If you’re already predicting Kalen DeBoer’s demise at Alabama because he’s never been part of a coaching staff south of Carbondale, Ill., this won’t be the column for you.

I realize that just wiped out plenty of people who still believe that you need Southern roots to succeed in the SEC.

That crowd conveniently ignores that Nick Saban, Les Miles, Urban Meyer and Brian Kelly all walked into the SEC without Southern ties and did just fine. That crowd conveniently ignores that Jimbo Fisher, Jeremy Pruitt and Will Muschamp all had Southern ties out of the wazoo and did just horribly. That crowd believes that every coach without Southern ties will be done by the end of Year 2 like Bryan Harsin and Joe Moorhead.

Sorry, that crowd. DeBoer’s ability to succeed the greatest coach in college football history is to be determined.

He was hired Friday in part because he was the head coach for a team that played for all the marbles earlier this week. But Greg Byrne’s decision to make DeBoer the guy wasn’t just because of 1 season at Washington. If “make a national championship game” was the lone prerequisite, he would’ve interviewed Sonny Dykes, Ed Orgeron and Mark Helfrich, all of whom did just that in the 4-team Playoff era.

Nah, he wanted a ball coach. That’s what DeBoer is.

You can say he doesn’t have Southern roots, or that he doesn’t have a ton of big-time experience. He does have a 104-12 record as a head coach at 3 schools, with 11-win seasons in 7 of the 9 years that he’s been a head coach. That doesn’t include the fact that he spent the entire 2010s decade working his way up the FBS ranks as an offensive coordinator.

Ah, but now is the part where you tell me that a 25-3 record at Washington didn’t matter while conveniently leaving out the fact that he took over a 4-8 team that wasn’t exactly stocked with a loaded cupboard of talent.

You’re right, DeBoer skeptic. The Pac-12 isn’t the SEC. The second he loses a game, I’m sure you’ll bring that up. I’m also sure that you’ll leave out how deep the Pac-12 was in 2023, and all DeBoer did was win every game against the conference, including 2 against the Year 2 coach/Alabama target with Southern roots, Dan Lanning. As an underdog in the Playoff, DeBoer also did that to fellow Alabama candidate Steve Sarkisian, who had Texas’ best team in 14 years.

Does that guarantee success for DeBoer in Tuscaloosa? Of course not. History isn’t too kind to the “guy replacing the legend,” especially when the legend doesn’t have some late tail-off like Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno. DeBoer’s task is closer to what Frank Solich dealt with after Tom Osborne walked off a national champ at Nebraska. Solich bled Big Red in ways that few humans did, yet he was fired at the end of a 9-3 season in Year 6 even though he won more games to that point than  predecessors Osborne and Bob Devaney.

So much will go into this that’ll determine DeBoer’s success. Can he hire the right play-caller? Early reports suggest that Washington could replace DeBoer with OC Ryan Grubb, who established himself as one of the elite play-callers in 2022. That’s why Nick Saban interviewed him for Alabama’s OC vacancy ahead of the 2023 season.

Yes, DeBoer will need to hire a staff that has Southern ties. That’s what Saban, Miles, Meyer and Kelly did.

He’ll need to have the full support of Alabama boosters. Like, the same Alabama boosters who were willing to defer to Saban when he became the first $4 million coach in college football. Sure, he’ll have to win some of them over. If DeBoer takes the Harsin approach and doesn’t attend the right functions or pretends that he’s above that, yes, that’ll hurt him.

In this adapt-or-die world, though, DeBoer already looks like he’s up for the task. In 2 seasons at Washington, he signed 12 transfers from Power 5 programs, including Heisman Trophy runner-up Michael Penix Jr. (Indiana) and star running back Dillon Johnson (Mississippi State).

Ah, but now is the part where you remind me that this is Alabama, where you should be developing from within and continuing to lean heavily on high school recruiting instead of hoping to catch lightning in a bottle in the transfer portal. There’s something to be said for that. Ideally, the heart and soul of Alabama’s roster isn’t some patchwork job with uncertainties galore.

Fine. Tell me about guys like Rome Odunze, Bralen Trice, Ja’Lynn Polk, Jalen McMillan, Troy Fautanu and Edefuan Ulofoshio. Granted, he didn’t recruit them, but they all became studs once DeBoer and Co. arrived. There’s a good chance that you won’t have to wait long to hear their names called in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Maybe that mass exodus — the aforementioned Penix and Johnson are also off to the NFL — led to DeBoer’s decision to leave Washington for a job like Alabama. Whatever the case, DeBoer wasn’t scared off by his lack of geographical ties, or that he’s replacing someone who won 6 national titles and 11 games in his each of his final 13 years on the job.

I’d argue the latter will be tougher for DeBoer to overcome.

Then again, there’s a dirty little secret when it comes to coaching hires in college football — nobody really knows. You could argue that the 3 of the splashiest hires of the 4-team Playoff era were Fisher at A&M, Scott Frost at Nebraska and Tom Herman at Texas. How did all of those end up? It’s still too early to say if Lincoln Riley will live up to the splash he came into USC with, and you could say the same for Kelly at LSU, though a pair of 10-win seasons and an SEC West title don’t scream “massive disappointment.”

Mind you, Kelly’s northern roots were supposed to hold him back. While the internet dogged his attempt at a Southern accent and his too-close-for-comfort dance moves, go ask LSU fans how they feel about Kelly’s wholesale changes to that defensive staff after a disappointing Year 2. They’re ecstatic. They’re not sitting here wondering how a Yankee like Kelly got a 9-figure contract to coach in the Bayou.

DeBoer has a path to success in Tuscaloosa. It might not be wide-open, but in the 12-team Playoff era, maybe we’ll even see a more manageable set of expectations from Tide fans.

Nah, just kidding. It’s still Alabama.

The good news for DeBoer is that he won’t have to compete against the man who set the standard in the SEC for the better part of 2 decades. He’ll just have to replace him.

The DeBoer era at Alabama has arrived. He’ll have plenty of time to familiarize himself with his new Southern digs.

DeBoer will start winning games, earning support — and Southern hospitality — in no time.