Explaining why Kalen DeBoer was unable to keep Travaris Robinson on staff

On Saturday, Travaris Robinson was announced as a new co-defensive coordinator at Georgia. It was a big loss for the Alabama staff, especially after reports he interviewed with new head coach Kalen DeBoer and there was talk that he could potentially remain on staff.

Tim Watts of BamaOnLine went on the Andy Staples On3. There, he broke down why DeBoer wasn’t able to keep Robinson on the staff.

“I know T-Rob and Nick Saban were trying to work out an extension or new contract that never really got finalized and Coach Saban retired,” Watts said. “So, if you don’t have that job done, if you’re a coach, you’re probably looking at other offers. He’s a hot commodity because of how well he did recruiting.”

Choosing between Alabama and Georgia was nothing new for Robinson. He had the offer from Georgia for some time and when he met with DeBoer, he made the decision to move to Georgia.

“I think that the Georgia offer was in hand for a while. Met with Coach DeBoer on Friday night, couldn’t really give him an answer. I don’t know how much time he even had to think. I’d be surprised if he’s still not moving 90 to nothing. The next morning, T-Rob resigned, told his players he was leaving. Sunday morning, we find out he’s interviewing for the job, and today, he decided to stick with Georgia.”

One of Robinson’s greatest strengths is his ability to recruit. Interestingly, Watts compared DeBoer trying to get him to stay with Alabama against Kirby Smart trying to get him to go to Georgia to a recruiting battle.

“Almost like a recruit coming down to signing day,” Watts said. “We had some back and forth there. I think that was a pretty decent battle there. Then again, I don’t know how well Kalen DeBoer knew T-Rob, I don’t think they had any previous relationship. So, you kind of understand how this came about.”

Paul Finebaum highlights his greatest concerns about Kalen DeBoer

Recently, Paul Finebaum shared that his greatest concern about Kalen DeBoer is the transition to him from Nick Saban.

“I think it’s a transition, and this isn’t a normal transition. This is where every second counts. That’s why I give Greg Byrne a lot of credit, for having a coach in 48 hours. That’s hard to do, especially when you’re going halfway across the country to get someone. No matter how great your planes are, it still takes five and a half hours to get to Seattle. I think the concerns are losing coaches, the ones you want, I should say. I think there’s already been a lot of chatter about Coach Robinson and announcing he’s going to Georgia. Is he going, is he not going? Then making sure that you hold on to your roster, and making sure that you can hold on to everything else that’s involved, because in years past, that wasn’t really a big issue,” Finebaum said.

That was an issue — you were probably more interested in trimming your roster than holding on to it. So that’s really the issue, and quite frankly, this man a week ago was in the national championship game. … That’s probably my biggest concern for Kalen DeBoer, being able to find enough hours in the day to deal with the issues. There’s probably multiple issues he’s having to deal with every single moment.”

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this article.