Kalen DeBoer is an unconventional hire for Alabama, but that doesn't mean it can't work

“Sometimes, guys start on third base and think they hit a triple. I learned something by going around the bases.”

That quote cannot be attributed to Kalen DeBoer, but you could cross out Willie Fritz’s name and believe it. 

Kalen DeBoer just coached in the national championship game and is now the new head coach at Alabama, and yet his path from Sioux Falls to Tuscaloosa has been wholly unconventional. 

That doesn’t mean it won’t work, either. 

Time will tell if DeBoer will round the bases and be a home run hire for the Tide, but Alabama certainly didn’t strike out here. 

Kalen DeBoer is 7-0 against Dan Lanning, Steve Sarkisian and Lincoln Riley … three coaches many Alabama fans would’ve signed up for first as Nick Saban’s successor.

DeBoer is an Xs and Os savant. Recruiting is a legit ???

But looks like Alabama nailed the hire.

— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) January 12, 2024

While numerous candidates were connected to the stunning opening, none had DeBoer’s track record of success. Kalen DeBoer is a winner, and while he faces the impossible task (and supreme pressure) of succeeding the legendary Nick Saban, you don’t luck into a 104-12 career record. 

DeBoer is 49, but the ex-Huskies’ coach has had a rather meteoric rise through the ranks of big-time football. 

Imagine telling someone in 2019 that Indiana’s OC would become Alabama’s head coach four years later? 

DeBoer made his bones at Sioux Falls, winning three NAIA national titles. He then worked his way up the ranks as an OC at Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and Indiana. He got his first FBS head coaching job at Fresno State in 2020 and immediately had to deal with a shortened COVID season and strict state restrictions. Take away that 3-3 season, and you can count DeBoer’s career losses with both hands. 

It’s understandable that DeBoer is certainly not the candidate many Alabama fans ever envisioned would follow Saban.

He has no ties to the GOAT, isn’t from the South, has never coached in the SEC and isn’t a dogged recruiter (more on that in a minute). 

So who is Kalen DeBoer?

He’s a schematic genius. A true Xs and Os savant. A program builder. Like Saban on defense, DeBoer immediately raises the floor for any future Alabama offense. 

He is a classic coach who does more with less.

DeBoer inherited a 4-8 Washington team that averaged 21.1 points per game. The next season — with the same parts plus oft-injured transfer quarterback Michael Penix Jr. — the Huskies went 11-2 scoring nearly 40 points per game. He took over a program that had some talent, and in two years, had Washington in the national title game. 

He’s a big-game coach, too, going 12-2 against ranked teams, including 3-0 against Dan Lanning and 2-0 against Steve Sarkisian — two coaches many Alabama fans likely preferred for the job. His teams proved clutch in close-game situations, with Washington going 11-1 in one-score games. Last offseason, Saban tried to pluck Washington OC Ryan Grubb away from DeBoer, so Alabama brass was clearly impressed with what was happening in Seattle.

Then the Huskies went 13-0 in the most competitive Pac-12 ever, beat Texas and made the title game. Had any result before the loss to Michigan gone differently, we may not be talking about DeBoer as the next head coach of college football’s biggest machine program. 

But those are the margins. And here we are. Kalen DeBoer, the next head coach at Alabama. 

No matter who Greg Byrne hired — and kudos to him for putting a 72-hour noose around his neck and getting a guy within that short timeframe — was going to be seen as a disappointment compared to Saban. Replacing a legend is impossible. It’s why so few want to be the guy to succeed the guy.  

But DeBoer is clearly up for the challenge. He could’ve easily re-upped with the Huskies or waited for Jim Harbaugh to bounce for the NFL and go to Michigan, but he’s willingy walking into the biggest pressure cooker in college football. 

Anything short of annual playoff appearances will be a disappointment. If he has a slow-burn start to his tenure — ala Harbaugh — Alabama fans will revolt. And if he doesn’t ink Top 5 recruiting classes then we have an issue.

I think Alabama did really well with the hire, but that doesn’t mean it’s without questions. 

DeBoer has no ties to the South. Neither did Saban when he got hired at LSU or Urban Meyer when he was hired at Florida, but both those coaches were already considering top-tier recruiters. 

That’s not DeBoer, and that’s a huge red flag mark on his future success with the Tide. Nick Saban is the Godfather of recruiting and stacked Top 3 recruiting classes on top of one another. And for as well as DeBoer has been at maximizing talent, the Tide expect elite recruiting classes. 

And they should. 

DeBoer just made the national title game and Washington has the nation’s No. 30 class. That’s concerning. Alabama is used to landing multiple 5-stars a cycle, and DeBoer has never signed a 5-star prospect. College football is a talent acquisition game and DeBoer is going to have to prove he’s up to the task.
Perhaps he can assemble an all-star staff with elite recruiters. He needs to, frankly. 

Alabama has been able to skim on NIL because prospects were naturally drawn to play for the GOAT. That advantage is now out the window, and DeBoer must develop relationships across the Southeast while he’s three steps behind rivals Kirby Smart, Huge Freeze and Sarkisian. DeBoer also has a humble, low-key personality, and although that makes him a much more well-adjusted human than most coaches, it’s another unconventional trait for a coach now in the conference that just means more. 

Ultimately, we never truly know how these hires will pan out. DeBoer is tasked with living up to an inconceivable standard. He’s won everywhere he’s been, and if he can figure out the recruiting element (a major if, I admit), Alabama may have chosen just the right unconventional coach as Saban’s successor.