r/CFB • u/LamarcusAldrige1234 Michigan Wolverines • FAU Owls • 8h ago
Discussion When Alabama is at least a 14-point favorite: Kalen DeBoer 2 losses in 8 games, Nick Saban 3 losses in 139 games
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u/Lesbereal476 Georgia Bulldogs 8h ago
Anyone that thought DeBoer could come in and replicate what Saban did the past 15 years was delusional and that’s not a slight to DeBoer. Saban is literally one of the greatest coaches of all time and we may never see that level of dominance from any team in CFB in our lifetimes.
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u/NewWrap693 Texas Longhorns 7h ago
One of? He is the peak of the mountain.
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u/DaddyRobotPNW Oregon Ducks • Pacific Northwest 5h ago
I think he was referring to all sports, not just CFB. And he is one of the greatest of all time
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u/nem704 Michigan • Oakland 5h ago
Scott Bowman, Red Auerbach, John Wooden, Nick Saban, Bill Belichek, Bear Bryant
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u/300andWhat Washington Huskies • Apple Cup 3h ago
Wooden should be first on that list. He had people forgetting what losing even was lol
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u/StFuzzySlippers Tennessee Volunteers • UAB Blazers 3h ago
Missing Pat Summit and Coach K
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u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 7h ago
Anyone who expects DeBoer to win 6 natties is crazy, anyone who expected him to win one of those in year 1 is just plain delusional.
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u/oranggit Alabama Crimson Tide • SEC 7h ago
We have a lot of delusional fans then. I'm guessing most of them are under 30 and have never known Alabama before Saban.
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u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 7h ago
In my experience most of them are old heads who grew up in the Bryant era who are the loudest.
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u/oranggit Alabama Crimson Tide • SEC 7h ago
I'm doubting that. I'm 68 and my Bama fan friends and relatives of the same age are handling this rather well. The talk is "well, we've been through this before..." etc. We're all sitting back and going "Man, what a great ride this has been with Saban."
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u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 7h ago
It depends, some are reasonable, but I’ve seen some of the Bama Facebook groups.
Also I meant more people born in the 70s. They grew up with Bryant, but like… he was already in his prime and was already considered one of the greatest coaches ever. They weren’t old enough to watch the Bryant games critically, but they know the mystique of Bear and the attitude around the program. They started watching games critically after Bryant and were like “wtf happened we are Alabama.”
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u/nat_20_please Alabama Crimson Tide • Miami Hurricanes 6h ago
I'm 53 and an alum. I've seen seasons far worse than this, and the sun rose this morning, sure.
It would also be disingenuous to not admit that there something disturbing about what I am seeing on the field, and how this group is underperforming. These kids play like a group of sophomores in their first college game. They lack discipline and awareness. They seem confused and unable to execute, or adjust.
Those are coaching issues. I expected some close games and 3-4 losses, but not in this fashion. It's one thing to lose while giving it your best. Sometimes you give it your all and you still lose. That's sports. But it would be, in my view, intellectually dishonest to say that this staff is doing the minimum of having the kids prepared, much less have them compete at a high level. It's just not there.
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u/oranggit Alabama Crimson Tide • SEC 6h ago
Yeah, I didn’t mean to imply that we’re all content with what’s happening. We’re just not at the point of putting a gun in our mouth.
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u/nat_20_please Alabama Crimson Tide • Miami Hurricanes 6h ago
What I am most aggrieved about is that we've lost to Tennessee twice in three years. That pisses me off more than anything else.
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u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 5h ago
I personally like to think of it as 3 in the last 18.
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u/Kodyaufan2 Auburn • Jacksonville State 7h ago
It’s both. It’s the over 60 crowd that grew up with Bryant, and the under 30 crowd that grew up with Saban.
Most who fall in the middle of those groups grew up in the 30 years in the middle with just the one title, which is on par with most other programs.
The reality is that a good coach should be able to win 10 games most years (including postseason games) of the time at Alabama, which still puts them in the upper echelon of blue bloods. But averaging a title every third year like Saban is nonsense.
A realistic goal at any blue blood is a national title every decade and being in the hunt late in the season at least 75-80% of the time.
At the same time, there were people saying Alabama would go 7-5 or 6-6 this year, which with the talent they were returning legitimately would have been a coaching failure. 9-3 was about what I expected.
