Alabama hires Kalen DeBoer as new head coach
Alabama has hired former Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer as head coach.
Under DeBoer’s tutelage, the Huskies made the National Championship Game after an unbeaten regular season and beating Texas in the semi-final, where they were hammered by Michigan (after playing zero defense in the first quarter).
News of DeBoer’s contract aren’t out yet, but it should be a pretty seamless offensive move.
DeBoer’s team averaged 36 points per game last year, and 39.7 the year before in his two years in Seattle, en route to an overall 25-3 record. He has an overall coaching record of an astonishing 104-12 – although some of this was at the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota, a NAIA school.
Alabama will pay a $12 million buyout, who was contracted to the Huskies to 2028, according to ESPN.
Washington haven’t yet replaced their head coach, but Huskies OC Ryan Grubb, Kansas State head coach Chris Kleiman, Kansas head coach Lane Leipold and Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch have all been named as possible replacements.
LACK OF SEC EXPERIENCE?
There will be worry because of DeBoer’s lack of Southern experience (this will be his first time coaching below the Mason-Dixon Line), but he still took transfers in in the portal from Oklahoma State, Ole Miss and Mississippi State (2023), as well as Michael Penix Jr in 2022.
For Alabama, the most important thing will not be so much recruiting or transferring talent in Year 1 but also keeping the talent already there. That might start with chatting to Isaiah Bond, who put his name in the transfer portal almost immediately after Saban left.
There is also a lot of talent that has left or is in the transfer portal wanting to leave Alabama. Bond’s name was the 18th to go in.
And most of all, he’ll have to deal with the boosters, who Saban managed to shut up during his time in Tuscaloosa, but will be surfacing to ‘help things along’.
SO WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN?
The hiring of DeBoer – a Jimmy Sexton client (who replaces Saban, a Jimmy Sexton client) – was pretty seamless, coming 48 hours after the resignation of one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports.
That means that Alabama should be in a pretty good position to keep talent, and then move on. It could have been a lot worse if this had lasted.
As for Washington, they were always going to struggle in 2024 (De Boer’s leaving has just made that situation an awful lot worse!).
THE SCHEDULE THIS YEAR IS PRETTY DAMNED HARD
- Saturday, Aug. 31: vs. Western Kentucky
- Saturday, Sept. 7: vs. South Florida
- Saturday, Sept. 14: at Wisconsin
- Saturday, Sept. 21: BYE
- Saturday, Sept. 28: v Georgia (3rd-ranked last season)
- Saturday, Oct. 5: at Vanderbilt
- Saturday, Oct. 12: vs. South Carolina
- Saturday, Oct. 19: at Tennessee (17th)
- Saturday, Oct. 26: vs. Missouri (8th)
- Saturday, Nov. 2: BYE
- Saturday, Nov. 9: at LSU (12th)
- Saturday, Nov. 16: vs. Mercer
- Saturday, Nov. 23: at Oklahoma (15th)
- Saturday, Nov. 30: vs. Auburn
DeBoer’s baptism of fire will happen when they play Georgia on September 28th, but trips to Tennessee, LSU and Oklahoma would be daunting for Nick Saban, let alone a first time head coach. Auburn should be very much-improved this year, but De Boer avoids a bullet by not playing Texas A&M, Texas or Ole Miss.