Kalen DeBoer gave the honest answer about his Year 1 that I hoped he would
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ATLANTA — I knew that it was an open-ended question, but I wanted to see how Kalen DeBoer would answer it. So on Wednesday when the Year 2 Alabama coach took the podium at SEC Media Days, I asked him about something that I’ve wondered about now that he’s 7 months removed from it.
Did he think his Year 1 lived up to the Bama standard?
“In which way?” DeBoer asked me. “To me personally?”
Fair question. There are a whole lot of different interpretations of that. For some, the Bama standard is just winning national championships and nothing else. For others, they could point to the fact that DeBoer won as many games as any Year 1 coach at Alabama since Frank Thomas in 1931, and argue that was indeed “living up to the standard.”
So I said, “your interpretation of the Alabama standard.”
“If you internally ask us, no. We fell short of making the Playoff, it’s as simple as that, right?” DeBoer said. “Giving yourself a chance to go compete for a championship. I think there’s a lot of things that I’m super proud of that have happened within the program that are part of the progression. Yeah, we want it right now, too. Yeah, we fell short. Our guys, again, I’m proud of them and the way they’ve responded to us not realizing the goals that we set out to have, getting back to work, focusing on the main thing. I feel that’s always been the case. Sometimes there’s ups and downs that you have to go through unfortunately that we had to experience.
“But in the end, we’re going to take advantage of the failures we’ve had and be better because of it.”
If I’m an Alabama fan, I’m relieved that’s the perspective. DeBoer didn’t offer up some spin zone about the challenges of the 30-day transfer portal window that was opened following Nick Saban‘s retirement. Good, because that could be countered with the fact that Alabama still ranked No. 1 in the country in the 247Sports team talent composite. He returned Jalen Milroe, AKA the guy who finished highest in the Heisman Trophy voting among all returning players heading into 2024. There were pieces in place to make the Playoff.
Does that acknowledgement guarantee that Year 2 will have a different ending than Year 1? Of course not. Lord knows Alabama beating unranked teams used to be a guarantee from 2008-20, but last year reminded us that losing to 3 unranked teams made every game feel like a mystery.
My interpretation of the Alabama standard is never losing 4 games, which Alabama hadn’t done in 17 years. Any sort of acceptance of that would’ve made Saban roll over in his … well, it just would’ve made him fire off a bunch of “aights” with some sort of “revenge tour” storyline at SEC Media Days if he were still running things.
DeBoer hasn’t earned the right to have any sort of “revenge tour” storyline because he’s still trying to establish himself in the SEC. As he learned, winning road games is no picnic. Three road losses? That’s not the Bama standard, either.
“Being on the road, playing better on the road, certainly has to be a point that happens this year in our football program,” DeBoer said.
I suppose the hiring of Ryan Grubb and willingness to shake up his offensive staff hierarchy was an acknowledgment that 2024 didn’t live up to DeBoer’s interpretation of the Bama standard. The move that was 2 years in the making — don’t forget that Saban tried to poach him from DeBoer’s Washington staff ahead of the 2023 season — will continue to be at the foundation of any Year 2 jump discussion.
For DeBoer, having his primary play-caller back is perhaps the only reason that there’s not panic about the new-look Alabama offense, which has a combined 0 FBS starts at quarterback. The DeBoer standard might not quite be Michael Penix Jr. levels of production, but he was hired to have a high-powered offense.
Finding Year 2 consistency is the standard
All signs point to Ty Simpson being responsible for that. He was the one who DeBoer said (again) would be Alabama’s starter if they were playing a game tomorrow. It’s worth noting that Alabama was 1 of the 5 SEC teams that didn’t bring a quarterback. Make of that what you will. Barring some sort of drastic fall camp setback to Simpson, it’d be surprising to see Austin Mack or true freshman Keelon Russell take Alabama’s first snaps of the season at Florida State.
The Bama standard at quarterback is a bit more straightforward. Each of the last 4 starting quarterbacks finished in the top 6 in the Heisman Trophy voting during their time at Alabama. Mind you, that doesn’t even include Jalen Hurts, who won SEC Offensive Player of the Year as a true freshman in 2016, but didn’t finish in the top 6 in the Heisman voting until he transferred to Oklahoma.
Milroe didn’t live up to that, though we didn’t need DeBoer to come out and say that. The latter was loyal to Milroe, perhaps to a fault. Simpson only attempted 1 pass in an Alabama loss last year. There was clearly a square peg, round hole element to the Milroe-DeBoer dynamic. One would think that won’t be a season-long issue with DeBoer and Simpson. After all, Mack and Russell were both DeBoer’s recruits. That’ll linger if Simpson struggles at any point in 2025.
The good news for DeBoer is that Year 1 was never going to define his time at Alabama. Replacing the G.O.A.T. was always going to be a 1-of-1 situation. Winning a title was always going to be how DeBoer was evaluated. Perhaps that was never going to happen in Year 1.
For now, Alabama fans can take solace in DeBoer’s approach. He’s neither defensive nor insecure after Year 1 in the SEC. It’s a different standard than anywhere he’s been.
It’s as simple as that, right?
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.
