Paul Finebaum: Alabama bowl loss will haunt Kalen DeBoer, safe to say he's on hot seat

After narrowly missing the College Football Playoff, Alabama suffered another blow, falling 19-13 to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl. With the loss, the Crimson Tide finished 9-4 in their first season under head coach Kalen DeBoer. During an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, Paul Finebaum discussed how the loss affects DeBoer and the program.

“I don’t think Kalen DeBoer could have dialed up a more inopportune way to finish the season,” Finebaum said. “Had Alabama won, there wouldn’t have been a lot of credit given for the win because of the opponent. But you can’t fight 10 wins. You can live off that. It takes you into the offseason. It gives you some momentum as you’re building your roster toward the upcoming season.

“But a loss, especially one that looks so inept, I believe, is going to haunt Kalen DeBoer. And I understand that he isn’t going to get fired, and I think it’s absurd to even have that conversation but to say he’s on some sort of a hot seat, I think, is accurate. That doesn’t mean very much, but all it means is that people are watching him very closely.”

The season certainly didn’t go according to plan for Kalen DeBoer and Co. Alabama began the season ranked No. 5 in the AP Top 25, and improved its ranking to No. 1 after defeating Georgia 41-34 in Week 5.

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Alas, things began to unravel for Alabama after the massive win. The team fell to Vanderbilt the following week and lost again to Tennessee just a couple of weeks later.

The Crimson Tide hit a low point in Week 13 when they fell 24-3 to the Oklahoma Sooners, who only won two conference games this season. In the loss, Alabama amassed just 234 total yards of offense and committed three turnovers.

In turn, Alabama was excluded from the CFP and Michigan poured salt in the team’s wound in the Reliaquest Bowl. While the final loss didn’t affect Alabama’s trajectory for the 2024 season, Finebaum believes it will negatively impact Alabama’s future.

“Year 1, in my mind, was a failure because he didn’t make the playoffs, and everyone already knows all the other things, so I’ll spare you the stats, but he has a more difficult road ahead based on that loss,” Finebaum said.

“Nick Saban was very masterful a couple of times in, I believe it was in the two seasons he didn’t make the playoffs in ’19 and then two years ago, by winning that last game, and getting momentum. Kalen DeBoer has done the opposite.”