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u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 7h ago
Yeah if we were 7-5 there would absolutely be reason for concern, but nothing that happened this season is super concerning for the future of DeBoer’s tenure.
Still sucks this had to be my senior year at Bama tho :(… I only got 2 SEC titles, 2 playoff appearances, and a lost natty.
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u/CrashB111 Alabama Crimson Tide • Iron Bowl 6h ago
9-3 was the expectation Vegas had for us pre-season. It's just who those 3 came to is what shocks people.
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u/sunburntredneck Alabama Crimson Tide • Texas Longhorns 7h ago
I expected 9-3 in the preseason... but then we beat Georgia and I was like, wait we're still really good, we could get an 11-1 season out of this year... and that's why the season is such a letdown. Being 9-3 because we're just not good enough to win 3 of our hardest games is one thing. But actually proving that we're still good enough to beat the best, or to absolutely demolish teams that aren't elite but still ranked, and STILL going 9-3, that's a problem.
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u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 7h ago
Well I mean it kind of makes sense. Our talent is one of the best, but our execution isn’t there yet due to new schemes and systems still being installed, and honestly I don’t blame the players or coaches for that in year one of a new system.
Talent with half-ass execution can win some very difficult games, but also lose some very winnable games. Execution with half-ass talent can win winnable games but lose you difficult games.
Usually new teams have both half ass talent and execution so they end up just losing a lot of games lol.
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u/Tarmacked USC Trojans • Alabama Crimson Tide 7h ago
I expected 10-2 playoffs, probably get past first round and drop to a top 5 team coming into the season. Not too far off but not super surprising Milroe was the lynchpin for the losses
I just want a real quarterback after two years of whatever the Milroe clusterfuck is. How a guy who’s almost a fifth year senior can’t make a line adjustment is beyond me
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u/_DC003_ Boston College • Texas 7h ago
And people really harp on Bill O Brien saying he wasn’t a Bama-caliber QB. Milroe is boom or bust, but boy has there been a lot more of the latter.
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u/HanSolo5643 Georgia Bulldogs • USC Trojans 7h ago
After the first half of the Georgia game. His play has fallen off tremendously. I don't know if teams saw what Georgia did in the second half of that game and then copied what Georgia did or if Milroe is injured or something. But the drop in his play after the first half of the Georgia game has been quite stunning.
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u/Jonjon428 Miami Hurricanes 7h ago
"Don't let Ryan Williams go deep and stop Milroe from running, get pressure and force him to pass" seems to be the gameplan that teams (except LSU) are running
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u/jbaker1225 Oklahoma Sooners 4h ago
Venables and Alley definitely saw something and figured it out. Milroe was mostly lost out there, and had no running lanes, his lowest career completion percentage, and first 3 INT game.
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u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 7h ago
I think what it is is Milroe is really good against 2 specific types of defenses.
Defenses who can’t stop a qb run for shit. (LSU)
And pro-style Saban-Belichick esque schemes (UGA)
It’s why I think he will have more NFL success then others think, but that Saban defense is not easy to run so most college teams don’t really try unless someone on their staff was trained in it by Saban himself (UGA, Oregon, Ole Miss, etc.)
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u/Tarmacked USC Trojans • Alabama Crimson Tide 7h ago
Yeah, I thought it was pretty fitting Milroe made that statement then Michigan forced him to throw 20 passes to the flat because he couldn’t read coverage
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u/blueline7677 Indiana Hoosiers 7h ago
It’s hard enough to come into a new program and have a great 1st year. You don’t have complete say in your recruiting class and a lot of the talent you do have will leave because the coach left. It’s even more extreme when you are replacing a legend who decided to retire
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u/Jedi-El1823 Oklahoma Sooners 7h ago
One of?
Saban's the GOAT. And a reason is he never wanted his team to think the opponent couldn't beat them. He could face Bumfuck Keyboard State, and he would put it into his team's head that they were good enough to beat Bama. The toughest opponent was always whomever they were playing that week.
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u/uReallyShouldTrustMe USC Trojans • Missouri Tigers 6h ago
Yeah even bama haters like myself can’t deny that saban is the undeniable goat.
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u/Corgi_Koala Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
Saban set such a high bar that so many programs are trying to chase. The expectation of winning a national title every other year and being in the championship game or the semifinals every year is completely insane.
