Why Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer just might have what it takes to follow legend Nick Saban

Alabama has not worn down its new coach. Not yet anyway. We know this because on some level Kalen DeBoer is intent on making an impression before he makes it to the top of the SEC. 

"I remember after A-Day (Alabama's spring game), he's in the tunnel as the team comes in," Alabama AD Greg Byrne said. "People are all lined up. He went down the line, took people's phones and did selfies. I can't do that. I've taken like three selfies in my life."

It doesn't stop there. 

Kurtiss Riggs practically has flashbacks of an encounter on a giddy Alabama campus in April as the Crimson Tide made their basketball Final Four run. 

"Kids were going bar to bar and we were at a stop light," said Riggs, a lifelong friend of DeBoer's who was in the car that day. "They saw it was Kalen. There must have been 150 people around the vehicle really quickly. The light turned green and we were able to go. Kalen was as excited as they were. He was waving." 

Riggs attended DeBoer's first Alabama youth camp this summer and estimated the coach "took about 800 individual pictures." 

Friends and former teammates have made it a point to fly down from DeBoer's native South Dakota to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to see one of their own ascend to college football's most revered throne.

"He wanted to make it a point to show them around the facility," Riggs said. "I don't think they were expecting that either. He found a way to make time."

Alabama is going to take some getting used to for everyone in DeBoer's orbit. While Riggs was in Tuscaloosa for a coaches' clinic, he went out to eat with Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey.

"Nobody knew who we were," Riggs said. "Kalen came through the back, up a service elevator. Word had gotten out that he was in the restaurant." 

Such is the life of a coach inheriting a job that is defined somewhere between a member of clergy and head of state.

"I know he hasn't gotten used to really traveling much with state troopers," Riggs said. 

For context, a trip back in time is in order. Riggs and DeBoer played together at the University of Sioux Falls. They played pitch (Riggs, quarterback) and catch (DeBoer, receiver) for a Cougars' program that hadn't won in a while.

Back then, Sioux Falls coach Bob Young coached the small-college NAIA program by sheer will. There were no assistant coaches. There was barely a weight room. Forget about a training table. On road trips, volunteers would bag a sandwich, chips and a cookie for each player. 

"We'd guess, 'Are we getting ham or baloney?,'" Riggs recalled.

When the Cougars began to turn it around, it wasn't exactly glamorous. There was no home stadium when the teammates were seniors. In that 1996 national championship run, 12 of the 14 games were played on the road. 

But the program did turn around despite those limited resources. Riggs went on to play indoor football, convincing his favorite receiver to join him briefly. Their careers eventually diverged. Riggs went on to coach the indoor Sioux Falls Storm, posting four undefeated seasons and once winning 40 in a row. 

Meanwhile, DeBoer wound his way through assistant coaching gigs before becoming Sioux Falls' offensive coordinator in 2000 and coach in 2005. In five years at his alma mater, DeBoer went 67-3, winning three NAIA national championships. 

Ken Kortemeyer, the Sioux Falls' former AD, can't believe why DeBoer isn't in the NAIA Hall of Fame already. In addition to those three titles, DeBoer was an All-American receiver in 1996. Kortemeyer recalled meeting a young DeBoer on his recruiting visit, introduced by Young. 

"This is Kalen DeBoer from Milbank on his visit, and he's going to be something really special,' Kortemeyer recalled Young saying. "I'll always remember ... that was a prophecy that came true."

To call DeBoer -- the hand-picked man to replace the greatest coach of all time – the anti-Nick Saban wouldn't be fair. The former Fresno State and Washington coach has replaced Saban exactly the way he should: enthusiastically and precisely.

Forget an Alabama coach, when was the last time you saw any coach stride down the hallway at conference spring meetings and greet a reporter with these words …

"Hey, have you got my number?"

"He's just going to have a different approach, and that's OK," Byrne said. "One of the first questions I asked him was, 'Do you always hear 'You don't want to be the guy to follow the guy?'," Byrne said. "His response was great: 'There is only one person that is going to get to do this. What an opportunity. What a challenge.'

"I could tell right away he had incredible respect for coach Saban," Byrne continued. 

