Appreciate what Kalen DeBoer just capped off with this 4-game stretch vs. ranked foes
Published:
If you thought the Kalen DeBoer era was smoked after the opener at Florida State, you wouldn’t have believed the feat he clinched as the smoke filled the Tuscaloosa air.
Four games, 4 weeks, 4 wins vs. AP Top 25 foes without any bye or extra rest in between. DeBoer became the first coach in SEC history to do that (H/T Chuck Dunlap), and he did it in convincing fashion on Saturday by closing out a lopsided 37-20 Alabama victory against No. 11 Tennessee.
It’s a feat that his predecessor, some guy named “Nick Saban,” never accomplished. To be fair, there’s a reason for that. Saban didn’t get the opportunity. In his 3 chances to earn 3 consecutive wins vs. AP Top 25 teams (without any byes), he was 1-2 in those stretches. In the lone instance that Saban reached a 3-week stretch with 3 consecutive wins vs. AP Top 25 teams (2016), he did actually get that 4th consecutive win against a ranked foe, but it had a bye week preceding it.
Don’t get it twisted. That’s not my way of saying that we need to bust out side-by-sides of DeBoer and the G.O.A.T. We’re decades from entertaining such a thing.
But let’s put things into perspective for a second. DeBoer is now 19-3 vs. AP Top 25 teams as an FBS head coach. Yeah, he’s got more losses to unranked foes during his time at Alabama (4) than he has lifetime losses to AP Top 25 teams. Weird. I won’t try to explain that one.
I do know that as part of this 4-game streak of AP Top 25 wins, 1 of them was against the most successful coach in the sport (Kirby Smart) against a team that hadn’t lost a home game at night since 2009, while another came against a Mizzou team who hadn’t lost a home game in 2 years. What about the other 2, you ask? Double-digit home wins in revenge games.
Oh, and did I mention that 1-loss Tennessee was the only team in that stretch who had a loss before the Alabama game? And that it was an overtime loss to Georgia? Yeah, those teams are 23-1 vs. the non-Alabama teams on their schedules in 2025.
Poke holes in the 4-game stretch if you want. I’ll instead default to that.
DeBoer handled the type of stretch that’s supposed to chew coaches up and spit them out. Look across the conference and you’ll see plenty of examples of that. Instead, look at an Alabama team who continues to rise to the occasion.
You can point to the massive strides made by Ty Simpson, who again delivered another poised performance, albeit with some imperfect moments. He’d be the first to admit that. He’s a cut off the old Saban block.
You can also point to a defense that, while also imperfect, has learned how to make the crucial play to flip momentum. On Saturday night, that came in the form of a 99-yard interception by Zabien Brown at the end of the first half that completely derailed Tennessee’s chances.
That felt eerily similar to the 2019 play that Trevon Diggs made with a 100-yard fumble return as Tennessee was about to make it a 1-score game. Nobody will confuse this era of Alabama football with that one. Go tell anyone from that 2019 Alabama coaching staff that the 2025 Tide would allow at least 6 yards per carry in all 4 of those games and still beat 4 consecutive AP Top 25 times. Different times, these are.
They were always going to feel different. Shoot, we’ve got an Alabama head coach who is following trends on his sideline attire choice (DeBoer is 14-2 in the black hoodie now). If that doesn’t tell you how different Alabama is under DeBoer, I don’t know what will.
But the common denominator is that, much like the golden age of Tide football, the path to Atlanta is there for the Tide’s taking heading into the last weekend of October. That’s all anybody in crimson could’ve asked for when this stretch began.
Again, it began with handing Georgia its first home loss at night since 2009. Have I mentioned that yet? Just a couple times? Good. It’s worth repeating.
It’s also worth repeating that DeBoer was written off before the calendar turned to September. If he had lost any 1 of those 4 games for Alabama’s second loss, you can bet his buyout that he would’ve heard about, well, his buyout.
That’s now the last thought that should be on the minds of Alabama fans. Instead, we should probably acknowledge that against Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee, DeBoer is 5-1. He’s the one with the quarterback at the top of the Heisman Trophy odds and he’s the only one in that group who has yet to suffer an SEC loss in 2025.
All of that is relevant context for DeBoer, who still hasn’t lost a home game since he became a Power Conference head coach. He’s in Year 4 of that, yet there are still skeptics that he’s not cut out for this.
It was fair to be skeptical of his team’s outlook after Week 1. Seven weeks later, any skepticism about DeBoer and his 2025 squad should fall on deaf ears.
Those words can fade into a haze of smoke.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
