I’m just going to say it.
The Kalen DeBoer hate is getting old. Really old.
At some point, we have to stop treating every loss, every recruiting battle, every roster decision and every comment from a national media personality like it is definitive proof that DeBoer cannot succeed at Alabama.
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The latest example comes from Paul Finebaum, who recently said he does not believe Alabama will ever win a national championship under Kalen DeBoer.
Okay. Who cares? Seriously.
Finebaum is entitled to his opinion. That is literally his job. He gets paid to talk about college football, make predictions, offer opinions and generate conversations.
But his opinion is not a prophecy.
It does not determine what Kalen DeBoer will accomplish at Alabama. It does not determine what Alabama football will become over the next several years. And it certainly does not mean Crimson Tide fans need to spend another offseason acting like the sky is falling.
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Can we just give Kalen DeBoer a chance?
Because sometimes it feels like people made up their minds about him before he ever coached his first game in Tuscaloosa.
And I understand why.
He replaced Nick Saban.
That might be the most impossible job in the history of college football.
Saban didn’t simply win at Alabama. He completely changed what we considered normal.
Eleven-win seasons became normal. SEC Championships became normal. National championship appearances became normal. No. 1 recruiting classes became normal. First-round NFL Draft picks became normal. Winning games against ranked opponents became normal. Competing for a championship virtually every season became normal.
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Saban was so incredibly successful for so long that Alabama fans almost forgot how difficult winning at that level actually is.
Then he retired. And Kalen DeBoer walked into the building carrying expectations created by the greatest college football coach of all time.
Think about how ridiculous that is.
We aren’t comparing DeBoer to an average Alabama coach. We aren’t comparing him to a good coach. We aren’t even comparing him to another national championship-winning coach. We are comparing him to Nick freaking Saban.
Nobody is going to win that comparison.
Not Kirby Smart. Not Dan Lanning. Not Ryan Day. Not Dabo Swinney. Not Steve Sarkisian. Nobody.
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So why are we demanding that Kalen DeBoer immediately do something that may never happen again in college football?
That doesn’t mean Alabama should lower its standards.
Absolutely not. This is Alabama.
Championships should be the goal. Competing for the SEC should be the expectation. Recruiting at an elite level should be expected. Developing NFL talent should be expected.
There is a difference, however, between having high standards and having impossible expectations.
And sometimes I think we’ve crossed that line with DeBoer.
Every setback becomes a referendum on whether he is “the guy.” Every loss becomes evidence that Alabama hired the wrong coach. Every player who enters the transfer portal becomes a culture problem. Every recruiting miss becomes proof that Alabama has lost its grip on college football. Every time someone on television says DeBoer can’t win a national championship, people act like the case has officially been closed.
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Why?
Why are we in such a hurry to decide how this story ends?
Maybe Finebaum is right. Maybe Kalen DeBoer never wins a national championship at Alabama. You know what else is possible? Maybe he’s completely wrong.
That’s the beautiful thing about sports. Nobody knows.
If championships were determined by preseason predictions and television opinions, there wouldn’t be much reason to actually play the games. DeBoer deserves the opportunity to write his own story at Alabama before everybody decides what the final chapter says.
And let’s remember who we’re talking about here. This isn’t some random coach Alabama pulled out of nowhere and handed the keys to the program. Kalen DeBoer has won everywhere he has been. He didn’t accidentally end up at Alabama.
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He built a reputation as a winner. He took Washington to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. He proved he could build an elite program, develop players and win massive football games.
That’s why Alabama hired him. Was replacing Saban going to be seamless? Of course not.
How could it be?
Saban spent 17 seasons building Alabama into the most dominant program in modern college football history. His fingerprints were on everything.
The roster. The staff. Recruiting. The culture. The expectations. The facilities. The standard. Then DeBoer arrived and immediately had to navigate a version of college football that looks completely different from the one Saban entered when he came to Tuscaloosa in 2007.
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The transfer portal has changed roster management. NIL has changed recruiting. Revenue sharing has changed the economics of the sport. Players have more freedom than ever before. Coaching staffs change constantly. Rosters can be transformed in a matter of weeks. And patience in college football has almost disappeared entirely.
That is the environment DeBoer inherited. Yet somehow, some people expected him to walk through the doors of the Mal Moore Athletic Facility, put on an Alabama polo and immediately continue the greatest dynasty the sport has ever seen without missing a beat.
Come on. Give the man a chance. And maybe more importantly, give him a chance to be Kalen DeBoer.
He is not Nick Saban. He will never be Nick Saban. And he shouldn’t try to be.
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Saban’s personality worked because it was authentic to Saban. His intensity was authentic. His process was authentic. His demanding coaching style was authentic.
