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Alabama Football - Now Featuring Kalen DeBoer


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8 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

Seemed sort of hostile that I must be some kind of genetically deficient human to have failed to grasp the importance of Pat McAfee nor even know his name. Okay, maybe I read too much into it.

I remain unfamiliar with McAfee. I meant merely to be pointed rather than hostile. Apologies if I missed the mark. 

No problem. I was just surprised and reacted to your SEC dumbness statement. I feel like the college football world is saturated with McAfee right now. 

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59 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

McAfee is also a polarizing figure on Gameday as well. I think he’s great, but a lot of old guys, at heart, at least, want him off of their Saturday morning lawns. Check out the next Gameday to probably be disgusted. 

I was ambivalent on him, mostly because I don't watch gameday or his show, but since he got hilariously wasted in Ireland week zero during his show, he's leaned positive 

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On 12/19/2024 at 12:51 PM, HenryJames said:

Kneeland Hibbett is the most Alabama name ever.

Not bad. Extra credit if it's his grandaddy's last name so he's carrying it around like a geneological signpost.

His girlfriend will be some variation on Mary Margaret Claire duBose Honeycutt (extra names depending on how short she is.)

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On 12/19/2024 at 12:23 PM, Pimphand said:

 

I guess everyone knows that Alabama AD Greg Byrne is the son of ex Nebraska, ex TAMU AD BIL Byrne. Oh, how I miss Bill Byrne’s weekly missives to the Aggie faithful, updating them on the climb to supremacy and the eternal struggle against their “friends to the west” (that would be us, and no, he really didn’t mean ‘friends’)

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2 hours ago, closetojumping said:

 just published a book with Armen Ketayan called “The Price” about staying competitive in today’s CFB landscape. 

 

Its a good book - I read it about a month ago.  Def mentions the "Saban discount" that gets discussed here - and the exponential increase in bankroll required, and a bunch of other stuff like a whole chapter on Jimbo LOL.  Not a ton of net new content for those that are active daily on forums, but good compilation.

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Ari Wasserman: Kalen DeBoer aced his Year 1 test of replacing Nick Saban, despite missing the playoffs

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The first round of the College Football Playoff featured four matchups and three of the four were blowouts, so of course there was national discourse about Alabama and the SEC during the games. The reality, uncomfortable or not, was Alabama didn’t belong in the field. The Crimson Tide lost three times, including a 24-3 loss at Oklahoma in late November that ultimately sealed their fate. They made their bed.

Had Alabama snuck into the CFP and nabbed one of the final spots over SMU — like many SEC pundits would have preferred after the Mustangs were blown out by Penn State — it would have made for much better optics for Alabama first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer.

But no, DeBoer, in his first year replacing the greatest coach of all time at Alabama, didn’t take the immensely-talented roster he inherited and turn it into a Playoff team. That makes Alabama fans — who became accustomed to winning every single year during the Nick Saban era — really, really uncomfortable. It’s understandable. You don’t go from six national titles in 17 years under a head coach to missing a 12-team CFP field and feel good about it.

But if you peel back the curtain past the disappointment of Alabama’s first regular season under its new head coach, DeBoer actually passed his first test with flying colors. No, he aced it. Why? Because his first test was never about making a deep run in the CFP. His first test was proving that he can accumulate talent at an impressive enough clip to keep Alabama’s roster as deep and talented as anyone in the country year over year. DeBoer did that. And he did it well. We’ll get into that more later.

First, let’s go backward. Frankly speaking, hiring DeBoer felt like a major risk to me. Sure, the man led Washington all the way to the national title game last year. And though Washington had a bunch of talented weapons like Michael Penix Jr., Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan, nobody would look you in the eye and tell you DeBoer’s success at Washington was predicated on recruiting like a madman.

Saban was a recruiting madman. You’ve seen the Zoom call leaks. The man knew how to sell and he had a hell of a product to pitch. He won the recruiting crown for basically a decade straight — which is one of the more unbelievable Saban statistics you’ll find — and he routinely situated Alabama with the best players in the country. Saban was a genius for a lot of reasons, but his success can be boiled down to always having so much more talent than the opposition.

And to be real, Saban probably left Alabama when he did because he saw the future of stockpiling talent was no longer tenable. Saban probably didn’t have the desire to evolve the way he would have had to in order to maintain his success. He also knew he wouldn’t have players in the two-deep at every position that would start at 90 percent of the other programs. That was always Alabama’s advantage, and though the Crimson Tide still undeniably have an edge, it’s no longer as stark.

Since his retirement, Saban has been outspoken about how roster building in this sport isn’t the same. He’s gone into details about how NIL is a difficult world to play in and how the transfer portal — er, free agency — makes life extremely difficult for a coach. You can understand how a 73-year-old man who had already won seven national titles (including one at LSU) wouldn’t have the appetite to keep pushing.

