So I asked ChatGPT to give us one:

Tide Meets the Mirror

By Cecil Hurt

TALLAHASSEE — There are losses, and then there are revelations. Alabama’s 31–17 stumble against Florida State on Saturday was not just another August upset. It was a mirror. And in that mirror, the reflection was not flattering.

For all the talk of urgency, of “no excuses,” of second-year cohesion under Kalen DeBoer, the Tide looked like a team playing to survive, not to dominate. The Seminoles, a program that limped through last season, took the fight to Alabama from the first drive and never let go. The final score felt less like a shock than a sentence handed down.

DeBoer stood at the podium afterward and said all the right things. “I choose to believe we’ve got a good football team. There are no excuses.” His sincerity was real. His urgency was palpable. But words, however earnest, cannot patch over a defense gashed for 230 rushing yards or an offense that reached Seminole territory seven times and produced little to show for it.

The numbers tell the cold story. A team that entered with a two-touchdown edge left having ceded more than points—it surrendered belief. Playoff chances, once comfortably over sixty percent, are now whittled down to a sliver. SEC title hopes, already narrow, are barely detectable.

More telling than percentages, though, is the mood in Tuscaloosa. This was supposed to be the season Alabama steadied its hand after transition. Instead, it feels like a program standing in quicksand, staring at its own reputation as it sinks.

DeBoer’s résumé is not in question. He is a coach of substance, with a record of rebuilding and winning. But Alabama is not a rebuilding project. It is a cathedral of expectation. And when you inherit a cathedral, you don’t get time to rearrange the pews…You are expected to fill them.

Patience has never been Alabama’s strong suit. Nick Saban did not build a dynasty on patience; he built it on results, delivered early and often. That is the unfair, unrelenting standard in Tuscaloosa, and DeBoer knew it when he signed the contract.

So here we are: one loss into a season that was supposed to restore order, staring at the possibility that the fit is off. Alabama did not just lose to Florida State. It lost confidence in its direction. The Tide looked into the mirror on Saturday night—and the reflection staring back asked a question DeBoer must answer soon: is he the man to lead this program, or merely the caretaker until someone else does?