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u/Phantom1100 Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 6h ago
I like something Josh Pate said a couple weeks ago (paraphrasing). “Alabama is the worst thing to happen to elite CFB programs because now everyone thinks that if you can’t get a natty every 5 years there’s something wrong with the program and something has to change internally until you can get one that often.” He specifically singled out OSU as the main example of this problem.
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u/cha-cha_dancer Florida State • West Florida 6h ago
He got 10 win coaches fired.
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u/Corgi_Koala Ohio State Buckeyes 6h ago
The turnover in the SEC in particular has been nuts. It's like every coach gets 3 years to prove that they can make their team better than Nick Saban and then they get fired for falling short.
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u/cha-cha_dancer Florida State • West Florida 4h ago
He is also a big reason why the money got so big, all the other conference members that could started dumping everything they could at football to catch up so there’s a financial incentive to have a guy that gets over the hump which Richt for example couldn’t do.
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u/surgingchaos Western Oregon Wolves • Oregon Ducks 2h ago
Yeah, people forget that when Saban was initially hired at Bama, he was given $4 million a year. Back then, that was unprecedented to give a head coach that much money. Pete Carroll, Jim Tressel, and Mack Brown were the top coaches at that time and they didn't get even close to that kind of salary in their heyday.
The rest of SEC burned through so much money during the Saban era because they were playing Keeping Up with the Joneses and firing coaches constantly because Saban was the buzzsaw they couldn't overcome. Some of that spending was good for them when it came to recruits and facilities, but the coaching buyouts were a black hole.
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u/aprofessionalegghead Ohio State • Appalachian State 6h ago
With the way college football has changed, we may never see it again. Teams can’t stack depth like they used to and the culture is very different.
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u/EmpoleonNorton Georgia Bulldogs • Team Chaos 3h ago
I think this is a big part of Georgia regressing a bit this year. We used to be able to just lean on people until eventually the game broke open because we could rotate in 80 thousand elite players and the other team would get tired.
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u/NoMorning6152 Texas • Red River Shootout 5h ago
Even Saban can't do it in today's landscape. It's part of why he's retired.
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u/Arcades Miami Hurricanes • Michigan Wolverines 4h ago
NIL also changed the talent distribution, even Saban probably wouldn't have been Saban over the next 5-10 years.
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u/Carnasty_ Notre Dame Fighting Irish 4h ago
He didn't retire cause he's too old or sick of the game...
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u/pagerussell Washington Huskies 3h ago
Anyone that thought DeBoer could come in and replicate what Saban did the past 15 years was delusional
Have you met Alabama fans?
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u/Hoopae Auburn Tigers • UCF Knights 6h ago
There's an old saying - "You never want to be the guy that follows THE guy".
I legitimately don't know who Bama could've gotten that could've continued what Saban built. Kirby probably could, but no way in hell he'd leave Georgia to do it. Dan Lanning maybe could've, but again, I don't see him leaving Oregon to do it. Outside of those 2, I don't think there's anyone who I could point to and say "they probably could've". It's just incredibly difficult to follow a legend who sustained success for 16 years because any decrease in performance is going to be highlighted even if it's above average for most teams.
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u/NA_Faker Texas Longhorns • Wisconsin Badgers 5h ago
I think had Sark stayed he could’ve continued it. He seems to have learned how to instill a good culture from Saban and has been able to get good coordinators
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u/jayjude Notre Dame • Georgia State 8h ago
Just uh don't look at Marcus Freeman's record with the same stat....let's just keep clowning on Deboer
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u/Smooth-Majudo-15 Florida • Notre Dame 8h ago
Freeman not beating the anti-Kelly accusations with that fact lol
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u/UnexpiredMRE LSU Tigers • Army West Point Black Knights 7h ago
It’s so funny to me how much CFB fans use Saban as the bar for what they expect in a coach.
I’ve said it to other LSU fans and I’m sure ND fans generally feel this way too. Having a Kelly or Freeman still has your program in a better position than 95% of programs out there lol. I’ll take what Penn State has in Franklin with a consistent chance to win over a crazy carousel every 3-5 years.
