Kalen DeBoer reveals message to Alabama players during turnover

Kalen DeBoer had to get to work immediately upon his hiring as the next head coach at Alabama. That’s exactly what he did too and, with that, his words and efforts got across and had an impact quickly in Tuscaloosa.

DeBoer explained what his first few days were like during an interview with Joel Klatt on ‘Big Noon Conversations’. He said much of their success early on was from setting things in place to where their players felt better about the idea of returning to ‘Bama.

“I mean, once we got past those first days? I just really think they kind of felt like, okay, we can give this a chance,” said DeBoer. “We got the staff in place. Just the culture started coming through in our daily talks, how we did things in practice, and the energy we brought.”

“Once we got past that first week or two, I really felt comfortable that you might lose a guy at some point over those 30 days but it wasn’t just going to fall apart.”

With that, DeBoer credited several other people within their building who helped with that. They to kept that environment intact that the players were all already used to.

“There was some great continuity here in the program, whether it’s Dave Ballou with the strength staff or Jeff Allen with the training room – many of the player development staff and some others around the program that really were, I mean, just so critical to the transition and helping me out but also helping these guys out,” DeBoer said.

From there, DeBoer had no more concerns about any of the players questioning their futures with the Tide. He knew their spring would show them that they had a place that, although different, was also quite similar.

“I knew, once we got into spring ball? Again, we’d be okay because they’d enjoy the way we coach, the way we operated. The expectations weren’t going to fall off, you know. The expectations were going to be at a high level. The standard – that’s what we refer to it here – was going to be at a high level. It just might be messaged a different way, you know?” explained DeBoer. “No matter who was going to be here, whether if it was even someone from within? That person, that coach is going to still message it their way.”

Alabama’s level of retainment is why they enter this season still projected among the best in the sport. While DeBoer did his share of that work, he also has his returners to thank for that after buying into him.

“The guys have just been amazing. They’ve embraced everything,” said DeBoer. “I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”