Kalen DeBoer explains kind of culture he wants to establish at Alabama

New Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer has to establish his own culture with the Crimson Tide in addition to building up Nick Saban’s tenure.

It’s tough to replicate Saban and what he did in nearly two decades with Alabama. DeBoer wants to implement his own blueprint and have the players run with it in order to represent the sport and university the best way possible.

DeBoer is there to help, but he wants to be a player’s coach, to an extent.

“When it comes to our culture, we want it to be something that’s led by the players,” DeBoer said on Sirius XM College Sports Radio. “And I’ll provide the framework, I’ll provide the organization a plan, I’ll help guide them through it. But it’s got to be something that they believe in and that they make theirs because that’s where the extra ownership and investment that they’ll put in will come from. That’s when they feel like you know, they had a voice in it.”

Family values and being a great man are what Saban preached. Looks like DeBoer will do the same thing and make sure there’s an emphasis on that as they represent Alabama.

“There’s different non negotiables we have, you know, being family oriented, how important those relationships are, especially for the big moments, accountability, toughness, those are some of our non negotiables,” DeBoer said. “How we do things, you know, we want to be a class act on and off the field. So, I think in the end, it just comes down to the players buying that they have a voice that they make it their team under the guidance of myself and our coaching staff.”

That’s DeBoer’s expectations for the players. As far as the expectations for him, he knows what he’s getting into.

“Yeah, I mean, you know, you know what you signed up for,” DeBoer said.

That also includes the players who remained and are currently on the roster in Tuscaloosa. They too know what’s the presumption for them and they want to do it in order to add to the all-time history of the program that they’re a part of at Alabama.

“I guess it just always goes back to everyone is human. I think that, being around these guys, you understand the reasons why they came here into this program. It’s Alabama Football. It has a lot to do with Coach Saban, the guys and their commitments to being here. But they are just so proud of this program,” DeBoer said. “They want to be the ones that carry on the legacy of this place.”