To fill the shoes of one of the greatest college football coaches is not an easy task. Thus, when the Alabama Crimson Tide announced that Kalen DeBoer would be replacing Nick Saban as the program’s head coach in 2024, a few fans and experts were apprehensive.
While many analysts believed DeBoer was perfect for the job, his first year at Alabama didn’t go as planned.
The Crimson Tide crew ended the 2024 college football season with an overall record of 9-4, and while it may not be the worst of records, it was not up to the program’s standards. Saban didn’t have a season with fewer than 10 wins in over 15 years.
As DeBoer heads into his second year, the expectations are through the roof, with analysts like Paul Finebaum even talking about how the 50-year-old would be put on a hot seat if this year doesn’t go well.
Discussing the pressure on DeBoer to match Saban’s level of greatness, analyst J.D. PicKell recently said on the YouTube channel ‘On3’:
“We cannot compare Nick Saban and what he was at Alabama, to Kalen DeBoer, what he’s doing right now in Alabama. It’s not a comparison that’s fair to make, because the Alabama job that Nick Saban had is very different from the Alabama job that Kalen DeBoer has, like it’s night and day. Why? Because the landscape changed. Landscape is totally, totally different.
He added:
“Like when you recruited, if you were Nick Saban at Alabama, you didn’t have to worry about NIL, you didn’t have to worry about pitching these kids on what they were going to make their sophomore year and junior year, what they do as freshmen. That wasn’t something to deal with.”
Paul Finebaum Applauds Kalen DeBoer’s Recruiting Skills
When DeBoer joined Alabama as the head coach in 2024, there weren’t many concerns about him being able to do his job, except one: that he wouldn’t be able to recruit that well in the South.
During an appearance on the ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ podcast on Monday, Paul Finebaum took a moment to applaud coach DeBoer for his impressive recruiting run at Alabama this year.
Finebaum opined that this is one of the best recruiting runs he has seen in recent times and that it almost feels like Nick Saban is running the ship.
DeBoer secured a commitment from the third five-star prospect in the 2026 football recruiting cycle this week — wide receiver Cederian Morgan.
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