Saban, by the way, still has an office at Alabama. DeBoer isn't going to be shy about hitting up The Great One for advice. He admitted as much during his introductory press conference by calling Saban "the best in the business who has ever done it ... I'm going to ask him that he shows up and gives me at least one thing that he sees that we can get better at."

"People ask, 'Why would you go to Alabama? Why?' DeBoer said. "There are a lot of really obvious answers ... It's second to none. I want to be around winning championships."

That's the best obvious answer for the quiet product of a single-parent home in Milbank, South Dakota. In that sense, DeBoer gets what he's gotten into. In a different sense, he can't possibly know what's ahead.  

Saban will be an obvious sounding board but not a crutch. Neither man wants that. And if Saban is going to truly embrace his new job as analyst at ESPN, he will have to weigh in on DeBoer. 

Both can handle it. As his national profile has grown, DeBoer has shown himself to be one of those comfortable-in-his-own-skin guys. There is no arrogance about the man, just a quiet confidence that it's all going to work out. 

While Saban was sometimes a Lane Kiffin-berating, headphone-slamming powder keg on the sidelines, DeBoer is the opposite. 

"He doesn't swear. He doesn't demean his players. That's innate," Riggs said. "That's part of his DNA. 

"There was this bad call," Riggs continued, "the officials got mixed up. Kalen mouthed the words, 'You're kidding me,' instead of a torrent of F-bombs. That's about as mad as he gets."

That's all fine and Crimson dandy but, gosh, that history at Alabama: 

• The last Alabama coach to replace the greatest ever (Bear Bryant) was Ray Perkins in 1983. The former receiver under Bryant averaged eight wins over four seasons, including 10 in 1986. That was his last season. 
• Bill Curry has repeatedly told the story of a brick being thrown through his office window after an untimely loss to Ole Miss in 1988. 
• Dennis Franchione won 10 games in 2002, then bolted on his own for Texas A&M. "There are ways that you can leave and there are ways that you shouldn't leave," national championship coach Gene Stallings once told Al.com. "In my opinion, he left in a way he should not have left Alabama. I was very disappointed in Franchione."
• The last Alabama coach without any SEC ties was Mike Price, who replaced Franchione but famously never made it to Week 1.

Even Saban himself uttered the famous words, "I am not going to be the Alabama coach" in early December 2006. Until, of course, he was. 

Not that Bama is going to descend to -- gulp! -- the 10-win level under DeBoer, but a coaching change is a coaching change. And part of that history is the Alabama expectations wearing down its coaches. 

Here's some more history -- a short list of coaches who replaced legends considered at one time or another the best of all time: 

• Hunk Anderson: Replaced Knute Rockne at Notre Dame in 1931
• Earle Bruce: Replaced Woody Hayes at Ohio State in 1988.
• Jimbo Fisher: Replaced Bobby Bowden at Florida State in 2010. 
• Gomer Jones: Replaced Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma in 1964.
• Bill O'Brien: Replaced Joe Paterno at Penn State in 2012. 
• Ray Perkins: Replaced Bear Bryant at Alabama in 1983
• Frank Solich: Replaced Tom Osborne at Nebraska in 1998. 
• Doug Williams: Replaced Eddie Robinson at Grambling State in 1998.

Of those eight, only Bruce, Fisher and Solich won conference championships at the schools where they replaced those legends. Only Williams (two black college national championships) and Fisher won national titles. 

All of it is another way of saying Alabama isn't for everybody. "He will carry on and have that sense of, 'Hey, I've got to maintain or do better,'" Riggs said.

For now, it is definitely for DeBoer. That means everything to Terry Tumey. Fresno State's former AD gave DeBoer his first head coaching job in 2020. 

"He might be the most authentic friggin' coach in my life," Tumey told CBS Sports. "He is an amazingly authentic human being that truly does care about what young men are going through. How they pull together. There are two people in my life I knew like that -- Terry Donahue and Bill Walsh."

Tumey played nose guard for Donahue at UCLA and was the 49ers director of football administration for eight years while Walsh was general manager and consultant. 

"In today's sport, the differentiator is going to be those types of individuals you're going to have to motivate them beyond the pale," Tumey added. "Traditionally, it's been scholarships. Now, there is a financial component that has moved into the space. The differentiator is who is going to be authentic."

