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Bama News
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer isn't on the "hot seat" entering the 2025 college football season, though that could quickly change if things trend south in Tuscaloosa next fall.
DeBoer had a fairly decent debut season at Alabama by most standards. The Crimson Tide finished 9-4 with big wins against Georgia, South Carolina, and LSU.
Unexplainable losses to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma, however, stained what would've been an otherwise terrific first post-Nick Saban season for Alabama.
Replacing Saban was never going to be easy for DeBoer (or any other coach). The problem is that expectations at Alabama are so high after the Saban era that no one was ever going to be able to live up to them immediately.
DeBoer, a South Dakota native who took the Alabama job with zero SEC experience, has a lot to prove moving forward. The Crimson Tide will need to take a big step forward in 2025 or the noise will start to get extremely loud in Tuscaloosa. Fair or not, that's the reality of the situation for DeBoer.
On Monday, ESPN's Adam Rittenberg detailed where he believes several coaching situations stand entering the 2025 season. He doesn't have DeBoer on the hot seat, but he acknowledged that the former Washington head coach will need to "deliver more" in year two.
Rittenberg also suggested that DeBoer could be a better fit at a program like USC.
I think it's a bit too early to suggest that DeBoer would be a better fit elsewhere -- it's not fair to completely judge a coach after just one season (especially when that one season was replacing a legend at Alabama). But I can also see Rittenberg's point.
DeBoer has never dealt with the kind of pressure that he's facing at Alabama. Even when things are good at Alabama, there's pressure to keep it going. DeBoer has spent most of his career out of the limelight, which makes it significantly easier to coach. I'm not saying he can't handle it, but it's undoubtedly an adjustment for him.
The 2025 season will be telling for DeBoer. If Alabama takes a big step forward and reaches the College Football Playoff, he'll almost certainly return for a third season. But if the Crimson Tide miss the playoff for a second straight year, there could be folks who matter that start calling for a change in Tuscaloosa.
