How do you replace a legend? Kalen DeBoer is bringing his own style to Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – Kalen DeBoer taps the glass coffee table in front of him.

“This used to have rings, didn’t it?” he asks.

Few items in Nick Saban’s old Alabama office were more memorable than that coffee table—the centerpiece of a sitting area adjacent to his wide wooden desk, the resting place for dozens of bowling rings and championship, the gilded souvenirs piled on top of each other in their velvet jewelry boxes to form the ingredients for the sport’s best recruiting camp.

Nestled between a pair of cushioned armchairs and a brown leather sofa, the polished wood coffee table displayed nearly two decades of history, artifacts of perhaps the greatest dynasty college football has ever seen – a dominant period that featured 201 wins, nine SEC titles and six national championships.

The coffee table is gone, replaced by an unoccupied glass version. The rings are also absent. So do Saban’s famous hat rack, his family photos, autographed footballs, framed photos from trips to the White House, baseball caps and trophies.

For the most part, the Alabama head coaching job is virtually empty. It was left that way by its former coach and maintained that way by its current coach in preparation for a renovation this spring of a clearly dated space, with wooden walls and floors products of yesteryear.

In Tuscaloosa, change is truly here.

Saban, brash, harsh and relentlessly demanding, is no longer in charge of Alabama football. Just days before the team’s spring game, a very different leader walks these halls: DeBoer, kind, friendly and welcoming.

The two are, perhaps, polar opposites. A hardened 72-year-old man with a defensive background, regimented and abrasive versus a 49-year-old offensive guru and South Dakotan who is talkative and approachable.

Things are more relaxed here, you might say. Calmer. People seem less nervous. There’s music at practice, fewer team meetings, and assistant coaches regularly speak to the media (gasp!).

DeBoer describes this as a “vibe” originating from himself: laid-back, comfortable, laid-back. That doesn’t mean he isn’t intense at times. He can be all of those things – brash and demanding. But he’s not like that all the time. And maybe that’s okay.

“Your experiences shape who you are. I’ve heard a lot of people say they don’t know which way is best,” says DeBoer, looking across the coffee table. “Ultimately, the basis of what it takes to win football games is more similar than different. You have to be physical, disciplined, you have to have attitude and create arrogance and have confidence.

“That comes a lot from hard work and building a team mentality. I think a lot of those things Coach Saban would say.”

He’s right, of course. The recipe may be different but the ingredients are always the same. It’s not changing its cooking process because of its predecessor.

DeBoer, a receiver for NAIA Sioux Falls in the 1990s, learned an important lesson long ago from his former college coach, Bob Young: Be yourself. In his first year as head coach, Young tried to emulate Vince Lombardi.

“He would lay down the law,” DeBoer laughs. “That didn’t go well. He wasn’t like that. I will always remember that.”

In hiring Saban’s replacement, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne’s goal was clear: Hire the best coach possible, he said.

“If our goal was to hire another Nick Saban, there isn’t another Nick Saban,” says Byrne. “Whenever you change coaches, it will be different. We knew this would be the case. One is not right and the other is not wrong.”

DeBoer’s access and honesty are a bit peculiar for someone in this role because he’s not yet familiar with this role — the head coach of a $10 million-a-year blue-blood SEC powerhouse.

Is he pinching himself? Of course he is.

Just six years ago, he was offensive coordinator at Fresno State. He spent just one year of his career as a Power Five coordinator (Indiana, 2019). And a decade ago, he was struggling to a 3-21 record in his first two seasons as coordinator at Eastern Michigan.

“There were some moments where you said, ‘This is difficult,’” DeBoer acknowledged. “In my first 15 years of coaching, I averaged about $50,000 a year.”

But a humble upbringing at the Group of Five and NAIA levels turned into one of the most surprising starts to a head coaching career in recent college football history. He missed 12 games in nine seasons as head coach (Sioux Falls, Fresno State and Washington). He won three championships (all NAIA in Sioux Falls), three bowl games, five conference titles and a playoff berth. He taught some of the game’s most brilliant defenders and commanded the sport’s most electric attacks.

Now he’s here — in a place where the passion for college football is unparalleled, where he arrived in January to thousands of fans at the Tuscaloosa airport, where hundreds of donors showed up for a spring practice. And then they want to hear you speak.

“Everyone hangs on every word you say all the time,” he said.

DeBoer is the father of two daughters — one, a high school senior who will remain in Seattle to play softball at Washington; and another, a sixth grader whose passion is horses. The family will soon close on a house in Tuscaloosa and next week will sell their home in Seattle.

He hasn’t ventured out much since getting here, his sole focus is preparing the team at the facility or in his temporary housing on campus (yes, he’s gotten lost a few times and, no, he hasn’t tried Alabama’s famous barbecue ribs yet).

On the field, he takes over a program that is far from in bad shape. Based on the latest results, it’s in great shape: The Crimson Tide won 12 games last season, won the SEC championship and advanced to the playoffs.

This is not a you-can-only-move-up-from-here kind of job. You can go down from here, go down a lot, or maybe if you’re lucky, you can stay the same. To stay the same, you’ll only have to win a national title every three seasons.

Unrealistic expectations? Dead end situation? Clear.

During Alabama’s search for a coach in January, one question loomed large across the industry: Who wants to replace a legend?

“You want to replace the guy who replaced the guy,” one coach said bluntly.

DeBoer is a realist.

“Yes, I understand,” he says, “but I don’t think anyone is going to put more pressure on me than myself. I understand that there are a lot more eyes and criticism. It’s on another level here, I’m sure.”

In DeBoer, Alabama has found someone who embraces those lofty expectations, Byrne says. But he is also a realist.

“Does this mean we’re going to win the national championship every year?” Byrne asks. “No, we won’t, but will he put us in position for that opportunity? We are confident he will.”

DeBoer says much of the necessary “infrastructure” already exists in Alabama, the product of years of Sabanization of the Crimson Tide program. He left largely unchanged, his takeover a mix of old guard and newcomers. He retained coaches such as Freddie Roach and Robert Gillespie, head coach Jeff Allen, head strength coach David Ballou, as well as program operations director Ellis Ponder.

These are people, DeBoer describes, who “helped this place become what it is.”

“You think about Alabama football, you think about Coach Saban, but there’s more to it than that,” DeBoer says. “He put in many years of work to make this program bigger than one person.”

That said, the Saban Effect, as many describe it, endures here, despite his office renovation.

There are plenty of reminders — from the national title trophies in the facility’s main lobby to the coach’s giant face gracing one wall. DeBoer himself sees this in the team. Saban left a team made up of former four- and five-star players whose work ethic and focus impressed his new coach.

How can they be so physical and offensive one minute and so focused and poised the next?

“I can’t say it’s surprising, but it’s impressive to see,” DeBoer said.

Meanwhile, his predecessor watches from afar.

While his influence endures, Saban has been mostly absent from football facilities. In fact, he didn’t participate in any spring practices and wouldn’t dare, as he has for years, participate in defensive team meetings.

However, he plans to attend Alabama’s spring game this Saturday and welcomed defensive coordinator Kane Wommack to his new office at Bryant-Denny Stadium for defensive meetings.

Early in his tenure, DeBoer spoke daily with Saban about personnel decisions and issues. Even so, the two talk from time to time. But it’s clear that Saban purposefully, and perhaps wisely, withdrew from the program he built.

This is DeBoer’s team now. And that’s quite evident inside the Alabama facility, on the practice field and inside the coach’s office.

“The old man is gone,” as one person said.

And the same goes for that coffee table, the rings and much more.