Alabama football just can’t stay out of the spotlight, and the heat is only rising. After missing the playoffs with a loss to Indiana, pressure is already building on Kalen DeBoer to turn things around in his third season with the team. Even former players are criticizing the program, but the staff isn’t backing down and is responding strongly.
It all started when defensive back Earl Little Jr., who now plays at Ohio State, compared his current team to Alabama and made it pretty clear how Alabama didn’t live up to the mark.
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“The level of competition day in and day out,” Little said. “At Alabama, we didn’t compete in the weight room like we do here. Literally, with everything you‘re doing at Ohio State, you’re gonna compete, and you have to be your best every single day.”
That’s when Alabama football alum and former safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix took the entire matter into his hands and responded to it with extreme sarcasm and criticism.
“This has to be AI, no way he said that. Earl is 3 years removed from this organization. Don’t believe this BS,” Clinton-Dix said on X.
Clinton-Dix is not just defending a retired legend. As DeBoer’s current Director of Player Development, he is actively building today’s locker room culture. By dismissing Little Jr.’s comments, he is sending a clear message to current players that Alabama’s competitive standard remains elite.
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Earl Little played at Alabama in 2022 and 2023 under Nick Saban, not under current coach Kalen DeBoer. So, when he talks about his experience, he is taking a dig at Saban, not DeBoer. Everyone knows how strong Saban’s influence was. He led Alabama to six championships and kept the program very strict and disciplined. Still, after he retired, some players like safety Caleb Downs quickly decided to leave and join other teams.
Now, Kalen DeBoer is facing the challenge of living up to that high standard. His tough losses against teams like FSU, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, and Michigan, along with missing the playoffs, have raised questions. Despite the questions raised about Saban’s system being something that’s shocking for Clinton-Dix, that’s exactly why he made such a bold comment.
Under Saban, the training was extremely disciplined and based on perfection. Those players were built on a mindset of “do it again until perfect.” So when Little compares it with his new team, that doesn’t mean it was bad; it’s just that he is seeing more competition there, and it’s pretty evident that more doesn’t always mean better.
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Nick Saban was extremely tough when it came to training his players. Back in his coaching days, one story was very famous for his approach and how his players were confused when he placed trash cans around the gym even before practice.
“You better not throw up on my floor,” Saban said. “You got to throw up, you go throw up in one of these trash cans.”
Clinton Dix, who has played under Nick Saban, knows how well he has built Alabama. He was part of their 2011 championship-winning team. Though his tenure was filled with issues related to suspension for unspecified team rules violations and injury, like arthroscopic surgery for a torn meniscus in his knee, he learned all game aspects from Saban. Now, it’s not just about Saban’s system but also Kalen DeBoer’s too.
Kalen DeBoer’s strength development raises questions
Unlike Earl Little, people also think the team became less intense after strength coach Scott Cochran left in 2020, and particularly following the transition to the Kalen DeBoer era in 2024, but others say that is not the case. They believe the training is still very tough, just done differently.
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Strength coach David Ballou uses a more science-based system where coaches track every exercise, measuring things like power and performance in real time. Then the players are also ranked on daily leaderboards based on their results. Ballou explains the transition himself.
“They can see the power that’s being put out, the reps, the sets,” Ballou said. “Everything is there, everything’s collected, everything’s recorded, and it sets for a competition piece to it, OK? And these guys compete their butt off. They always have here, and that’s continued.”
College football has changed a lot in recent years. New rules like the transfer portal and NIL allow players to switch teams more easily and also earn money. This new era of college football, defined by the transfer portal and NIL, gives players like Little the freedom to switch teams and openly share their opinions
