Kalen DeBoer addresses comments by Nick Saban regarding recruiting, NIL

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban made waves with his comments at a congressional roundtable earlier this week about NIL and players being overly focused on immediate payouts. His successor in Tuscaloosa, Kalen DeBoer, feels a bit the same — although he’s not liable to retire any time soon.

Joining “The Audible” podcast with The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel and Bruce Feldman, DeBoer offered some of his perspective on the current business of player recruitment and retention. DeBoer isn’t foolish enough to think money isn’t going to be a factor going forward, but he wants football to be the “main thing.”

“I think the times have changed and you have to adjust, adapt,” DeBoer said. “I think I’ve been able to do a good job with that. I think our staff will have the type of personalities and type of want to to just continue to keep the main thing the main thing, and that’s coach these guys up. Understanding, also, that NIL is a part of it. The portal is a part of it. So, one day at a time. I think we’ve just gotta keep working, keep doing what we do, and kind of find the hearts and minds of these guys.”

DeBoer also acknowledged that in the realms of NIL and general program perks and resources, Alabama is playing with a stronger hand than most schools or programs at present.

But for DeBoer, much like Saban, his initial reasons for getting in to coaching had far more to do with preparing players for the NFL and beyond as football players and, to whatever extent possible, as people.

He’s going to keep drilling in on that as much as possible, even if NIL has become a permanent facet of doing the job as a head coach of a high-level college football program.

“I think it’s one of those things where we all got into coaching for different reasons, right?” DeBoer said. “And we love the game, we love impacting the lives of these guys that we get a chance to coach and it’s fun seeing them 10, 15, 20 years from now and where they’ve gone to and the families that they’ve raised. But, if you just try to really hone in on that and the moment we’re in, I think that’s the key. Not get overwhelmed by the things you can’t control.”

DeBoer also gave props to Saban for using his position as arguably the most prominent voice in the sport, now detached from coaching a program — he’s still plenty tied in with Alabama — to provide his perspective, experiences and ideas about where college football and college athletics are headed.

And DeBoer, ultimately, is fighting for a similar party line to what Saban has argued for amid the widespread adoption of NIL: A uniform playing field of some kind and not a program or states own tolerances and laws being the rate limiter.

“I think that’s really good and that’s something I’m excited to see the ways and things that could happen over the next year or two with people like coach Saban helping lead the charge. I think the key is to have a sustainable model that allows the student athletes to get NIL or some version of that or whatever it may be. Definitely am in favor of that. I think there is an opportunity that they should be able to take advantage of,” DeBoer said. “But also a model that is, like I said, sustainable. Things that we can do within the athletic program, department to where it isn’t just — at Alabama we’ll continue to find ways to move forward, but there’s a lot of programs that don’t have the same backing, the same resources and just for the game itself, I’d love to see us continue to work together to try and figure out what’s best moving forward in years to come.”