Kalen DeBoer explains how roster management has changed in NIL, transfer portal era

As new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer gets settled in Tuscaloosa, he’s doing so with the new backdrop of college athletics fully in focus now. There’s a clear direction now, as opposed to just a few years ago.

That hasn’t necessarily made navigating NIL easy, per se, but it has given coaches the chance to adjust.

“Yeah it’s certainly a different landscape than it was just a few years back,” DeBoer said on The Ryen Russillo Podcast. “And I think it takes everyone. It takes not just me but it takes all of our coaching staff. And when I say that I’m talking about just the relationships and how important they are, the vision that you have for each guy and his role on the team and the value that they can bring.”

Paint a picture for players of exactly what they have to do to contribute and how them playing can change their future and you start to get invested athletes.

“I think when you really try to keep the main thing about that I think that’s where you get off to a pretty good start,” Kalen DeBoer said. “It’s an investment of time and it’s got to be who you are. You’ve got to enjoy conversations, you’ve got to enjoy helping people. But when those players in our program feel like we really have their best interests involved in all our decisions and we really want this timeframe that they’re in during their college football days to be special. To me, when they feel that and you’re open and honest with them, I think that’s key. That’s how you do a good job of having retention.”

For DeBoer, building the right culture can lead to the right results. A lot of the NIL snags get smoothed over when the program sort of takes care of itself with the right personalities in the building.

That starts with DeBoer and his staff being consistent on a daily basis.

“I’m a believer everywhere I’ve been, whether it’s your staff or your players, your team, you’ve got that retention, that continuity is key,” Kalen DeBoer said. “Staffing, I could go on and on about the different places and how that continuity, how important that was to taking the next steps. And players deciding to come back instead of entering the draft, that was critical.

“The talent is one thing but just that meshing of personalities, that meshing and taking on their roles and understanding it, then the development that comes along with it. Them believing in that, what they’re going to get because of the continuity of the staff, it’s been a big deal everywhere I’ve been and that’s going to be important here, especially in this landscape of college football.”