It’s finally here.

After what always feels like an eternity, we’ve arrived at game week — not just for the Alabama Crimson Tide — but for college football as whole, with the SEC back on screens across the Yellowhammer State.

The good news for Tide fans is that, unlike many years when Alabama plays Cupcake State to start the season, they will instead participate in one of the marquee games on the slate in an early road test against the Florida State Seminoles.

Though FSU was, of course, dreadful last season, they are just a year removed from an undefeated regular season in which they were a legitimate title contender before things collapsed for them during playoff selection.

Alabama is favored by roughly two touchdowns as they prepare for the test that will see new quarterback Ty Simpson making his first career start as QB1 for the Tide.

While Simpson is facing a load of pressure of his own, it’s nothing compared to the pressure his head coach arrives to Tallahassee dealing with.

RELATED: AJ McCarron gives advice to Ty Simpson ahead of his debut: ‘Take care of the football’

It would be an understatement to say fans were disappointed by the results in Kalen DeBoer’s first year in Tuscaloosa.

Dropping four games and missing the playoff along with two absolutely humiliating losses, DeBoer knows that it’s ‘put up or shut up’ time this year. He has his quarterback in Simpson and one of the best rosters in the country.

Unfortunately though, he also has an absolutely brutal schedule.

Alabama simply cannot afford to lose this game against Florida State because bouncing back and losing a maximum of just one more game the rest of the way may not be all that realistic.

The days of undefeated seasons are gone in today’s day and age, but the committee said it very clearly last year when they left three SEC teams with three losses out: 10 wins are needed.

Going on the road in a tough environment against a talented team is no cake walk by any means, however it’s a winnable enough game that the Tide simply cannot lose it. If DeBoer were to lead this team to a week one loss, the noise surrounding his job status rather than just the season as a whole will dominate the next several weeks — fair or not.

This is not a schedule to where Alabama can afford to lose a game it is favored by two touchdowns in. Most fans are willing to forgive the results of last year, but any good will is shredded in an instant with a loss this weekend.

DeBoer and his team must take care of business, because the stakes have never been higher.