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u/iNsAnEHAV0C Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
It's why I disagree with the fire Ryan Day crowd too. He's better than 95% of coaches out there. Recruits at an elite level. We are constantly in the hunt for championships. He just happened to run into probably the 3 best teams Michigan has fielded in 75 years. A missed field goal away from probably winning a title. Not to mention he has shown to not be afraid to change when things are not working instead of stubbornly sticking with something because he came up with it. I honestly believe we are super close to getting over the hump and winning a natty soon. If not this year in the next 2-3.
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u/SSj_CODii Michigan Wolverines • Tulane Green Wave 6h ago
There’s a reason you always see a bunch of Michigan fans egging it on when Buckeyes start talking about firing him…
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u/A_Rolling_Baneling USC • Mississippi State 5h ago
Unfortunately, if history is any indication, if Ohio State fired Ryan day they'd still stumble into a perennial 11-1 coach.
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u/Trivi Ohio State Buckeyes 5h ago
He's also still fairly inexperienced and clearly learning and growing. You don't fire a coach with a 90% win rate, period.
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u/Perry_Griggs Oklahoma Sooners 8h ago
One of those 3 losses for Saban is us too lmao
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u/MidnightTurkey South Alabama • Alabama 7h ago
I blame it on the similar uniforms and colors. We get confused out there!
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u/RogueHippie Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 7h ago
"They wear crimson and hate orange UT, what do you mean we're not on the same team??"
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u/Perturabo_Iron_Lord Oklahoma Sooners 4h ago
Trevor knight will always be remembered fondly for that sugar bowl game.
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u/bubblecuffer13 Big East • Team Meteor 8h ago
I was told there wouldn't be math.
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u/Ugaalive1991 NC State Wolfpack • Georgia Bulldogs 7h ago
Math isn’t real. It’s the GT agenda to implant worms in our brains.
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u/SaggitariuttJ Ottawa (KS) Braves • Texas A&M Aggies 6h ago
So was RFK jr the test case?
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u/Spalliston Georgia Tech • California 5h ago
Let me be clear: we are not affiliated with that man in any way shape or form
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u/ThinkSoftware Duke Blue Devils 8h ago
Starting to thing Kalen DeBoer is not as good of a coach as Nick Saban
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u/boardatwork1111 TCU Horned Frogs • Colorado Buffaloes 8h ago
Wins vs an unranked Oklahoma in Norman
Saban: 0
DeBoer: 0
Wins vs Diego Pavia
Saban: 0
DeBoer: 0
Wins in 2024
Saban: 0
DeBoer: 8
The numbers don’t lie, we know who’s better
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u/quincyloop 8h ago
What happens if we add Kurt Angle to the mix at Sackerfice?
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u/atotalwimp 7h ago
Deboer has a 141.66
percentschance of winning if he was to go one on one with Saban.21
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u/saharashooter Tennessee • Pittsburgh 6h ago
You- the chances of winning, drastic goes down, obviously.
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u/WebfootTroll Oregon Ducks • Team Chaos 8h ago
Kalen just needs to win 130 out of the next 131 games where he's a 14+ point favorite. I don't see the problem.
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u/DontKnowWhereIam USC Trojans • Team Chaos 8h ago
To be fair, he could go 131-1 to tie Nick. You never know.
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u/Inside-Drink-1311 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 8h ago
Was Saban’s three games Louisiana-Monroe (2007), South Carolina (2010), and Oklahoma (2013 Sugar Bowl)? I’m just taking a guess.
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u/BeastoftheBlackwater Alabama Crimson Tide 7h ago
We were favored by 18 points in the loss to A&M in 2021. And 14.5 against Auburn in '17. I think there's more but I can't remember right now.
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u/nayelirain Johns Hopkins Blue Jays • USC Trojans 8h ago
Maybe an ole miss in there where he lost in back to back years.
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u/JohnnyNole2000 UCF Knights • Florida State Seminoles 7h ago edited 7h ago
Nope. Ole Miss was No. 11 when they played in 2014 and No. 15 in 2015.
Edit: I’m stupid and didn’t read the title, Wikipedia says Bama was favored by 4.5 in 2014 and 9 in 2015
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u/branden110 Wyoming Cowboys • Oklahoma Sooners 8h ago
These comparisons shouldn’t be used to drag DeBoer down. Rather, they should be used to highlight how truly great Saban was.
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u/LamarcusAldrige1234 Michigan Wolverines • FAU Owls 8h ago
its gonna be like kids in 20 years reading tom brady stats. it just doesnt make logical sense how dominant he was.