DeBoer is different. That doesn’t automatically mean worse.
Different leadership styles can work. Different personalities can win. Different approaches can build championship programs.
The question shouldn’t be, “Is Kalen DeBoer doing this exactly like Nick Saban would?” The question should be, “Is Kalen DeBoer building something capable of winning championships?”
And that answer requires time.
I know “patience” isn’t exactly a popular word in Tuscaloosa.
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Alabama football fans have been spoiled. I say that as someone who loves Alabama football. We have been unbelievably spoiled.
For nearly two decades, Alabama lived in a world where a two-loss season felt like a disaster. Do you realize how insane that sounds to almost every other fanbase in America?
Programs would celebrate seasons Alabama fans considered disappointing.
That was the standard Nick Saban created.
But Saban was the exception. He was not the rule.
What he accomplished shouldn’t be used as a weapon against every coach who comes after him. And frankly, I think constantly comparing DeBoer to Saban does a disservice to both of them.
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Nick Saban’s legacy doesn’t need protecting. We already know what he accomplished.
Seven national championships overall. Six at Alabama. A dynasty that completely changed college football. One of the greatest coaching careers in the history of American sports.
Nothing Kalen DeBoer does changes that. Now let DeBoer build his own legacy.
Maybe that legacy eventually includes a national championship. Maybe it includes multiple championships. Maybe it doesn’t.
But can we at least let the man coach before we decide? Because the constant negativity has become exhausting. There is criticism, and then there is rooting for somebody to fail just so you can say you were right. Those are two very different things.
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If DeBoer makes a bad coaching decision, criticize it. If Alabama plays poorly, say Alabama played poorly. If recruiting needs to improve, talk about recruiting. If the offense struggles, discuss the offense. That’s sports. That’s fair.
But turning every single thing into “See! DeBoer isn’t Saban!” isn’t analysis.
It’s lazy. Of course he isn’t Saban. Nobody is.
And here’s another question worth asking:
What happens if Kalen DeBoer succeeds? What happens if Alabama gets back to the College Football Playoff? What happens if DeBoer wins the SEC? What happens if he eventually does win a national championship?
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Will the same people who spent years saying he couldn’t do it admit they were wrong?
Probably not. The goalposts will move. That’s usually how this works.
And that is exactly why DeBoer can’t coach based on outside noise.
He can’t build Alabama around Paul Finebaum’s opinion. He can’t make decisions based on social media comments. He can’t spend his tenure trying to prove every critic wrong. He has to build his football program.
Period.
The same applies to Alabama fans.
We don’t have to agree with every decision DeBoer makes. We don’t have to pretend everything is perfect. We don’t have to abandon the championship expectations that make Alabama, Alabama. But maybe we could actually enjoy watching a new era develop instead of spending the entire time mourning the previous one.
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Nick Saban isn’t coming back to coach for the Alabama Crimson Tide. And that’s okay.
What happened under Saban was incredible. It should be celebrated forever. But Alabama football didn’t end when Nick Saban retired.
The program is bigger than one coach. That’s part of what Saban himself spent 17 years building. Now somebody else gets the opportunity to lead it.
That somebody is Kalen DeBoer.
So Paul Finebaum doesn’t think he’ll win a national championship at Alabama? Fine. Maybe he won’t. Maybe he will.
But championships aren’t won on television sets in August.
They’re won through recruiting, development, preparation, leadership, resilience and eventually, when the opportunity presents itself, winning the games that matter most.
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Kalen DeBoer deserves the chance to prove whether he can do that.
Not because Alabama should accept mediocrity. Not because expectations should disappear. And not because criticism isn’t allowed.
He deserves a chance because that’s how sports are supposed to work.
You hire a coach. You let him build. You let him recruit. You let him develop players. You let him establish his culture. You let him make mistakes. You let him learn from them. And then you judge the body of work.
We seem to have skipped all of that and jumped straight to the verdict.
I’m tired of it.
The Kalen DeBoer hate is old. The constant Saban comparisons are old. The declarations that he’ll “never” accomplish something are old. And acting like Alabama football is doomed every time something doesn’t go perfectly is really old.
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Maybe Kalen DeBoer will win a national championship at Alabama. Maybe he won’t. I don’t know. Paul Finebaum doesn’t know either. Nobody does. That’s why they play the games.
So how about we stop trying to predict the ending and give Kalen DeBoer a chance to write the story?
He took on one of the most difficult jobs imaginable when he agreed to follow Nick Saban at Alabama.
He knew the expectations. He knew the pressure. He knew every decision would be scrutinized. And he took the job anyway.Now let him do it.
Give Kalen DeBoer a chance.
Because whether people want to admit it or not, his Alabama story is still being written.
Roll Tide.
