SerpApi.Org
TAMPA, FL — He strolled through the lobby of this fancy downtown hotel in the early morning hours, hopped into the elevator and rode directly into the teeth of the absurd circus that is SEC Media Days. And then something strange happened to Kalen DeBoer.
No one cared. Not a soul.
No Alabama fans in game day getup, no autograph hounds, no lunacy of years past that followed the greatest coach of the greatest conference in the greatest sport in the whole damn world. Or whatever the lovable lunatic Tide fringe call it.
From NFL plays to college sports scores, all the top sports news you need to know every day.
No media hoard following his every move. No cameras or cell phones or microphones in his face.
Just a coach, and his safe, boring stroll into Year 3 of the most pressure-packed job in the SEC world of win or walk.
“I understand what took place and happened here during the great times,” DeBoer said on the dais, answering the same question the same way for probably the 1,000th time since accepting the job of replacing Nick Saban and his 1,000 championships.
Then it happened.
The coach at big, bad Alabama was asked by a member of the local Alabama media if the Tide is — are you ready for this? — overlooked this season.
Saban, the Death Star himself sitting on the ESPN set in the back of the ballroom, must have puked.
“I understand why with a lot of new faces,” DeBoer said. “And that’s OK, you know, because we gotta go prove it.”
If that doesn’t tell you it’s a new houndstooth world, nothing will. At one point - I swear I’m not making this up — DeBoer was talking about toughness and resiliency, saying they're areas where Alabama needs to “continue to get better.”
Again, the guy whose teams oozed toughness and resiliency for 17 glorious seasons in Tuscaloosa, couldn’t have been too thrilled with that.
But this is where we are at Alabama, like it or not. DeBoer’s teams have lost eight games in two seasons, and sustained the worst bowl loss in school history in last year’s Rose Bowl.
It’s that game, that moment, that should be pause for all. Because not only was the 35-point loss to longtime NCAA tomato can Indiana, it was an Indiana team with a coach who arrived in Bloomington at the same time DeBoer showed up in Tuscaloosa.
With significantly less talent, and absolutely zero history of winning and a winning culture.
Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti, a former assistant under Saban at Alabama, took the dregs of college football, won 27 of 29 games and won a national title. DeBoer took the greatest program in the sport's history, went 20-8 and lost to Vanderbilt for the first time in four decades.
There’s no avoiding those realities.
It’s not about losing star recruit Julian Sayin to Ohio State once Saban announced his retirement, or any other player who left. It’s about DeBoer and Year 3 — and how he has three high school recruiting classes and three transfer portal classes on the current roster.
It’s his team. It’s his quarterback (whomever plays), his culture and his time to win now with expectations. Not flying under the radar, for love of all things Bear Bryant.
This is why he’s paid among the top five coaches in college football, why Tide athletic director Greg Byrne doubled down this offseason with a $2 million-plus annual raise after Michigan and Penn State (and whoever else) showed interest — and left the university with a buyout the size of a Third World economy.
DeBoer may have come and gone with barely a buzz at SEC Media Days, but it’s about to get real when preseason camp begins next month. He has one starter returning on offense, has a brand new quarterback and the Tide will still get everyone’s best shot, week after week.
This is still the team that was embarrassed by Florida State in the season opener in 2025, yet found a way to respond and set up a College Football Playoff run. It’s also the team that’s 2-3 in its last five games against power conference opponents.
The team that, in the two biggest games of last season — against Georgia in the SEC championship game and Indiana in the Rose Bowl — lost by a combined 66-10 with a quarterback who was selected with the 13th overall pick in April’s NFL draft.
Now this season begins with that one starter returning from offense, two quarterbacks who combined to throw 47 passes in mop up duty, and a run game that was statistically one of the worst in the modern era of Alabama football.
“We understand there will be doubt,” DeBoer said. “Because those expectations are extremely high in the program.”
Yep, just a safe, boring stroll into Year 3.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. Listen to him daily, from 12-2 p.m., on 1010XL-Jacksonville.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alabama, Kalen DeBoer are SEC media days afterthought. How the mighty have fallen