But Alabama didn’t go out and sign a young coach with an SEC background and a burning desire to dominate in the NIL, transfer portal world. They didn’t go hire Dan Lanning and find someone like him. They did find a career winner, but one who came into the Alabama job having never signed a national top-200 recruit in his entire career. Add in the fact he was hired in a few days after Saban’s retirement, and the whole thing felt like a major dice roll. Did Alabama just hire the hottest coach it could find and make a quick decision? These are real questions I had.

There is no question DeBoer is a good coach. Even after this disappointing year, the man has proven he knows how to get a locker room together. He has proven he can draw up plays. The biggest test in regards to whether he would make it as Alabama’s coach was always about whether he could recruit well enough to exist in the job.

DeBoer brought general manager Courtney Morgan with him to Alabama. Morgan once referred to amassing a ton of five-stars as “not evaluating” to me in an interview. Anyone can see five-star prospects are good. Morgan is known for his keen eye for talent and discovering under-appreciated gems, but he also would never stop evaluating.

Would DeBoer and Morgan go about roster building the Washington way? Or the Alabama way? How much would DeBoer and Morgan dive into the five-star prospect hustle? We are, after all, only a few years removed from Bryan Harsin taking the Auburn job, feeling as if he could out-evaluate Saban and Kirby Smart and instead tanking Auburn’s total talent. The program is still trying to recover from it under Hugh Freeze. It turns out, DeBoer and Morgan are doing it the Alabama way.

Alabama just signed its first full class under DeBoer in the 2025 cycle. It finished No. 2 overall in the On3 Industry Rankings and included three five-star prospects and nine players in the top 105 nationally. The jewel of the class is five-star quarterback Keelon Russell of Duncanville (Texas) High, the No. 2 overall player in the country. That class may not be as crazy deep as some of the ones Saban signed, but in this new era of the sport, it’s a tremendous haul.

On top of that, DeBoer convinced Ryan Williams to stick with Alabama in the 2024 cycle after he decommitted from the Crimson Tide following Saban’s recruitment. Williams became one of the best receivers in the country as a true freshman.

That’s a recruiting output DeBoer never proved he could produce before taking the Alabama job. And DeBoer did it during the NIL era, which is a time during which it’s much harder to sign incredibly deep recruiting classes.

Hiring DeBoer was a leap of faith from the Alabama brass. Had he not been able to hack in the talent accumulation realm, DeBoer never would have had a shot to stay in Tuscaloosa. Though DeBoer certainly would have liked to have made the CFP in his first year at Alabama, there is no question the Crimson Tide will be good year in and year out moving forward. There is just no way a coach that good with the players he’s bringing in won’t break through eventually, maybe as soon as next year.

Some critics of the DeBoer hire said he’d be very good right out of the gate with that talented roster and start to slip once it was 100 percent on his shoulders to maintain that talent. Those people have already been proven wrong in less than a year. That’s a win. A huge win.

 

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I was listening to an interview by Finebaum with John Talty. Talty covered Bama for years and just published a book with Armen Ketayan called “The Price” about staying competitive in today’s CFB landscape. 
These guys live in a fucking bubble. They all seem to think that the rest of us just believe that Alabama has all of this money. 
 What idiots outside of their mediocre state could possibly believe this? People in Mississippi and Louisiana, maybe?
We’ve said it from the start - Bama was going to be one of the poors in the new era and fuck them for being the terrible fucking cheaters they’ve always been. Glory in this. Revel in their futility. It’s coming. 
Byrne’s pleading comes because Bama’s roster is under attack and they’re running out of money rapidly to defend it. They overpaid for their class they just signed. Apparently they went way over budget. Then they started getting roster pressure they weren’t ready for in the first place.
The 5 star freshman CB that started the portal process was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They’ve promised him more than they have to keep him and cannot afford any further attrition without a cash infusion. So, desperation ensues and Byrne humiliates them by publicly panhandling. 
Talty and Finebaum both sounded somewhat despondent discussing it and it warmed my heart. 
I’m interested in seeing how Bama ranks in this next class. They’re no longer getting any kind of discount, allegedly, and they’re very cash poor. You add that to them declining in status due to on-field performance and it’s a potent mix. Bama fans and the pundits seem to think that top 5 classes at Bama are a God given right. This class is going to test that premise. 

