Stephen A. Smith not happy with Alabama football

Longtime ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith isn’t sold on Alabama football’s performance under Kalen DeBoer, nor its recent seven-year contract extension for the coach.

Smith, who also hosts his own political and sports talk radio call-in shows on SiriusXM and dabbles part-time in acting on the long-running ABC soap opera ‘General Hospital,’ shared his thoughts on DeBoer’s new extension during Thursday’s edition of “First Take.”

The extension will see DeBoer earn $12.5 million per season, and Smith isn’t impressed.

“I’m not moved. I’m not moved. I’m certainly not failing to acknowledge that he’s a good coach (and) that he has succeeded in most places he has been. But I was spoiled by Nick Saban, and I know everybody can’t be Nick Saban, but you didn’t have to fall off and lose as many games in your two seasons at Alabama that (Saban) lost in his last four years at Alabama combined.”

Alabama is 20-8 since DeBoer left Washington for the Crimson Tide job after Saban retired in January 2024. Alabama finished 9-4 in 2024 and missed the College Football Playoff in no small part due to a disastrous late-season loss at Oklahoma.

The Crimson Tide were back in the CFP a year ago following a 10-win regular season, but they lost two of their final three games by a combined 66-10 margin. Alabama fell to the Georgia Bulldogs, 28-7, in an SEC title game rematch on Dec. 6 in Atlanta and suffered a 38-3 blowout loss to national champion Indiana at the Rose Bowl in the CFP quarterfinals on Jan. 1.

Smith said Alabama has seen a “precipitous drop-off” since Saban retired, and he isn’t happy with what he’s seen from the Crimson Tide during the first two seasons under DeBoer.

“It has been a precipitous drop-off. They had a lot of issues there last year. Cats can’t catch, can’t run, can’t hold on to the football, can’t block, can’t defend. To give him this lengthy seven-year extension, I’m not saying that he didn’t deserve any extension, but this amount of faith? I’m sorry. I’m not sold.”

Smith may not be sold, but Alabama’s 2026 recruiting class was ranked No. 2 nationally by 247Sports and No. 5 by ESPN.

USA TODAY Sports slams ‘absurd and fiscally reckless’ Alabama for Kalen DeBoer extension

Smith isn’t the only national analyst that isn’t a fan of Alabama AD Greg Byrne’s decision to extend DeBoer to a seven-year deal that will pay him $87.5 million.

Veteran college football scribe Matt Hayes of USA TODAY Sports took it a step further, calling Byrne’s decision an “unthinkable gamble by one of the most respected athletic directors in college sports.”

“Alabama, ladies and gentlemen, just extended a football coach after two seasons that included missing the CFP, and earning the No. 9-seed before sustaining the worst bowl game loss in the history of the program.” –Matt Hayes, USA TODAY Sports.

He added:

“Alabama just committed to exorbitant buyouts — if this thing goes sideways, which it very well could — of up to $67.5 million (2027), $56.2 million (2028) and $45 million (2029) for a coach whose team lost by 14 to Florida State (as a 13.5-point favorite) in the 2025 season opener. The Noles won five games in 2025: East Texas A&M, Kent State, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and You Know Who.”

Hayes concluded:

“I get it, following the greatest coach in the history of college football isn’t exactly the easiest lift. But I can think of many coaches — yes, many — who wouldn’t have pulled off the quad box of losing to Vandy, the worst Oklahoma team since the 1990s, an FSU program in shambles, and a Michigan team that couldn’t throw a forward pass.”

DeBoer will have chances to prove his critics wrong, but for 2026 at least, he’ll have to do so against a gauntlet SEC schedule that’s now nine games instead of eight. Most notably, Alabama has road trips to Tennessee, LSU and a Vanderbilt program that’s gone from perennial punchline to narrowly missing the CFP last season.

Alabama will also host Georgia, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Auburn at Bryant-Denny Stadium in the annual Iron Bowl showdown in conference play.

The Crimson Tide open the regular season on Sept. 5 against East Carolina in Tuscaloosa.

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April 11, 2026; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama offensive linemen Jayvin James and Michael Carroll drop to block at Bryant-Denny Stadium during the Alabama A Day scrimmage.