Deontae Lawson emphatically defends Kalen DeBoer after Alabama’s CFP loss
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Deontae Lawson played his final game in an Alabama uniform on New Year’s Day afternoon, and it didn’t go particularly well.
The Crimson Tide were drilled by Indiana in a 38-3 rout that sent the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff semifinals and Bama to a long offseason full of questions and frustration. A lot of that frustration and a lot of those questions were already being aimed at head coach Kalen DeBoer, who led the Tide to the Playoff in his 2nd season after replacing Nick Saban but left a forgettable last impression with that ugly final score.
Everybody was coming after DeBoer on Thursday. There was ESPN sports analyst Stephen A. Smith. There were the fanatics on social media. And ESPN analyst Desmond Howard even questioned Alabama’s effort as the game dragged on.
But Lawson wasn’t having any of it in his postgame press conference, defending DeBoer to every reporter who would listen. When Lawson was interrupted by a reporter’s question on another subject, he politely said, “I’m not done.”
“Coach DeBoer is an excellent coach. He’s a true players’ coach. His future here will be remembered, that’s all I can say. He cares for us. He cares for his players. He’s always wanting to get better,” Lawson said. “Like I said, his future will definitely be remembered.”
Lawson had a stellar career in Tuscaloosa, starting under the legendary Saban before playing his final two seasons under DeBoer.
His basic message to reporters and the Alabama football community on his way out the door: Don’t go too crazy going after DeBoer. Instead, give him some time to build something.
That message might be hard to take for Tide fans right now in the aftermath of the season-ending loss, but Lawson believes in DeBoer and wants everybody else to as well.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
