Can Alabama Football Bounce Back Under Kalen DeBoer?

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00:00Alabama and Kaitlin DeBoer, coach, have the bullseye on their back this year,

00:04back-to-back four lost seasons.

00:07Ty Simpson now declaring for the NFL draft.

00:11Can Alabama get back to prominence in 2026?

00:15And is Kaitlin DeBoer the right guy for the job?

00:18Well, I mean, it's almost like, yes, they have to get back,

00:22or he isn't the right guy for the job.

00:24There's no learning on the job, kind of gradual getting ready for that job.

00:29You've got to do it now.

00:30And the problem that he's got, and I think he's got to address it,

00:34is that they have gotten the label that they're soft.

00:38And that's their own fan base.

00:39And after that debacle against Indiana, where they just got, I mean,

00:44Indiana looked like Alabama ripping through them in the playoffs,

00:47that he's got to solve that problem.

00:49And it has to start in spring football practice.

00:53They have got to decide they're going to become a physical running football team,

00:56a physical running football team.

00:59And they're going to say, I mean, guard, tackle, centered, ends, backs,

01:03go after people and get that established.

01:05You can't decide halfway through the season that we're not quite good enough.

01:10We're going to move to a running.

01:11You've got to get that done when you can scrimmage in the offseason

01:14with the type of recruits you get in and get a very, very physical game

01:18offensively.

01:19Because that's the one thing that Alabama prides itself,

01:22that they're going to out physical whoever they played.

01:24I mean, that's their tradition.

01:26That goes back long before Nick Saban, Bear Bryant,

01:29and all those years that you're going to get your fanny knocked off.

01:32And I know I coached against them five times,

01:35and every battle was a battle because they come after you.

01:37I think the Boer has to do that.

01:40You know, being from the West Coast, Alabama,

01:42I don't want to say they're arrogant or snobby,

01:45but their brand of football,

01:46they don't believe the West Coast plays their brand of football.

01:49So he's behind the eight ball to start with, you know,

01:51and they don't believe they play the same style at Oregon or Washington

01:56that they play in Alabama.

01:58So it's not so much that that's a true statement,

02:01but what is true is you better run the football

02:03and you better run with power.

02:04I think that's what he's got to do.

02:05So he's got to win, and it's the way he's got to win,

02:09and it's got to start this year.

02:11Yeah, you think Alabama, you think physicality,

02:14you think Derrick Henry,

02:15you think obviously some of the dominant running backs

02:18and just skilled talent for Nick Saban.

02:21And not only that, you think on the flip side,

02:23just dominant defensive talent that's able to run sideline to sideline.

02:28Players like Willie Anderson, Reuben Foster, you know,

02:32just dominant defensive players, especially in the front seven.

02:36And I didn't see that last year.

02:38You're right.

02:38They had one of the worst rushing offenses pre-Nick Saban.

02:43They averaged less than four yards per carry multiple games.

02:46They were held under 100 yards rushing.

02:50If you think of Alabama football, that is not the M.O.

02:53And I think it sort of goes hand in hand.

02:56You know, you could take a look at Kurt Signetti,

02:58a coach that maybe won at lesser programs,

03:01and he goes to Indiana where the expectation wasn't through the roof, right?

03:06But on the flip side, Kalen DeBoer won at Fresno State,

03:10won at Washington,

03:12then made the jump to one of the best programs in college football,

03:15following a head coach that had six national championships in Tuscaloosa.

03:21It's almost like big bright lights, big city.

03:23He couldn't live up to the hype in the first couple of seasons.

03:28And he didn't coach badly.

03:30And I think people have lined his win-loss record up in his first two years

03:34compared to a lot of other coaches and the success they had in the first two years.

03:39He's not far off.

03:40It's just how you win and how you don't win and how your season ended up.

03:45And, again, I throw that word soft out there and how you play.

03:49It's very important that you win in the way that they expect you to win.

03:53And that goes back a long way in their history.

03:56But, you know, it doesn't take very long to get out of that.

04:02Think of all the great running backs at Southern Cal.

04:04Remember when they were tailback you?

04:06I mean, we go all the way to Charles White and Simpson

04:08and all the great tailbacks that they had.

04:12They've lost that kind of thing, you know.

04:14And I think Alabama, but they can live without it there.

04:17But Alabama cannot live without it.

04:19So I think he's got to go out there and make sure that's the mindset.

04:23And that's the biggest thing.

04:25It's got to be the mindset, this is what we're going to do,

04:27and we're not going to take no for an answer.

04:29And defensively as well.

04:31They've got to play that kind of relentless, aggressive,

04:34defensive people that are just hungry to get to the ball.

04:38They get there in a bad mood and all those old sayings.

04:41They've got to start doing that in the spring.

04:43You can't do it in the fall if you didn't get accomplished in the spring.

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