But what does "authentic" really mean? In a video that has gone viral, it means DeBoer hugging a weeping Zion Tupuola-Fetui, a Washington player whose father had died the week of last year's Cal game. 

"This team loves you," DeBoer can be seen telling his player.

It means DeBoer apologizing to a couple of Fresno State boosters who came to January's College Football National Championship Game in Houston with no expectation of seeing a coach who had left two years previous. They were merely admirers from days gone by and wanted to see DeBoer coach. 

It means a coach who is changing the way Alabama football is perceived. Music is now allowed at practices. Assistant coaches became available to the media. Under Saban, they were only available before and during the postseason.

It means reading the room. While several players transferred upon Saban's retirement, one big one returned. Freshman All-American left tackle Kadyn Proctor transferred to Iowa in January. Within weeks, Proctor transferred back to Alabama. 

"We have a full roster of players that were recruited specifically to come to Alabama but also to come play for Coach Saban," DeBoer said. "I understand that fully as well. I want to make sure that connection is always there and they can reach out to the coach that recruited them." 

Whatever the transition, Alabama is back on top -- at least in recruiting. With 20 commitments, DeBoer currently has the No. 2 class in the 2025 cycle, with five-star QB-of-the-future Keelon Russell in tow. 

How's that for authentic?

"I saw a team that stuck together," DeBoer said of his new squad. "I want you to put yourselves in those guys' shoes. It was a legendary coach they came to play for and, now, what's next?"

That's what everyone at Alabama wants to know. Given what's at stake, this is one of the most significant hires in the game's history. All DeBoer has to do is win six championships in 17 years to equal Saban. 

"He's been asked by so many people, 'How do you follow Saban?' Riggs said. "He followed coach Young, and coach Young, to us, was Saban. That really wasn't one of the biggest obstacles. The hard part was it was just after losing the national championship. If they would have gotten beat and played well, he probably would have been a little better. He was really upset ... he was bothered by that. And all of a sudden, you get this [job possibility] and you gotta completely change your mindset."

He continued, "There was a moment, myself and a few others said, 'Hey, you've got a chance to coach at Alabama. How good are things for you right now?' He'd be like, 'Yeah, but gosh dang it, we could have beaten Michigan.'" 

DeBoer didn't know it at the time, but he was on the clock because Alabama was on the clock following Saban's retirement on Jan. 10. Byrne took charge like a general rallying his troops. Hours after the retirement, Byrne asked a roomful of Alabama players to wait 72 hours before making any decisions on their future. Alabama's AD needed the equivalent of three days to make the biggest hire of his career. 

It was one thing being Saban's "boss" as Alabama's AD. It was another replacing the legendary coach with the foundation of the program at stake and the portal beckoning.

In that moment, 10 days into the new year, Alabama football was punched square in the chin. The Great Saban was retiring at 72. It was imperative that Byrne be the first one to get up off the mat with an answer to the question everyone was asking. 

"Now what?"

"I was standing in the back of our team room when coach Saban started talking to the team," Byrne recalled. "If he would have started talking about workout and academics and getting ready for everything I would have disappeared out of the back of the room. Nobody would have known I was there. But as soon as he started retirement talk, we had a 13-page plan basically [for] every hour how we were going to handle it."

Every AD worth his buyout has (at least in his mind) a list of candidates should his revenue-producing coaches (basketball or football) leave. It's clear looking back that Byrne had observed DeBoer from a distance for a while. The Washington coach had steadily moved up the ladder from Sioux Falls to Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Indiana, Fresno State and Washington.

Particularly attractive were those stops in the Big Ten, Mountain West and Pac-12. DeBoer was moving up at each stop. He showed a quiet reserve that recalled Osborne. Won like him, too. In his previous four seasons as coach at Fresno State and Washington, DeBoer was 37-9. He comes to Bama tied with Lincoln Riley as the fifth-winningest active FBS coach (.804).  

In his two seasons at Washington, DeBoer was twice named Pac-12 Coach of the Year, getting a Pac-12 school to the national championship game for the first time in eight years. The loss to Michigan in the College Football Playoff National Championship was only his third in the last 31 games. 

The guy has upside for days, and following Saban's announcement, Byrne and his wife were in the air the next day for Seattle. 