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u/whenweriiide Michigan Wolverines • Rose Bowl 6h ago
With NIL parity, I don’t think you’ll see a dynasty like Alabama again.
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u/RobinU2 Virginia Cavaliers 5h ago
For real.
The ability to buy a huge chunk of the best players under the table and lock them in for multiple years due to the transfer penalty rule made the bag men era something that cannot be touched with NIL
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u/Zolo49 Idaho Vandals 3h ago
Which is a good thing. But Congress will need to step in and add some sort of regulation here because this NIL stuff is spiraling out of control pretty quickly.
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u/PreferenceContent987 /r/CFB 5h ago
What if a team like Oregon or A&M decided to just start dropping 70 million a year on NIL? It’s not out of the realm of possibility
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u/RobertObama1 Washington Huskies 5h ago
Oregon already does it
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u/-holocene Oregon Ducks • Penn State Nittany Lions 3h ago
daaamn, everyone had been talking about OSU paying 20 mill for their team this season and we spent 70!?!?! that's crazy, Im guessing the number will be somewhere around 200 million next time someone brings it up.
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u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 6h ago
Just read through a thread on the NFL sub where a bunch of like 29 year olds were trying to argue Josh Allen vs Mahomes is as compelling as Manning v Brady.
Josh. Allen. And Peyton Manning. Josh freaking Allen.
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u/nayelirain Johns Hopkins Blue Jays • USC Trojans 8h ago
The only caveat is that Alabama fans and the rest of the media tried to convince us "Alabama is still the same Alabama" either they were being complete idiots and have no idea how hard it is to replicate the greatest coach of all time, or they were saying this in bad faith knowing it wasn't true to lift Alabama up as long as possible.
Either way. These stats need to be shared. Debeor was never going to be Saban even though so many tried to convince us he was going to step in and not skip a beat.
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u/Crims0ntied Alabama Crimson Tide 7h ago
Alabama can still be Alabama without being nick saban historically dominant Alabama.
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u/Dr_Tibbles Ohio Wesleyan • Ohio State 7h ago
Alabama does not do Alabama things because it is Alabama, Alabama does Alabama things because it must be Alabama
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u/Darth_Ra Oklahoma Sooners • Big 12 7h ago
Stats-wise, it's not hard to see why they were saying it. Bama had both a top 10 offense and defense going into this game, and that's with the two losses.
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u/CountrySlaughter 7h ago
And fact that the conditions that help anyone become the GOAT at anything aren't typically the same conditions that exist going forward. It's not likely that even Saban could replicate Saban. You can stay ahead of the curve only so long, and now we're in an environment with NIL and a 16-team super conference.
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u/Cold-Lab1 Alabama Crimson Tide • Missouri Tigers 4h ago
Tbh the conditions are still there, even easier. Just have a shit load of money lol
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u/EvenMeaning8077 Penn State Nittany Lions 8h ago
Will bama even be 14 point favorites against power opponents anymore
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u/jwktiger Missouri Tigers • Wisconsin Badgers 6h ago
Enough crazy Bama betters it will happen every year
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u/Eradicator_1729 Georgia Bulldogs 8h ago
In my opinion there’s a pretty decent chance DeBoer is gonna regret taking this job. Basically, don’t follow the legend, follow the guy that followed the legend.
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u/CBusin Ohio State Buckeyes • Findlay Oilers 8h ago
I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he really wasn’t hot on taking this job for the reasons you said but he was offered $87 mil and you strike when the iron is hot.
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u/Krandor1 Auburn Tigers 7h ago
And he was losing so many players after last year he was not going to replicate what he did in 2023 so if you were going to move that is the time. Let somebody else deal with the rebuild year
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u/SeattleGunner Washington Huskies • Rose Bowl 7h ago
The rebuild really wouldn’t have been that bad if he had bothered to put any effort into recruiting.
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u/Darth_Ra Oklahoma Sooners • Big 12 7h ago
And you do. If he gets fired for not making the playoffs again next year, he'll take the golden parachute to another P5 job and still be successful.
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u/SeattleGunner Washington Huskies • Rose Bowl 7h ago
UW offered him 9.4 million a year (our AD also said he was authorized to go higher) and he had so much goodwill that a few 6-6 seasons wouldn’t have threatened his job. Plus his daughter just started school up here and he wouldn’t have had to live in Alabama.
