Somehow, Kalen DeBoer will now be under even more pressure from the Alabama fanbase in 2026.
Alabama suffered its worst bowl defeat in program history in the Rose Bowl on Thursday. No. 1 Indiana throughly dismantled and demolished the No. 9 Crimson Tide 38-3. Indiana had 407 total yards and 215 rushing yards while averaging 6.6 yards per play. Alabama had 193 yards. Total.
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It was the third time in the last four games that Alabama’s offense averaged fewer than four yards per play. An explosive offense that was one of the nation’s best at the start of the season broke down at the end of the year — namely due to an inability to run the football.
Yes, Alabama cannot run the football. It’s a development that would seem just as impossible in 2023 as Indiana being the best team in football two years later.
When he was hired to succeed Nick Saban, DeBoer was put in a nearly impossible position. He was tasked with attempting to replicate the success that Alabama had under the man who could be the greatest coach in college football history.
The Saban era ended on a botched QB run in overtime in the Rose Bowl. It was a whimper of an end for a coach who had led the Crimson Tide to six national championships and 16 straight seasons of double-digit wins.
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Fast forward to Thursday, and Alabama wasn’t just beat, it was whooped. Not only was it the worst postseason loss in the 122-year history of Alabama football, Indiana’s win was the first time since the 1998 Music City Bowl that Alabama lost a game by more than 30 points.
“I know because I’ve been doing this long enough and I have experiences that I can fall back on that the fine line between what we had out there today and being at the very top is such a fine line,” DeBoer said. “And you’ve got to go back to starting over from scratch, putting the people around you, the right people, committing to something — a common goal together and the actions following it.”
“It’s such a fine line. It may not feel like it when you’re in this moment right now and what happened today, but I can tell you is it’s a fine line between being here and being at the top.”
When you include regular-season games, it was worst loss since the Tide fell 42-6 to Arkansas in 1998. That loss to Arkansas? It was the worst Alabama defeat since a 40-0 Iron Bowl drubbing all the way back in 1957 in a game that was 13 national championships ago.
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Much of the offseason ahead of the 2025 season was dominated by Alabama’s exclusion from the first 12-team playoff in 2024. The 9-3 Tide — which laid an egg in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Michigan — lost 24-3 to Oklahoma in the penultimate weekend of the season to miss out on the playoff. But that didn’t stop a pressure campaign from the SEC because of the Tide’s exclusion. As a result, the College Football Playoff committee even said it was tweaking its selection processes to take strength of schedule more into account.
Nevermind that Oklahoma finished the season at 6-7 and one of Alabama’s other losses came to a Vanderbilt team that finished 7-6.
This season, Alabama was given a lot of grace by the selection committee. The Tide lost 28-7 to Georgia in the SEC title game in a game that didn’t even feel that close. Alabama was No. 9 entering the game. Alabama was No. 9 a day later in the final CFP rankings as it became the first power conference title game loser to not even drop a single solitary spot in the playoff rankings.
To be clear, hardly anyone thought this was an Alabama team capable of winning the national title whether it was seeded No. 9, No. 10 or even failed to make the playoff. And that’s the crux of the problem. When was the last time you said that about a team coached by Saban? You probably have to go back to 2010, when Alabama finished 10-3 and went to the Capital One Bowl.
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That was just the second of two three-loss seasons of Saban’s tenure. After Thursday, DeBoer’s record at Alabama is 20-8. It’s hard to see how another four-loss season is going to be tolerated.
“We can be upset because losing doesn’t sit well with us and we can frustrated about it,” DeBoer said. “And that’s what our program is going to be is upset when these types of situations happen. And we’ve got to use it to fuel us moving forward.”
