Kalen DeBoer contract details revealed as new Alabama head coach

Alabama is now fully engaged on the new era with Kalen DeBoer as its head coach and now fans know how much it is costing them to pay Nick Saban’s successor. On Monday, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne met with the media where he shared financial details of the contract.

Per BOL’s Charlie Potter, DeBoer agreed to an eight-year contract with the school. The contract pays $10 million in Year 1, with up to $11.75 million in Year 8.

DeBoer earned $4.2 million annually at Washington. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Washington was willing to double DeBoer’s pay to make him stay, but DeBoer turned down the offer. DeBoer signed a two-year contract extension (through 2028) last November.

Since DeBoer is leaving Washington early, he will be forced to pay his $12 million buyout. Alabama is expected to cover this expense. While DeBoer will earn far more than he made at Washington, he isn’t raking in nearly as much as his predecessor.

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban was earning $11.8 million annually before he retired. It won’t be easy to fill Saban’s shoes, but if anybody can do it, DeBoer fits that category of players.

More on the Kalen DeBoer hire

DeBoer coached for just two seasons at Washington, 2022 and 2023. But in that time, he flipped the Huskies from a 4-8 record program in 2021 to an 11-2 mark, an Alamo Bowl win over Texas and a No. 6 final CFP ranking in 2022.

After returning star quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and his slew of elite pass catchers, Washington came into this past season with immense hype. And in a loaded Pac-12, it was DeBoer’s group who stood head and shoulders above the rest, finishing a perfect 12-0 in the regular season before completing a season sweep of a Top-10 ranked Oregon team in the Pac-12 Championship game.

That win completed a 13-0 mark and booked Washington’s bid to the College Football Playoff, their first since the 2016 season, where, coincidentally, that group led by QB Jake Browning and then-coach Chris Petersen, lost to Alabama in the national semifinal.

However, in this year’s semifinal, Washington broke through and toppled Texas for the second straight postseason to earn a spot in the national title game, something no Pac-12 program had accomplished since Oregon participated and lost in the first CFP title game.

Prior to his time with Washington, DeBoer made quite the impression at Fresno State in just two years as well. He went 3-3 in Year 1 during the pandemic-altered 2020 season before leading the Bulldogs to a 10-3 mark in 2021, capping it off with a New Mexico Bowl win over UTEP. Despite just two years of experience as an FBS head coach, Washington saw DeBoer as a rising star and elevated him to the Power Five level.