Kalen DeBoer, the new head coach of Alabama, makes his opening remarks during an NCAA college football game. All rights reserved by The Associated Press, 2024. RESERVE ALL RIGHTS.
Over the most of his head coaching tenure, Kalen DeBoer has won almost all of his games in underappreciated positions. DeBoer, who will turn 50 in October, wasn’t well-known throughout the country until he guided Washington to the College Football Playoff championship game the previous year.
Now that Alabama hired him on Friday to replace the late, great Nick Saban, DeBoer will be in the public eye more often. In complete contrast. Whether it is fair or not, he will be assessed by comparing him to the exceedingly high bar that Saban set.
Saban guided the Crimson Tide to a 201-29 record (87.4% winning percentage) and a record six national titles during his 17 years at Alabama. He had nine seasons in which Alabama participated in the national championship game compared to eight seasons in which they did not. No. was Alabama.
During Saban’s tenure, the team ranked number one in the Associated Press poll for 109 weeks, which is more than any other program since the poll’s inception in 1936. Despite competing in the top conference in the country, the Southeastern Conference, the Crimson Tide managed to achieve all of that.
Most people agree that Nick Saban is the greatest college football coach in history.
DeBoer might not be as well-known as Saban or any other well-known coaches, such as Kirby Smart of Georgia, Jim Harbaugh of Michigan, or Dabo Swinney of Clemson.
DeBoer does, however, have a remarkable resume—albeit a unique one. As a player at the University of Sioux Falls, he was the 1996 NAIA national champion. Later, in his five seasons as head coach at his alma institution, he finished 67-3.
DeBoer joined Southern Illinois, a Football Championship Subdivision club, in 2010 as the offensive coordinator. Afterwards, he worked as offensive coordinators at Eastern Michigan, Indiana, and Fresno State. In 2020, Fresno State appointed him as head coach.
After leading Fresno State to a 9-3 record, DeBoer left to take a position at Washington, which had just finished a 4-8 season, in November 2021. After two seasons under DeBoer, the Huskies finished 11-2 and 14-1. Before falling to Michigan, the club that had defeated Alabama in the semifinals, in last week’s CFP championship game, they had won 21 straight games.
Alabama is still a legendary program with a devoted fan base and a strong financial position even without Saban. According to AL.com, the Crimson Tide football program made a record $130.9 million and profited $52.3 million from July 2021 to June 2022, the latest numbers available.
With those kinds of numbers, it makes sense why DeBoer accepted the Alabama position. The Crimson Tide has not disclosed any information regarding his deal, but he will probably receive a large salary as well.
DeBoer will still be in a position of pressure, though, as winning national titles or at least being considered for a championship is now the standard. However, it is irrational to expect DeBoer—or anybody—to have the same track record as Saban.
After all, starting with the 2024 football season, Texas and Oklahoma will join an already powerful SEC. The next autumn, Alabama will play Tennessee (No. 17), LSU (No. 14), Georgia (No. 1 in ESPN’s preliminary rankings), and Missouri (No. 8). Fourth place in those rankings goes to the Crimson Tide.
And while Alabama is perhaps the most reliable pick in college football to compete for national titles and CFP spots, things weren’t always that way when Nick Saban took over in January 2007.
Coach Gene Stallings resigned in 1996 during an NCAA investigation, four years after guiding the Crimson Tide to a 13-0 record and a national championship. As a result, Alabama lost scholarships and wins.
Ten years after Stallings left and Saban took over, Alabama hired three coaches: Mike Shula, who completed four seasons with a 26-23 record, Dennis Franchione, who lasted two years with a 17-8 record before accepting a position at Texas A&M, and Mike DuBose, who finished four years with a 24-23 record. Both Shula and DuBose were fired, and neither held a head coaching post before to nor following their time at Alabama. Only three times throughout that ten-year period did Alabama conclude the season ranked in the AP poll.
In the last 30 years, there have been numerous cases where once-dominant programs have struggled following the departure of a renowned coach. For example, Nebraska won three national titles in four years (1994, 1995, and 1997) under coach Tom Osborne’s tenure, which ended after the 1997 campaign. Under Frank Solich, Osborne’s replacement, the Cornhuskers enjoyed a few successful seasons, placing in the top 10 of the AP poll in 1999, 2000, and 2001. However, Nebraska has only placed in the top 25 six times in the previous 22 seasons, and not since it was 25th in 2012.
One more instance? Between 2002 and 2008, USC finished in the top four of the final AP poll seven times in a row. The team won back-to-back national titles in 2003 and 2004. However, the Trojans have only finished the season ranked in the top 25 seven times since coach Pete Carroll left in 2009, and they have never made the CFP.
It’s unlikely that Alabama will fall to the same levels as it did in the ten years prior to Saban under DeBoer’s leadership. Everywhere DeBoer has gone, he has been successful, and Alabama’s infrastructure is far superior now than it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
But what will Alabama’s government expect from DeBoer is the question. Starting with the upcoming season, the Crimson Tide ought to be a constant contender for the 12-team CFP field that has been extended. However, it is nearly inconceivable to expect DeBoer to perform as Saban did—that is, to make it to nine national title games and win six of them.
