When Kalen DeBoer took the Alabama job last season, he had to do one of the hardest things in college football history: Replace Nick Saban.
Replacing a coach that many consider to be the greatest of all time is incredibly difficult because there is such little room for error. DeBoer only won nine games with the Crimson Tide last season, marking the lowest total since 2007 when Saban first took over.
Heading into the 2025 season, analyst Joel Klatt thinks that DeBoer could find himself on the hot seat sooner rather than later.
Joel Klatt Breaks Down Why Kalen DeBoer Could Find Himself on the Hot Seat in 2025
On the “Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast,” Klatt ranked 10 coaches who are under pressure in 2025. One of those coaches was DeBoer, who Klatt said could find himself in trouble after the Week Eight matchup against Tennessee.
While Klatt thinks, for now, Alabama will give DeBoer some leeway, that could change soon. “There’s this moment in the schedule where it’s like if they were to lose this game, everything changes,” Klatt said.
“Everything changes, and maybe the patience wears out. Now I don’t know what that means exactly for his future, but I think that the patience is out, and that’s Tennessee at home, Oct. 18.”
In a normal circumstance, it’s hard to see DeBoer fired in his second year. This is a coach who has won everywhere he’s gone. He led the Fresno State Bulldogs to a 10-win season in 2021, then brought the Washington Huskies to a national title appearance in 2023.
He’s proven time and again that he’s a capable coach, and it would be preposterous for a program to fire him so soon.
However, this isn’t a normal circumstance. The Alabama fanbase, boosters, and everyone in between have grown accustomed to one thing and one thing only: Winning.
Klatt is probably right. If DeBoer loses to a Tennessee team that doesn’t even have Nico Iamaleava and Alabama doesn’t win double-digit games for two years in a row, patience might wear thin. It could lead DeBoer to be out pretty quickly.
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College sports are volatile. A coach is pretty much only as good as his or her last game. That holds true more in Tuscaloosa, Ala., than anywhere else in the country. What will the future hold for DeBoer? Alabama fans will be watching closely.
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