Ever since arriving in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, head coach Kalen DeBoer has needed to do some soul-searching.
The excitement of being a head coach in the SEC wore off after the first season rather quickly after finishing it to a disappointing 9-4, and an embarrassing loss to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
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Leading an SEC program is not a job to be taken lightly. In fact, as we’ve seen with LSU and the recent firing of Brian Kelly, if you’re not performing, you’re getting shown the door – no matter how big that buyout check is.
Week 1 of the 2025 season was a shock to the core of the program when it lost to Florida State 31-17. It was an almost unreasonable panic that set across the college football landscape. Questions were asked:
Does DeBoer make it past September?
Will Alabama be willing to spend his $70 million buyout?
Is the “Bama Standard” a thing of the past?
But within that time, DeBoer has turned into a new person. Often mild-mannered in front of the camera, there’s a confidence emanating from him.
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He knows what he wants out of his team, and he’s going to hold them to a certain standard.
A Bama Standard if you will.
His predecessor Nick Saban always tried to find ways to motivate his players, referring to outside noise as “rat poison.”
And DeBoer has managed to implement his own twist to it.
When speaking on The Triple Option podcast, DeBoer brought up how he has managed to use the outside noise to his team’s advantage.
“I get to walk by a TV everyday going down to the team meeting rooms and constantly there’s something on that TV that’s popping up that this person is saying this about this game that ‘Bama’s playing in. Man, I’m screenshotting that thing and taking it down there and using it as ammo. Our guys don’t lose confidence in that because they have enough belief in what we’re doing. It’s just an extra level of motivation that we use it for.”
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And the one thing that he never wants his team to forget, is the embarrassment that everyone felt from Week 1.
“I don’t think until it’s all said and done, I’m not gonna let our guys think that we’re back,” DeBoer said. “I want us to have that edge that we had starting with that [Florida State] game, or after that game. That to me is — you’ve got to find those different motivating factors. It’s got to be internal, it’s got to be, I think doing it for other people — not letting down your teammates in particular that are counting on you.”
That alone is a Saban-ism.
In 2018 after Alabama beat Georgia in the National Championship in a gritty overtime win, Saban’s message was clear.
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“In 24 hours, you probably need to move on. It’s not about winning the championship. It’s about something more than that. Move on, because there’s another challenge. You created a target for yourself in the future in terms of people who want to beat you.”
And in hindsight, that’s what made Saban different. Because he was able to compartmentalize the success he just obtained and what was next. The championship isn’t the goal, it’s the chapter.
And it sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.
Being a leader sounds great in the grand scheme of things, but as a leader, there needs to be a mental shift. You may have been successful everywhere you’ve been, but here in the SEC?
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It’s different around here, and it’s an endless cycle of adapting.
In year two, DeBoer seems to get a decent grasp on what comes with being an SEC coach. The rest is yet to be determined.