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Ari Wasserman: Kalen DeBoer aced his Year 1 test of replacing Nick Saban, despite missing the playoffs
The first round of the College Football Playoff featured four matchups and three of the four were blowouts, so of course there was national discourse about Alabama and the SEC during the games. The reality, uncomfortable or not, was Alabama didn’t belong in the field. The Crimson Tide lost three times, including a 24-3 loss at Oklahoma in late November that ultimately sealed their fate. They made their bed.
Had Alabama snuck into the CFP and nabbed one of the final spots over SMU — like many SEC pundits would have preferred after the Mustangs were blown out by Penn State — it would have made for much better optics for Alabama first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer.
But no, DeBoer, in his first year replacing the greatest coach of all time at Alabama, didn’t take the immensely-talented roster he inherited and turn it into a Playoff team. That makes Alabama fans — who became accustomed to winning every single year during the Nick Saban era — really, really uncomfortable. It’s understandable. You don’t go from six national titles in 17 years under a head coach to missing a 12-team CFP field and feel good about it.
But if you peel back the curtain past the disappointment of Alabama’s first regular season under its new head coach, DeBoer actually passed his first test with flying colors. No, he aced it. Why? Because his first test was never about making a deep run in the CFP. His first test was proving that he can accumulate talent at an impressive enough clip to keep Alabama’s roster as deep and talented as anyone in the country year over year. DeBoer did that. And he did it well. We’ll get into that more later.
First, let’s go backward. Frankly speaking, hiring DeBoer felt like a major risk to me. Sure, the man led Washington all the way to the national title game last year. And though Washington had a bunch of talented weapons like Michael Penix Jr., Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan, nobody would look you in the eye and tell you DeBoer’s success at Washington was predicated on recruiting like a madman.
Saban was a recruiting madman. You’ve seen the Zoom call leaks. The man knew how to sell and he had a hell of a product to pitch. He won the recruiting crown for basically a decade straight — which is one of the more unbelievable Saban statistics you’ll find — and he routinely situated Alabama with the best players in the country. Saban was a genius for a lot of reasons, but his success can be boiled down to always having so much more talent than the opposition.
And to be real, Saban probably left Alabama when he did because he saw the future of stockpiling talent was no longer tenable. Saban probably didn’t have the desire to evolve the way he would have had to in order to maintain his success. He also knew he wouldn’t have players in the two-deep at every position that would start at 90 percent of the other programs. That was always Alabama’s advantage, and though the Crimson Tide still undeniably have an edge, it’s no longer as stark.
Since his retirement, Saban has been outspoken about how roster building in this sport isn’t the same. He’s gone into details about how NIL is a difficult world to play in and how the transfer portal — er, free agency — makes life extremely difficult for a coach. You can understand how a 73-year-old man who had already won seven national titles (including one at LSU) wouldn’t have the appetite to keep pushing.
But Alabama didn’t go out and sign a young coach with an SEC background and a burning desire to dominate in the NIL, transfer portal world. They didn’t go hire Dan Lanning and find someone like him. They did find a career winner, but one who came into the Alabama job having never signed a national top-200 recruit in his entire career. Add in the fact he was hired in a few days after Saban’s retirement, and the whole thing felt like a major dice roll. Did Alabama just hire the hottest coach it could find and make a quick decision? These are real questions I had.
There is no question DeBoer is a good coach. Even after this disappointing year, the man has proven he knows how to get a locker room together. He has proven he can draw up plays. The biggest test in regards to whether he would make it as Alabama’s coach was always about whether he could recruit well enough to exist in the job.
DeBoer brought general manager Courtney Morgan with him to Alabama. Morgan once referred to amassing a ton of five-stars as “not evaluating” to me in an interview. Anyone can see five-star prospects are good. Morgan is known for his keen eye for talent and discovering under-appreciated gems, but he also would never stop evaluating.
Would DeBoer and Morgan go about roster building the Washington way? Or the Alabama way? How much would DeBoer and Morgan dive into the five-star prospect hustle? We are, after all, only a few years removed from Bryan Harsin taking the Auburn job, feeling as if he could out-evaluate Saban and Kirby Smart and instead tanking Auburn’s total talent. The program is still trying to recover from it under Hugh Freeze. It turns out, DeBoer and Morgan are doing it the Alabama way.
Alabama just signed its first full class under DeBoer in the 2025 cycle. It finished No. 2 overall in the On3 Industry Rankings and included three five-star prospects and nine players in the top 105 nationally. The jewel of the class is five-star quarterback Keelon Russell of Duncanville (Texas) High, the No. 2 overall player in the country. That class may not be as crazy deep as some of the ones Saban signed, but in this new era of the sport, it’s a tremendous haul.
On top of that, DeBoer convinced Ryan Williams to stick with Alabama in the 2024 cycle after he decommitted from the Crimson Tide following Saban’s recruitment. Williams became one of the best receivers in the country as a true freshman.
That’s a recruiting output DeBoer never proved he could produce before taking the Alabama job. And DeBoer did it during the NIL era, which is a time during which it’s much harder to sign incredibly deep recruiting classes.
Hiring DeBoer was a leap of faith from the Alabama brass. Had he not been able to hack in the talent accumulation realm, DeBoer never would have had a shot to stay in Tuscaloosa. Though DeBoer certainly would have liked to have made the CFP in his first year at Alabama, there is no question the Crimson Tide will be good year in and year out moving forward. There is just no way a coach that good with the players he’s bringing in won’t break through eventually, maybe as soon as next year.
Some critics of the DeBoer hire said he’d be very good right out of the gate with that talented roster and start to slip once it was 100 percent on his shoulders to maintain that talent. Those people have already been proven wrong in less than a year. That’s a win. A huge win.
 

