DeBoer knows winning, but does he know pressure? We will soon find out
There were flashier names: Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, Florida State’s Mike Norvell.
Alabama got the right name though.
Kalen DeBoer is not as nationally known. The common SEC fan might mispronounce his name at first but the former Washington coach was the best option for the Crimson Tide for a few reasons.
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First, DeBoer is a bigger winner than anybody on the list. He’s been the head coach in 116 football games and won 104 of them. He was 67-3 at Sioux Falls. He was 25-3 in two seasons with the Huskies, the best two seasons in program history.
If you don’t think winning is a skill, you’re foolish. Rounding up, DeBoer has won 90 percent of his games. By no means am I comparing him to Nick Saban (there is no comparison to the greatest college football coach of all time) but Saban won around 87 percent at Alabama, 80 percent in his career.
Combine DeBoer’s ability to win football games with Alabama’s talent and that’s a perfect set-up.
There will certainly be challenges – and pressure.
Winning at Sioux Falls and Washington is not like it will be winning in the SEC. Saban’s wild, incredible success will be a challenge. Winning 10 games is nice, taking your team to the conference championship is nice but that’s not the standard at Alabama. It’s national championships or bust from here on out. The Crimson Tide reached No. 1 in the rankings in every year under Saban except his first and his last, just mind-boggling to consider.
The SEC is a meat grinder like DeBoer has never seen. Just ask Jimbo Fisher, who was a massive disappointment at Texas A&M and got sent out of town on stacks of $100 bills but he’s not coaching there anymore.
Let DeBoer go 9-3 in his first season and the Alabama faithful will go ballistic. The calls to the Paul Finebaum Show will be more unhinged than normal. “Legend” will go into cardiac arrest. Saban retired and fans were putting presents outside his statue like he passed away. It just means more? No, it means everything.
Washington fans tailgated on boats outside the stadium – many of them Amazon and Microsoft execs – sipping their pinot and eating artisan cheese. On Alabama sports talk radio, they’ll be breaking down the spring practice depth chart in no time.
There’s another factor here that needs to be heartily considered and it’s probably one major reason why Saban said adios at 72 years old.
The entire college football landscape has changed. The transfer portal has actually flattened any competitive advantage as Louisville, Colorado, Ole Miss and others are showing with transfer portal additions, many of them former five- and four-stars.
That’s a messy game that goes far beyond traditional means of recruiting high school athletes and it will be a challenge for DeBoer to negotiate through at Alabama.
And let’s also consider NIL. There were stories of elite – and some not-so-elite – recruits going into Saban’s office and asking (ahem, demanding) a certain price. Saban didn’t show a particular interest in it so many of those players went elsewhere.
But DeBoer has to embrace the changing recruiting picture of the transfer portal and NIL or possibly get left behind in the New World Order. And he has to do it in the SEC where chasing a bag literally means chasing a bag.
“Paul, I don’t know,” legendary coach Steve Spurrier said on the Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday. “I would hate to recommend a guy go take it because you can’t do as well as the coach before you. You’re not going to do that well.
“So maybe you get a contract that says if we win nine a year we’re in pretty good shape. I don’t think Alabama fans will go for that.”
No, they won’t.
Alabama enters an uncertain present here. Saban is gone but the highest expectations remain. The best thing to ever happen to Sarkisian was the frustrating years of Tom Herman and Charlie Strong. The best thing for Norvell was taking over from Willie Taggart when things couldn’t get worse. At Alabama, they can’t get much better.
The world of college football is changing through NIL, transfer portal and its ramifications on recruiting.
But one thing is certain: Alabama hired a winner. A big-time winner. And while he doesn’t have the flash of some others he certainly has the substance.