Do you want to talk about pressure? How is that:
You’re 30 years old and you’re a head coach for the first time. You replaced a legend at his alma mater who was also his mentor, and the local paper writes that you have “huge shoes to fill.” The media chooses your team as the big favorite to win the conference.
Fast forward to 15 years later. It’s 2020. You’re a Division I coach for the first time with a Bowl Subdivision team and your inaugural season is played in the middle of a pandemic.
A few years later, you make your Power Five coaching debut. You inherit a program that went from 4 to 8.
Despite everything, you never go through a losing season. You win almost every game over nine seasons. You build a career that results in Alabama hiring you to replace the irreplaceable.
No pressure, right?
Kalen De Boer frames this as an opportunity.
“Embracing the moment is a privilege you have being at a place like Alabama,” first-year Alabama coach DeBoer told me recently during an exclusive interview. “Then have fun.”
DeBoer, 49, has faced pressure at every stage of his career. Each time, it has proven itself to be a smashing success.
That first coaching job at Sioux Falls, DeBoer’s alma mater? DeBoer won 67 games and three NAIA national championships in five seasons.
The pandemic season at Fresno State launched a two-year run that led DeBoer to Washington. There, he stabilized a disorganized program and catapulted the Huskies to the national championship game at warp speed.
Let’s face it, none of this compares to the pressure DeBoer will face at Alabama when he succeeds Nick Saban. If he gets off to a slow start in Alabama, DeBoer will face enough heat to make even believers sweat in church.
To train in Saban’s shadowWhile Saban maintains a position at Alabama and pontificates on ESPN, he will accept one of the most high-pressure assignments in college football history.
It’s also quite a job.
“A lot of people would love to be in your shoes,” DeBoer said. “That’s how you should look at things.”
Alabama to College Football Playoff? Kalen DeBoer accepts challenge
When I ask DeBoer about running toward that challenge, he offers a clarification: He sees it less as an attraction to a challenge—it’s not as if replacing Saban was his career goal—and more as an acceptance of a great opportunity. of coaching a historic program backed by a powerful brand.
But yes, he is also up for a challenge.
“I can’t say I intentionally look at where you see challenges and want to address them,” DeBoer said, “but when you’re in a situation like this, there’s an excitement of the challenge. That’s what I like.”
DeBoer has built a talented roster, though he faces more questions, especially on defense, than Alabama was used to under Saban.
The SEC did not grant DeBoer any scheduling favors. The Tide will face Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, LSU and Oklahoma, all of which could be preseason Top 15 teams.
More than two losses would put Alabama on shaky footing for the first 12-team College Football Playoff.
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Still, making the playoffs is an expectation for Alabama. DeBoer won’t deny that.
“This program has the expectation of being championship caliber and involved in the playoffs every year,” DeBoer said. “And so that’s easier said than done, especially here with a schedule like we have this year, but that’s the expectation.”
I appreciate this response. DeBoer could have deflected, hesitated, or immediately started discussing “process” rather than concrete goals. (In fact, the lawsuit came later.) Instead, he recognized reality. Making the playoffs should be the minimum of expectations for Alabama. If you’re bold enough to replace Saban, you better embrace the mission.
“I’m going to put everything into this program every day and have the confidence and belief that it will be enough to achieve the goals and meet the expectations that this program has,” DeBoer said.
Kalen DeBoer’s Rural Beginnings and Grounded Confidence
DeBoer’s predecessor loved being the voice of college football. Saban had some charm and humor, but his specialties were crushing opponents and lecturing from his bully pulpit. He talked about everything from scheduling to fast-track offenses and NIL collectives. I still hear Saban saying: Is this what we want football to be?
DeBoer comes out more discreet. He is confident but reserved. Self-confident but grounded. He reminds me of someone I might meet in the rural Midwest.
DeBoer grew up in Milbank, South Dakota. Population: 3,544. A city with traffic lights at just two intersections.
Milbank gave rise to American Legion Baseball. It’s the home of Valley Queen Cheese, a company with a straightforward slogan: “We make dairy.” You do not say.
Farmland surrounds Milbank. A John Deere dealership resides at the city’s doorstep.
To find the nearest city of 25,000, you would travel to Aberdeen (population 28,000), west of Milbank on Highway 12. DeBoer spontaneously recites the exact distance between the cities.
“Aberdeen is right there – 96 miles,” he said.
Just a little trip.
What to do in Milbank? Play sports – DeBoer has starred in several – and coaching Little League during the summer.
Becoming an SEC football coach wouldn’t be in DeBoer’s vision board.
“I never would have imagined being a college coach in any capacity when I was that age,” he said. “Even going to college, probably early in high school, and playing football probably would have been something that would have surprised me, if you had told me that’s what’s going to happen.
“It’s amazing how things work out for you. I got around the right people and was influenced in the right ways.”
DeBoer had never coached in the South. He’s doing well. It is important to highlight that he’s recruiting well.
“Living here reminds me of the Midwest and reminds me of home as much as any place I’ve been in the last 20 years,” he said.
The difference?
“They love football on another level here,” DeBoer said.
Kalen DeBoer ‘talks light’ about Alabama and Jalen Milroe
Every word the Alabama coach says is scrutinized — and even the words he doesn’t say. Shortly after DeBoer’s hiring, a plot formed that he doesn’t swear.
The lack of a foul mouth is not a sin – quite the opposite – but it marks a pivot for the impetuous Saban, who once he joked that he would need to take out a loan if Alabama instituted a swear jar.
Is it true that DeBoer doesn’t swear?
Pretty much true, he says.
“They’re few and far between is probably the best way to put it,” he said.
DeBoer has no language rules for players or coaches. Nothing like this. They are allowed to swear. He just doesn’t want to.
“It’s kind of who I am,” he said. He added that he knows many A-list people who swear frequently. He simply doesn’t feel like he needs that language to communicate effectively.
Alabama players praise DeBoer’s positivity.
As Alabama’s quarterback Jalen Milroe put this after A-DayDeBoer and his team “talk softly” to him and fill him with confidence.
“When you have a coach that gives you that positive reinforcement, it makes you want to play even better, play even harder,” Milroe said.
DeBoer believed in Milroe before he arrived at Alabama.
DeBoer’s Huskies played a College Football Playoff semifinal against Texas on New Year’s Day, following Alabama’s Rose Bowl game against Michigan.
The Huskies would face the winner of Alabama-Michigan, so DeBoer and his staff kept an eye on televisions showing the Rose Bowl as they prepared to play Texas. He couldn’t miss Milroe, whose dual-threat exploits helped Alabama take a second-half lead in a game lost in overtime.
After one of Milroe’s contests against Michigan, DeBoer remembers a member of the Washington staff saying, “This is going to be a problem.”
Now it is a luxury.
Quarterback depth counts as an Alabama strength. That starts with Milroe, the returning starter who is among the preseason Heisman Trophy favorites.
“You combine his command of the football with his arm talent, he’s a really special guy,” DeBoer said. “He has also done a great job leading our team.”
As for other areas of Alabama’s roster?
“We’re very solid across the board,” DeBoer said, “and this gives us a chance.”
Here again, he’s not lowering expectations or trying to deflect pressure.
Why should he?
If you’re waiting for DeBoer to wither away, you’re waiting for something that never happened.
Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer agrees to be Nick Saban’s replacement