*sneaked into

Yes, I’ve seen the Conan-Jennifer Garner video. So many Ags pronounced “forte” as “for-TAY” that the dictionaries started making all sort of exceptions.

William Safire RIP
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That barrel shaped troll Ubben had Bama’s 247 guy on his podcast and he asked him about the Saban Discount. The 247 guy played dumb and said he didn’t know what that was, and it completely fucked up Ubben’s interview. Greatness.

And then today happened. 

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Hell I detached from the Bama half of my fandom two years ago during that cheaty-assed sloppy "victory" against Texas. Saban had lost it and they were playing as dumb as LSU.

The reason I enjoyed them in the past was they played precise mechanical murder ball. Hell I could have been the QB, didn't matter that much. Now this weak inconsistent slop like during the Three Mikes.

Not that they give a shit about my opinion.

Worst thing is, I heard the announcers after the loss trying to polish the turd, talking about how hard so-and-so tried, all that feel-good kindergarten tripe. Who are we, AUBURN? That was Shug Jordan's old schtick.

 

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(Tom Fornelli) Alabama's new reality: The Kalen DeBoer era will never match Nick Saban's run, and Tide fans must accept that

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It's a new year and a new reality for Alabama football. After hearing arguments for why Alabama should've been chosen for the College Football Playoff over SMU, Indiana or any playoff team without the pedigree of Alabama, the Crimson Tide spent New Year's Eve reminding everybody why they were left out in the first place -- by losing a game in which they were heavily favored against an opponent that was supposed to be overmatched.

Alabama was a 17-point favorite over Michigan, just like it was a 14-point favorite over Oklahoma and a 23.5-point favorite over Vanderbilt. It's a loss that many people, fans and media alike, are taking great pleasure in, using it to dunk on Alabama's omission from the playoff even though most of the noise made about Alabama's exclusion didn't come from Alabama itself. And it's all pointless noise.

The primary takeaway from this latest loss is that it should be definitive proof that the Alabama we once knew, the most terrifying force in the sport, the team everybody had to get through to win a title, is no more. It turns out Nick Saban, the greatest college football coach in the history of the sport, was an integral part of the program's dominance. Who knew?

In the first season post-Saban, Alabama suffered as many losses as a favorite of 14 points or more as it did during Saban's entire tenure. According to TruMedia, the Tide went 135-3 as a favorite of 14-plus under Saban. They went 6-3 this year.

This is not an indictment of first-year coach Kalen DeBoer, though I don't know if every Alabama fan will agree with that. It's more of a statement on the situation and the reality of how difficult it is to reach and remain at an elite level in this sport -- particularly now in the era of the transfer portal and NIL, which has helped bridge the talent gap across the top of the sport.

It's hard to be the guy after The Guy, and DeBoer is getting a front-row seat to the reality now. Not that I could blame him for taking the Alabama job. I mean, it's the freaking Alabama job. It's not one that gets offered to a coach very often, and it's extremely difficult to pass up when it is. You can win national titles there.

But you probably can't win as many national titles as Saban did, and DeBoer has been thrust into the situation while the memories are fresh, and Alabama fans are reminded of Saban's greatness every time he appears on television or in a commercial.

The truth that some haven't come to grips with is that no matter how much changes in college football, Alabama will remain one of the premier programs in the sport. It will still land great recruiting classes, and it will still win a lot of games and compete for SEC championships and the College Football Playoff.

But it won't do so every year. In some years, it will lose three or four games. One day, all Alabama fans will understand it and possibly even accept it while continuing to strive for better. The question is whether they will come to that understanding during Kalen DeBoer's tenure or after it.

 

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So back in 2020 Milroe committed to Texas then I assume some combination of Saban/Sark got to him and got him to decommit and then commit and ultimately sign with Alabama.  Sark then took the Texas job what like a month later?  Does anyone who follows recruting know in greater detail how it all went down?

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