According to Sagarin, Alabama has played the #5 SoS thus far. I read elsewhere Alabama's remaining schedule is the 7th toughest. That's combining two SoS calculations but it should easily end up as a top 5 most difficult schedule.
This is a trial by fire. The upside is Alabama has a 69% chance of making the playoff according to FPI and even with another loss, Alabama would coast into the playoffs. They could even have a case with 3 losses, given this schedule is tougher than last year and the committee is supposed to have some sort of " record strength" metric for this year.
Georgia is one of the few teams in college football capable of physically matching up with Alabama. Other teams might have more skill, be more disciplined, have better schemes, but usually when Alabama steps onto the field they are bigger, faster, and stronger. Georgia could match that in every area and on top of that it was probably the most hostile environment Alabama will play in this year.
Tennessee, Oklahoma, and LSU might have the athletes to hang, but they're at home. Missouri and South Carolina are on the road, but they can't match up physically in the same fashion. Then there's Vanderbilt. That's a heck of a list but on an individual basis, those are all arguably more winnable games than the Georgia game. If DeBoer can build off of that performance and show continued improvement, he can make the playoffs and if he makes the playoffs with that schedule his job is safe for the foreseeable future.
