Grade the take: Alabama legend blasts Kalen DeBoer and wants Tide to miss CFP

After Alabama watched its College Football Playoff hopes potentially go up in smoke in a shockingly ugly 24-3 loss to Oklahoma on Saturday, it's safe to say that the knives are out for Kalen DeBoer. The Tide hadn't lost three games in a season since 2010, and while there was plenty of attrition over the offseason, this team looks like it's taken a step back on both sides of the ball. For a program and a fan base that's become accustomed to competing for national titles and owning the SEC, it's been a tough adjustment.

And if DeBoer thought that fan base would meet that adjustment with patience and understanding, he's quickly learned just how naive that was. And it's not just your average Alabama fans who are letting the first-year head coach hear it: Even program legends have come out guns blazing this week, including a former Heisman Trophy winner who thinks this team should already be thrown out of the CFP conversation.

Alabama legend Mark Ingram wants Tide to miss College Football Playoff

Appearing on the Triple Option Podcast on Wednesday, former Tide running back Mark Ingram did not hold back when asked what he thought of his alma mater's recent performance.

"That [Oklahoma] loss was atrocious," Ingram said. the Heisman Trophy winner in 2009. "Like, to have your season on the line, the SEC championship on the line, the CFP on the line and to go lay an egg when you have everything on the line like that is devastating. It's a devastating loss."

"We knew that there would be some change coming with Coach DeBoer. There's always change when a new head coach takes over. But when you inherit that kind of roster and when you're in the position that you're in to capitalize and be able to go to the CFP, that was very much attainable."

It's hard to find too much fault with what Ingram said. DeBoer had won everywhere he'd been in his career, and his developmental and offensive prowess was the reason he landed the Alabama job in the first place. He did have to do some roster rebuilding on the fly over the winter given the unfortunate timing of Nick Saban's retirement, but the cupboard was hardly bare.

But Jalen Milroe seems even more scattershot than he was last season. And some of the mistakes the Tide have made, particularly in the losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, are inexcusable for a team with the sort of ambition that Alabama should have. This team can look like a national title contender one minute and a team scratching for bowl eligibility the next, and if they do in fact wind up on the wrong side of the CFP bracket, Ingram thinks it's exactly what they deserve.

"They don't deserve to the go the playoff because of how they've been playing," Ingram said. "That was terrible. To have your season on the line — the conference championship, the CFP, all ahead of you — and to go lay an egg like that on the road. Three turnovers, no response for the quarterback run. They ran for over 200 rush yards on us. That was just awful, man. That was terrible."

Again, a small step back this year was understandable, and recruiting is still going well. DeBoer's track record is outstanding, and history (and infrastructure) suggest that he's going to figure this out sooner rather than later. But if he didn't already know, he's learned the hard way just how quickly things can turn when you're the head coach in Tuscaloosa.