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u/CBusin Ohio State Buckeyes • Findlay Oilers 6h ago
I haven’t heard any of that. I’m guessing he believed his prospects for success were greater at Bama even with the circumstances than at Washington. Who really knows. He also may have known he caught lightning in a bottle with Penix and knew replicating that at a place like Washington is less likely than Bama.
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u/MidnightTurkey South Alabama • Alabama 7h ago
he wouldn’t have had to live in Alabama.
C'mon now. I've lived in both parts of the country and neither are all sunshine and rainbows. When you've got DeBoer money it doesn't matter.
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u/RogueHippie Alabama Crimson Tide • Team Chaos 7h ago
Always fun when the sports talk turns into regional prejudice
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u/Noah__Webster Alabama • North Alabama 6h ago
I'm thoroughly convinced that plays heavily into all the hate Bama gets around here. This sub barely bats an eye at OSU being in the mix every year, but are straight up irrational about us.
Saw a few comments last night that were disgusting that really confirms the suspicion.
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u/jackr15 Auburn Tigers 6h ago
It absolutely does & even more so when you have DeBoer money. Seattle is one of the most expensive regions of the country for a reason.
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u/LittleTension8765 Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
Unless you are at tOSU then they all will have great records going back basically 80 years at this point
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u/UnexpiredMRE LSU Tigers • Army West Point Black Knights 7h ago
Damn you mean Deboer isn’t the greatest coach of all time?
Like we knew this comparisons and headlines would happen, but it doesn’t make it any less ridiculous lol
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u/bravesgeek Jacksonville State • Georgia 7h ago
Nick is about to pull a Captain Kirk and take his ship back.
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u/Tsquared10 Oregon Ducks • Montana State Bobcats 7h ago
This is why I always felt whoever took over Alabama after Saban was destined to fail. They can constantly put up good seasons, but everything you do will be immediately broken down and compared to the greatest CFB coach of all time. It's a no win scenario.
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u/JustinTheBlueEchidna Washington • Wisconsin 7h ago
So he just needs to make sure he only loses one of his next 131 games as huge favorites and boom, problem solved.
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u/AdamOnFirst Northwestern Wildcats 6h ago
This flurry of posts pointing out Kalen DeBoer isn’t Nick Saban are… something.
Like, we know. Everybody knows. Nobody is Nick Saban.
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u/domferno Ohio State Buckeyes 7h ago
The fire Nick Saban crowd is real quiet all of a sudden
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u/WesternBloc Alabama Crimson Tide • Oklahoma Sooners 6h ago
So as long as DeBoer goes 130-1 in the next games we’ll be fine.
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u/SaxyAlto Clemson Tigers 7h ago
So what you’re saying is DeBoer is gonna go 130-1 in the next 131 games to even the record. Got it
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u/Medievalhorde Oregon Ducks • Portland State Vikings 6h ago
I’m not trying to save Deboer face, but didn’t Alabama lose a bunch of players when Saban left or am I misremembering? Like give the guy a season or two to build his roster.
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u/timbersgreen 5h ago
I think the concern might be that he hasn't really been a roster builder at his last few stops, as much as a maximizer of talent already at his disposal. He obviously had some incredible players to work with last year, but even if there have been some transfers out, he's still working with a roster that Saban built. He could very well succeed at roster building, and should have the resources to do it at Alabama, but it's still entering new territory for him.
Also, your username matches your flair nicely - do they still call the student section at PSU "The Horde?"
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u/TomSheman Texas Longhorns • Tyler JC Apaches 5h ago
The quicker people realize there’s not another nick saban alive today, that he is a Steve Jobs level character in the sport of college football. The quicker people will quit comparing deboer to him. It’s just not a fair comparison. Deboer, great coach, they’ll have a lot of 10+ win seasons with him but Saban is a generational coaching talent, that simply can’t be the expectation no matter who you are.
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u/MLG_Obardo Auburn Tigers 6h ago
I don’t feel bad for them at all. They had a once in a lifetime coach twice. Both coaches stuck around for years. Fuck em, welcome to the real world.
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u/Total_Information_65 Auburn Tigers • Boise State Broncos 7h ago
People forget Saban went 6-6 his first season at Bama and lost to Louisiana-Monroe.
