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Kalen DeBoer & Sherrone Moore vs. Mark Helfrich & Larry Coker – Fair to Compare?

Sherrone Moore and Kalen DeBoer face the challenges and perils of replacing GOAT legends.

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Nov 11
Nov 11

By Rock Westfall

Sherrone Moore and Kalen DeBoer face the challenges and perils of replacing GOAT legends. History Shows that inheriting a powerful kingdom is not all it’s cracked up to be. Just ask Larry Coker and Mark Helfrich about inheriting unlimited wealth only to quickly squander it.

The Riches of Inheritance by Sherrone Moore and Kalen DeBoer 

The Michigan Wolverines hired Sherrone Moore to replace Jim Harbaugh as head coach for many reasons. Moore was a Harbaugh assistant from 2018 through 2023 and a brilliant play caller as offensive coordinator in 2023. Thus, he knows the culture and is wired into the power players in Ann Arbor.

Ultimately, Moore clinched the sale by going 4-0 as the fill-in HC when Harbaugh was suspended, including an impressive 3-0 run to end the regular season. Nobody could have done it better.

However, Moore inherited a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that Harbaugh built stem-to-stern. Additionally, each week leading up to the games, the suspended Harbaugh was still allowed to run practices, game planning, and Saturday pregame functions. Moore did nothing to build the program, hire the coaches, develop the culture, or oversee recruiting.

Yet Moore’s performance ignited a media campaign to hire him when Harbaugh left for the NFL. Moore has never been an HC and had the responsibilities that come with that role. Additionally, the Michigan coaching staff and roster will be unrecognizable in 2024. The program has, in many ways, been gutted. Thus, Moore will be held to the 2023 standards that he could handle in a 2024 season in which he faces challenges that he has never dealt with before.

Kalen DeBoer faces most of those challenges in replacing Nick Saban at Alabama. The only difference is that DeBoer has experience in turning around programs as a head coach at Fresno State and Washington. He has overseen recruiting, installed cultures, and hired coaches. This experience gives him a leg up for what he is inheriting at Alabama, which is not anything close to what Saban had in 2023.

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The 2024 Jury is Seated – College Football’s New Landscape is Irrelevant 

In 2024 Sherrone Moore and Kalen DeBoer face challenges that previous replacements of college football kings never confronted. Namely, that is the transfer portal, NIL, and endless recruiting. Indeed, Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban dealt with those issues in the end but had an infrastructure to succeed and more stable staff and rosters because they remained. Now they are gone, and the rules have changed for their successors.

But perception is the reality in life. Fans and media are rarely nuanced or fair, especially in today’s clickbait and instant hot-take world. Thus, Moore and DeBoer will be compared to Harbaugh and Saban, fair or not, and without pity or mercy.

Fans and media will scream, “Well, Harbaugh succeeded at building a dynasty in his final three years after nearly getting fired, and nobody adapted to change better than Saban.” And that is true.

So, in the eyes of fans and media, there is the belief that a great coach should never lose at superpower brands Michigan or Alabama. They are college football legacy and Mount Rushmore programs. Dominance is the public’s most recent memory of both programs. Thus, the expectation of national championships is a reality.

In particular, at Alabama, DeBoer will confront the most spoiled and entitled fan base in all of sports. 

With that in mind, let’s look at two previous failures of fallen kingdoms they inherited 

Mark Helfrich – Collapse After Near Final Conquest 

When Chip Kelly left Oregon for the NFL after three consecutive Top-4 national finishes and an appearance in the national championship game, his four-year offensive coordinator, Mark Helfrich, took over for a seamless transition in 2013.

Helfrich had a role in Kelly’s offense but was dominated by the HC, a play-calling mastermind. Helfrich inherited then-17-year defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti, one of the best in the game. Scott Frost was elevated from wide receivers coach to OC. At first, Helfrich was successful with records of 11-2 and 13-2. That second Helfrich-led Oregon team lost the 2014-15 national championship game.

But when Aliotti retired, things eventually began to unravel. Helfrich hired Don Pellum as his replacement in 2014 and all initially seemed well. However, Frost left after the 2015 campaign, replaced by Matt Lubick. Then Pellum was demoted as DC for a desperation hire, Brady Hoke, in 2016. Oregon quickly eroded with records of 9-4 and 4-8 in Helfrich’s final two seasons.

Helfrich inherited a fully functioning powerhouse, as Moore did in his 2013 four-game fill-in role at Michigan. But once Helfrich oversaw the entire program and was responsible for recruiting and hiring coaches, Oregon collapsed. Once Helfrich lost the infrastructure and protection of Kelly’s program, players, and coaches, he was cooked.

Similarly, through no fault of his own, Moore has lost much of that in the offseason at Michigan. Harbaugh pirated several coaches and staff members, and Harbaugh’s players blitzed the portal.

All of a sudden, the genius in the four-game fill-in is finding that it’s a lot different when you have everything on your plate. 

Larry Coker – The Conqueror With No Clothes

In 2001 Miami offensive coordinator and QB coach Larry Coker replaced recruiting machine Butch Davis, who went on to the NFL Cleveland Browns as head coach. Davis bequeathed Coker a turn-key superpower with one of the best rosters in college football history. The Hurricanes were a virtual pro team.

At first, Coker spent his inheritance well, winning his first 24 games and a 2001-02 national championship. But following a controversial loss in the 2002-03 national championship game to Ohio State, things were never the same. In Coker’s final four years, he went 11-2, 9-3, 9-3, and 7-6 before being fired. The offense went through two coordinator changes at the end while the defense slipped under Randy Shannon.

But Coker’s biggest failure was a precipitous drop in recruiting, which was far below Butch Davis levels. Miami’s coaches soon discovered the Barry Switzer proverb about how great players create brilliant coaches. 

Legends and Brands vs. Realities

Kalen DeBoer has a distinct advantage over Sherrone Moore based on his previous experience of quickly rebuilding programs into contenders. But both coaches are inheriting superpower brands that may not necessarily have superpower rosters. Neither will get more than three years and perhaps only two to prove they can make a serious national championship run.

The adage is that you don’t want to replace the man but instead replace the man who replaced the man. It takes tremendous courage and self-confidence to replace a GOAT. Indeed, things can get ugly in a hurry. Consider Gene Bartow, who replaced John Wooden; Ray Perkins, who replaced Bear Bryant; or Garry Gibbs, who replaced Barry Switzer. And as mentioned Helfrich and Coker.  

Fair or not, DeBoer and Moore know what they signed up for.

Or do they?

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