Winning is everything at Alabama, and Nick Saban made sure of that.
The tough part for new head coach Kalen DeBoer is that he inherited a program in which the expectations are championship or bust. He proved to be a good coach at Washington, where he took the Huskies to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, but his first year in Tuscaloosa was a relative disappointment.
Anywhere else, a 9-4 season in year one of a new regime is pretty darn good. At Alabama, that’s borderline unacceptable.
That’s the pressure DeBoer is coaching under, and that’s not even to mention the pressure of inheriting a roster with many players he did not specifically recruit.
DeBoer recently revealed to Greg McElroy on the “Always College Football” show that his relationship with Alabama’s players has grown as a result of time, which is natural.
He’s also trying to make sure that everything he does comes with a specific intention in mind.
“You know, the real intentions are for them to be the best they can be,” DeBoer said (h/t On3). “Bring value to who they are as a football player, as a person, and that is nothing about them personally. It’s about what we’re trying to do together to help everyone reach the goals that they have individually and we have collectively.”
Time builds trust, but so does consistency. Alabama may not have reached its goals in year one of the DeBoer era, but if he has been consistent with his message to the players, that’s another way to encourage growth within a program.
Still, the fact remains that anything short of CFP contention is going to be seen as a disappointment for DeBoer, so the pressure will be on in Tuscaloosa.
He’d better have his players in his corner, because he’s going to need them to compete hard for him in 2025.