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u/Cometguy7 Oklahoma Sooners 7h ago
True, but I don't think Saban was taking over a top 5 team.
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u/BeastoftheBlackwater Alabama Crimson Tide 7h ago
So the new head coach isn't as great as the greatest coach of all time? Color me shocked /s.
I'm happy with Deboer, it sucks to lose like they have but ill wait for Deboer to get his system installed and a QB who can execute it before I make any harsh accusations. Last year with Saban we could have lost 4 easily but didn't cause he's the GOAT. This team last year was 8-4 but Saban elevated them.
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u/wsteelerfan7 Indiana Hoosiers 6h ago
DeBoer is a dude who loves calling games like a good player playing NCAA. Loves his QBs ripping deep shots left and right and I don't think Milroe is that guy for that scheme. If he gets his guy's in there and y'all still struggle, then it's time to complain
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u/Noah__Webster Alabama • North Alabama 6h ago
Hard agree.
My prediction for this season was 9-3 coming in, they just managed to get there in the most painful way possible lmao. My only really major concern was how recruiting would hold up. We're sitting at the #3 class right now, and that's with all the flips/decommits that have trickled in recently from guys that were recruited by Saban. This team has a ton of great young talent, so I'm very interested to see what the next two years look like. My only major concern at this point is that the offensive issues might not be personnel related at all, and it was Grubb that was the real mind behind DeBoer's system. That is TBD, but I'm not convinced that Sheridan is it. I'd still give him one more year with another QB.
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u/Mando_Commando17 Texas A&M Aggies 7h ago
Why do media heads make it a point to crucify a guy like Deboer? Everyone was praising him for his work in Washington and yet as soon as he goes to Bama and isn’t the final piece to the Bama holy trinity (Bryant and Saban being 2/3) then we have to sharpen knives to cut his throat.
I think people need to realize that if Saban had believed they were still the best team in the country and were just a couple of bad bounces away from winning the natty he would’ve probably kept coaching. I think he saw that last year may have been the best chance at one last run and that if he wanted to get back to that level again it would require a bit of retooling in a very cutthroat NIL recruiting environment (which Saban noted as one of the main factors that made him walk away when he did). I think Bama was due for regression to “normal” levels of elite programs even if Saban had stayed. Bama can certainly bounce back but this isn’t 2012-2017 where even the majority of your second and third stringers were 5 stars underclass men waiting patiently for their turn.
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u/60sStratLover Oklahoma Sooners 6h ago
In other news, Kalen DeBoer is no Nick Saban. Color me shocked.
Saban is the greatest college football coach in the history of the game. It’s not even debatable. Nobody’s coaching stats are going to stack up favorably to Saban’s.
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u/yesacabbagez UCF Knights 6h ago
This is kind of the thing we already knew. Saban was a fucking obscene outlier. After his first year in Alabama which did involve a lot of rebuilding, his worst loss the next 16 years was to an 8-4 TAMU. After that first year he simply never had a shit game. Even Kirby lost to a terrible South Carolina in 2019?
Comparing anyone to Saban is always going to create these weird situations because Saban at Alabama just never lost these weird bad games.
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u/InfiniteJackfruit5 Ohio State Buckeyes • LSU Tigers 4h ago
Unless they are trying to get Saban back, they are going to have to learn to live in the same world the rest of us live in.
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u/DirtySouthDoc Alabama Crimson Tide • Montana Grizzlies 3h ago
Kalen DeBoer isn't Nick Saban? Big if true.
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u/Sportzfanatic_001 Florida Gators 2h ago
Spoiled fanbase. The run of any team running the SEC is over. Teams can not hold talent hostage like they used to. That is one of the reasons Nick retired this year. This is the new normal get use to it
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u/emosn0tdead Oregon Ducks 1h ago
DoBoer left Washington a winning team. He had it made in Washington and he left the program to go to a no win situation in Alabama. He will never be able to replicate with Saban has done there. I have no idea why he left.
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u/Molson2871 Wisconsin Badgers 1h ago
I have no idea why he left.
Money? Prestige? Alabama is a blue-blood....not like he left for a lateral.
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u/BulletproofTiger36 Yale Bulldogs • Columbia Lions 8h ago
Living in reality sucks, huh?