Joel Klatt reveals what a successful first season at Alabama would be for Kalen DeBoer

Kickoff is less than two weeks away in Tuscaloosa with a new coaching tenure set to begin at Alabama. With that happening, what can be defined as success now for the Crimson Tide?

Joel Klatt posed that thought about ‘Bama to start off the latest episode of his show on Monday.

“I think that the question is looming – what does success look like the first year for Kalen DeBoer and the Tide?” Klatt thought.

Much of that discussion is what it is to pass from Nick Saban to Kalen DeBoer.

We’re all aware of the resumé of Saban, especially after 17 years of him coaching the Tide. The highest of expectations were set with 206 wins with a dozen finishes with 12 or more victories and just a pair with more than two losses. Six national titles, three apiece in each championship era of the span, and nine conference championships highlighted that record.

Now, following his retirement in January, DeBoer comes in as their new head coach. Based on his own background, though, it’s not as large of a step down as some might think in Klatt’s opinion.

“Kalen DeBoer is a great coach. I’ve said this. I loved my interview with him on Big Noon Conversations,” said Klatt. “They just hired what I would deem as one of the most successful coaches in college football – he just went to the national championship game with Washington, he won a national championship at Sioux Falls. The guy has won over 100 games in his head coaching career. He has lost just a few games. Like, his record, as I said in the interview? Like, he has got kind of that Tiger Woods aspect to him where it’s like he just wins. He learned how to win and he was conditioned to win as a head coach.”

With that, Klatt set the goals for the Tide this year at where they usually are in championship contention. In his eyes, Alabama won’t have a successful season if they don’t make the second round of the playoff. They’re still set up well enough to maintain some semblance of Saban’s standard even if, at least in his debut, it’s not as great as what it has been.

“This is where I’m going to fall on Alabama,” said Klatt. “Alabama cannot take a giant step back or two steps back. They just can’t. They’re Alabama. We just saw the greatest era of college football that we’ve ever seen. They’ve got the resources.”

“While I didn’t put them in my top-four and while I think that there are two clear teams right now in the SEC that might be better than them in the preseason – Texas and Georgia? I still don’t think that Alabama can go and take a massive step back. Nor do I think they will take a massive step back. He’s too good, their players are too good and they believe in what they’re doing at Alabama,” Klatt continued. “So, for me, Alabama has got to make the College Football Playoff’s quarterfinals. They have lived rent-free in the top-four in college football for a long time. I can expect a small step back but not give them two steps back.”

Being three spots away from the national title isn’t what some ‘Bama fans will ever accept due to the elite status of the brand. That might also depend on how DeBoer’s first regular season looks alongside that kind of playoff berth in T-Town.

Still, for Klatt, Alabama being back with another playoff berth and winning at least one game in it would mean success for the Tide in 2024.

“If they just make the College Football Playoff in a 12-team playoff, I think everyone is looking around, me included, being like, ‘I don’t know? I don’t think that was a great year’. So, for me, they’ve got to win the first round game and get to the final eight, get to that College Football Playoff quarterfinal,” said Klatt.

“That to me is success for Alabama and I think that they can do it.”