a line from his former coach.
Sure, he says, it’s “cliché,” but it’s true.
The two, DeBoer and Milroe, held a discussion on the sideline after Georgia took the lead. They talked about never having regrets, the coach said. Competing to the very end. Fighting through adversity. Bouncing back.
And then came that 75-yarder to one of those No. 2s.
“A lot of our plays have opportunities where you find that one-on-one [matchup] and if you like the matchup, you go after it,” DeBoer said.
The coach broke into a smile: “He obviously liked what he saw and went after it.”