I’m not sure enough people understand how fortunate Alabama is to have Kalen DeBoer.
The man keeps delivering. He is doing it while carrying the weight of the Alabama job, following the greatest college football coach of all time and being judged against a standard that may never be replicated.
Every Alabama coach is expected to win. DeBoer is expected to win like Nick Saban.
Those are two very different assignments.
What DeBoer has accomplished becomes even more impressive when you recognize one essential truth: This is not the same Alabama job Saban dominated for 17 seasons. It cannot be. The sport has changed too much.
That isn’t a criticism of Saban. Nobody respects what he accomplished more than I do. Six national championships at Alabama, nine SEC titles and a level of sustained dominance we will probably never see again. Saban didn’t merely win within college football. He bent the entire sport to his will.
He built the greatest dynasty the game has ever seen.
But he also understood something before many Alabama fans were ready to admit: The conditions that allowed him to construct that dynasty no longer existed.
Saban did not retire because he had lost his competitive edge or forgotten how to coach. I believe he retired because he recognized that the job—and the sport—had fundamentally changed.
He could still be Nick Saban the coach.
He could no longer build Nick Saban’s Alabama.
That distinction is the key to appreciating what Kalen DeBoer is doing now.
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Why did Nick Saban know it was time to leave—and why couldn’t even the greatest coach in college football history recreate his dynasty in today’s sport?
Let’s talk about what fundamentally changed at Alabama, the advantages that disappeared and why it should make us appreciate Kalen DeBoer even more.
