Kalen DeBoer is a brave man. Following Nick Saban at Alabama is brave and also somewhat stupid. But don’t feel bad for DeBoer now. The dude makes more than $10 million a year, he left Washington in his wake and took many of his best players with him when he headed to Tuscaloosa and now he’s about to feel the wrath of Alabama fans. And that’s the risk he took.
DeBoer is a very good coach. Hjs 108-13 record speaks to that and his win over Georgia last week had everyone thinking there would be no letdown after Saban left. But everyone was wrong.
Vanderbilt was nearly a 30-point underdog at home. They were 0-60 against top five programs and about 80% of the fans in attendance in Nashville were supporting the Tide. This game should have been a walk over. And not only did DeBoer allow his team to let down after the Georgia game, he let them lose to the laughingstock of the SEC.
Nick Saban lost to an unranked team as the No. 1 team in the country when Texas A&M beat Alabama in 2021. But the Aggies were a pre-season top 10 program and the only week they were unranked that season was the week they faced Bama. They finished 8-4 and have had wins over top five programs before. Vanderbilt lost to Georgia State this season and this was their biggest win in program history. Simply put, this is embarrassing.
Morons will point to Saban losing to Louisiana-Monroe at home in his first season at Alabama. But Saban inherited a program fresh off horrible coaching by Mike Shula and a team fresh off NCAA sanctions. DeBoer inherited a team that was an overtime loss from a national title appearance last year and a program that has won six national titles since 2007. There is no excuse for this loss, none.
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DeBoer took the money and ran off to Tuscaloosa. He didn’t blink at replacing a legend and arguably the best college football coach ever. And now he has to face the heat. It was bound to get bad for him sooner or later but none of us saw a loss to Vanderbilt in season one. It sounds ridiculous to say for a 4-1 coach whose team will remain in the top 10 and still likely to make the playoffs, but the temperature on DeBoer’s seat went up a few degrees after Saturday.
