ADMIRE THE BONES OF KALEN DEBOER: HE SUCCEEDS NICK SABAN WITH NO FEAR
No one knew his name three years ago, or even during Washington’s run to the national title game, but the coach has sprung from NAIA ball to the biggest job challenge in college football history
A mingling of fact and fantasy, the font of surrealism, doesn’t show how rapidly this passage robbed time. Not too long ago, Kalen DeBoer was telling the athletic director at the University of Sioux Falls that he wasn’t eager to seek the big time in football coaching. Willie Sanchez even threatened to fire him, jokingly, because the homespun kid needed a career push.
Saturday, DeBoer made the rush from NAIA ball in South Dakota to the biggest occupational challenge in college football history. He’ll replace Nick Saban, he of seven national championships and a 206-29 record at Alabama, and will be firmly expected to continue almost two decades of dominance. Honestly, did anybody beyond the media’s insider grind know his name three years ago? Even when he directed Washington to the national championship game, didn’t we make sure his name was spelled correctly?
He has it in his bones to take over the model program, within a sport that has altered internally as quickly as he has. Can DeBoer, whose only previous contact with Tuscaloosa was a 41-10 loss as a Fresno State offensive coordinator in 2017, rush into a new region and take over recruiting while maintaining Alabama’s aura? It’s simple to say yes until realizing Texas and Oklahoma enter the Southeastern Conference, making it difficult to do what Saban did almost every year: Enter the College Football Playoff’s final four that becomes a 12-team postseason. Georgia, LSU, Mississippi, Tennessee and Missouri aren’t going anywhere with expansion. What if DeBoer, with Kirby Smart breathing down his neck, turns into Ray Perkins, who replaced Bear Bryant and was fired after a 32-15-1 record? Won’t his rivals turn him into some Northern misfit who keeps moving from one job to another?
On the fast track to fame, he won’t talk about infamy. “When I look at places I want to be, it’s about winning championships,” DeBoer said at a news conference. “That’s the expectation, and I expect that as a privilege to try to uphold. I felt confident enough in my abilities. I knew this was the right move. I knew this was a thing that, not that I had to do it, but that I really wanted to do. That’s along with knowing that you have someone who wants this program to be so successful.”
Imagine a presence who will be a phone call away at any time. If Saban didn’t make the hire, he certainly approved the ascension of a younger man, 49, who inherited the South as he did, from the Midwest and his West Virginia childhood. “He’s the best in the business to ever do it. I’m just going to make sure that’s all known, that’s how I feel,” DeBoer said. “And 100 percent access to everything. I would be a fool if that wasn’t the case. I would be a fool. I’m going to ask him and make sure he gives me at least one thing every day. I firmly believe that he wants nothing but the best. Some people when they leave, it’s like, ‘Eh, I want to be that legend and I don’t want it to be as good as it was when I was there.’ That’s obviously not the case. He wants things to be even better.”
When athletic director Greg Byrne flew around the country to find a successor after Saban’s announcement Wednesday, he told Alabama’s players that he’d have a new coach within three days. It took two. He made contact with major names — Steve Sarkisian at Texas, Dan Lanning at Oregon and Mike Norvell at Florida State — but he had DeBoer in mind and forced the others to reaffirm their current spots, some with lucrative raises. Byrne called Saban repeatedly and said, “Shame on me if I didn’t want to do that.”
Does he not realize someone who wants to succeed Saban might be entering tough territory? “As I thought about it over the years,” Byrne said, “one of the things I thought about was, you’d better have somebody who’s comfortable in their own skin and looks at this as a challenge and an opportunity, not as a detriment.”
In a swirl of regal coaching activity — Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll fired in the NFL, Saban resigning atop the college game — it was remarkable to see DeBoer providing fist bumps to fans at the Tuscaloosa airport only days after losing to Michigan in the title game. Unlike the professional greats, DeBoer is replacing someone on top of his game at 72. How will he convince players with Southern roots that he’ll swoop in and maintain the magnitude?
“When I think about different words, one of them is ‘embrace.’ And I think you get the sense that embracing the tradition, it’s something that’s very special to me,” DeBoer said. “I want you to know that as a community, everyone here, I can’t wait for my family and I to embrace you. I don’t have to look much past last night when we flew in and the welcome and reception was there. It was so awesome. It was not overwhelming, but it was very close to it and I appreciate that.
“I also want to make sure our alumni know that I’ll embrace them and that this will always be their place, this will always be their home. I know that so many have gone through and played for Coach Saban and that should not change as far as how they feel about this place and we need you. The investment hours that have been put in by me compared to what has made this place, what it is for me, it’s very little. I want to learn the stories. I want to learn all the great moments. I know many of them I’ve watched from afar, but I know there’s so many behind the scenes and things that are just important to the tradition and the alumni and can’t wait to have you here and hear all your great stories along the way.”
Backing everything the new man said, Saban made an immediate statement. “I want nothing more than to see Alabama Football continue to be successful, and Coach DeBoer is an outstanding choice to lead this program,” he said. “He has a proven track record of success and is one of the brightest football minds. Coach DeBoer has an excellent understanding of what it takes to be a successful head coach, whether it’s coaching, recruiting, developing players, or building a culture. He has done a fantastic job at every stop of his coaching career, and I am excited to see what he will be able to accomplish in Tuscaloosa. Terry and I will be here to support Coach DeBoer and his family with anything they need.”
Meaning his wife, Terry.
So why leave Washington, which will have an impressive Big Ten presence in Seattle, for the SEC? Isn’t this a huge swat for a conference that didn’t reach the championship game, stealing a hotshot away? Saban and Alabama answered that question. “People ask, ‘Why would you go to Alabama?’ Well, I think there’s a lot of really obvious answers, right? And I’ve touched on that when it comes to tradition and the history of the program, it’s second to none,” DeBoer said. “And when I look at the places I want to be, it’s about winning championships. That’s an expectation I cannot wait to accept. It’s an expectation and a love and an interest that I’ve always had and a passion that I’ll have and looking forward to carrying on with our players, our staff and all of you here.”
Even he knows this is happening at breakneck speed. Kalen who? “I know this is happening fast and I can’t say enough about the trust you have in me,” he told Byrne. “There are so many championships here. We’re going to strive to make this thing better all together.”
Sometimes, massive hires work out. Sometimes, they don’t. If it’s surreal now, wait until Sept. 28, when Kalen DeBoer faces Georgia at Bryant-Denny Stadium, with Nick Saban’s statue outside.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.