Alabama hires Washington’s Kalen DeBoer as their new football coach.

Alabama hires Washington’s Kalen DeBoer as their new football coach.

This past season, Kalen DeBoer led Washington to a Pac-12 title and a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. On Friday night, Alabama revealed that DeBoer would be their new head coach.

Nick Saban, who was at Alabama for 17 years and led the teams to nine SEC wins and six national championships, is leaving the school.

DeBoer, 49, will take over one of the most prized and hardest jobs in college football. Saban quit on Wednesday. He had a 206–29 record as a coach at Alabama.

“I have always had a lot of respect for Alabama football as well as its dedication to being the best,” DeBoer said in a school statement.

“There is no other college sports program with as many traditions as this one, and I’m excited to keep that going in the years to come.”

It is an honor to follow Coach Saban. He set the bar for college football, and no one has ever been as successful as he is. I wouldn’t quit Washington for any school.

The chance to be in charge of the football team at The University of Alabama comes once in a lifetime. We’re so grateful to be able to move to Tuscaloosa with our family. We’re excited to live there.

DeBoer told his Washington team members on the afternoon of Friday the coach was leaving for Alabama. He flew to Tuscaloosa on Friday night and was supposed to meet the new players that evening.

Sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that Troy Dannen, the athletic director at Washington, tried hard to keep DeBoer by offering him a new deal that would’ve made him one of the ten highest-paid coaches within the FBS and more than doubled his present pay of $4.2 million a year.

But DeBoer passed it down to play for Alabama as well as the SEC. As a result, he will have to pay Washington $12 million to get out of the deal after taking an extra two years in November that will keep him there until the 2028 season.

DeBoer became the Crimson Tide’s top choice before Oregon’s Dan Lanning, Florida State’s Mike Norvell, and Texas’ Steve Sarkisian pulled from the running for coach and made promises to stay at their current schools over the past two days.

“He has shown that he is a winner as well as has done a great job as a head coach at all of his stops,” said Greg Byrne, the sports director for the Crimson Tide.

“I recently told my team that we are going to hire a coach who is not only good at the rules but also cares about his players. I want my sons to play for this coach, just like I wanted Coach Saban’s sons to play for him.”

That’s what Coach DeBoer gave us. He is ready to work, and we are excited for him to lead the Alabama Crimson Tide football team for many years to come.

Alabama most of all wanted a winner, and DeBoer has been victorious everywhere he has been. In seven out of his nine years as a head coach, he has won at least eleven games.

In his second season at U-Dub, he led Washington to the NCAA Football Playoff National Championship game and a Pac-12 title.

Dan Lanning as well as Steve Sarkisian, two other coaches that have been talked about a lot in Alabama’s search, have a combined 0-5 record against DeBoer in the last two seasons. DeBoer’s attacks were very strong.

This season, the Huskies were 13th in the country in scoring, and in 2022, they were sixth. Both years, they scored at least 36 points per game, and just look at how quarterback Michael Penix Jr. grew up at Washington under DeBoer.

Keeping the roster will be the most important thing. A huge number of players leaving for the portal could be disastrous, especially since it won’t be possible to fill those spots again until the portal returns for non-graduates in the spring.

Most of the big names had already moved by that time. But putting that worry aside, for now, expectations will be by far the biggest problem.

It’s not just wins and losses; they are always being contrasted with Saban and the way he did things.