Kalen DeBoer comments on notion that Alabama is ‘flying under the radar’ entering 2026
Published:
It’s a rarity in Tuscaloosa for the hometown Crimson Tide to be entering a season outside of the general mix of national-title contenders, but such is the case in 2026.
Coming off back-to-back campaigns in which the program lost 4 games, the seat is only getting hotter for Kalen DeBoer as he hopes to right the ship with a stronger postseason performance this fall.
During his SEC Media Day appearance on Wednesday, DeBoer was asked about how he is approaching the lack of hype surrounding his current team.
“I understand why with a lot of new faces. And that’s okay, because we got to go prove it. We got to go out and get the job done,” DeBoer said. “That’s really how I feel every year. It doesn’t matter how many guys return. Last year we returned 16 seniors and had to go prove it. We had to go decide what we were going to accomplish, decide and commit to the process, commit to what we needed to do to get it done, and then make sure that action supported the goals we had.”
RELATED: Looking for a new DFS app? Consider Boom Sports! Here’s a Boom Fantasy promo code exclusively from SDS!
DeBoer added that he believes 2025 served as a foundational year for even bigger things in the future, while also acknowledging that there are still areas where his program can improve as it hopes to calm an anxious fan base.
“This team has a lot of new faces. For us, we felt we took some good steps in the right direction a year ago,” DeBoer said. “Feel like there is a foundation of toughness and resiliency, and there are some things we got to continue to get better at. So until we prove it, we understand there will be doubt, because those expectations as we talked about, are extremely high in the program.”
Here are the latest SEC Championship odds on Kalshi:
Parker is currently the sports editor for Gulf Coast Media in Foley, Alabama. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