"It would be subtle," Byrne said. "I would make calls and talk to coaching friends of mine. I would work-in questions about coaches across the country. I couldn't get anybody to question Kalen DeBoer."

The coach had developed a quiet competence built on downfield passing and smart, versatile quarterbacks. He was a program builder who had five jobs since 2016. DeBoer could also successfully recruit the West Coast, a key factor considering Alabama's last Heisman winner (Bryce Young) and career leading rusher (Najee Harris) are California natives. 

"One of the worst things I probably could have done is say, 'All right, I've got to go out and find somebody just like Nick Saban," Byrne said. "There's only one Nick Saban. What we wanted to do is find the very best coach we could who could embrace the university, embrace the Sabans and be confident in who they were." 

Byrne ultimately beat his self-imposed deadline. When all the private planes had landed and all the contracts had been signed, it took exactly 49 hours to find his new coach. 

For everyone's sake at Alabama, though, DeBoer definitely must win like Saban. 

By now, you know how this ended up. Aside from Oregon's Dan Lanning and Texas' Steve Sarkisian, DeBoer was probably the best name on the board. But the question bears asking again: Is he ready for this?

DeBoer looks like the right guy at the right time. But the expectation that Saban left behind -- national championship or bust -- means anything less is a disappointment.

Those expectations are also what essentially pushed Saban to retirement. He said as much in what amounted to an exit interview with ESPN's Rece Davis shortly after stepping down.

"Can you sustain the season, just from a mental grind standpoint?" Saban asked rhetorically.

His actions had answered the question. It had all become too much. In a guarded moment a few years ago, Saban revealed one of his biggest fears. Can you imagine, he said, if one of his Alabama teams ever went 8-4? For virtually any other coach, that's not terrible. For Saban, it would have been unacceptable.

DeBoer knows he just landed the best college football job in America. Lanning and Sarkisian got raises from simply having their names mentioned as candidates at Alabama.

DeBoer also knows he had no choice but to take that best job in America. 

The coach already has a strong reputation for his ability in the transfer portal during this NIL era. Last year's Washington roster included 21 transfers, eight of them on the two-deep. 

Alabama under DeBoer will have to become something Washington wasn't. As entertaining as the Huskies were offensively, they were the worst defense (No. 99 nationally) to play for a championship in the BCS/CFP era (since 1998). 

Under DeBoer, Alabama will have to win the line of scrimmage, just like every SEC program. One of the more fascinating stories will be seeing how quarterback Jalen Milroe meshes with the new coach. 

"Coach DeBoer has done a really good job in the relationship aspect," Milroe said during an offseason podcast. "He came here, and he didn't know us at all, but he took the initiative to get to know every single player on the whole team. Then, he figured out who the leaders of the team were. On the same day that he got here, he sat down with all the leaders on the team with a notebook and took notes of our comments on what the standard is here. He asked us about us as people, where we're from, how many siblings we have, our hobbies, and what makes Alabama, Alabama. From there, I said, 'Man, we got someone special.'"

Milroe's progenitor was Lorenzo Brown. Don't freak if you haven't heard of him. In 2009, the Sioux Falls quarterback led the Cougars to their second straight NAIA championship. Brown threw for 40 touchdowns and ran for another 16.

"A true dual-threat guy," recalled former Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who briefly followed DeBoer to Alabama before going to the Seattle Seahawks. "He was bananas." 

Some evidence the quarterback position will shine under DeBoer: QB Michael Penix Jr. developed into a Heisman finalist and a top-10 draft pick. That was after DeBoer being Penix's offensive coordinator at Indiana. One probably doesn't come to the West Coast without the other. 

More evidence of what Alabama might look like in the future: the wide-open Huskies held the ball for 36 minutes in their 37-31 win over Texas in the College Football Playoff Sugar Bowl semifinal. Texas' defense was literally unable to touch Penix; the Longhorns registered neither a QB hurry nor a sack in 39 pass attempts. 

DeBoer could have stayed at Washington and competed for playoff berths in the Big Ten each year. At Alabama, he must win big at a time when it will be harder than ever to do so amid conference realignment and the expanded 12-team playoff.

Maybe that's the ultimate point. DeBoer has the resources to compete for the title each year at Alabama. The challenge -- his challenge to himself -- is to determine if he can do it.