Andy & Ari On3 - NO PRESSURE: Alabama hires Washington's Kalen DeBoer to replace Nick Saban

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Alabama has hired Washington's Kalen DeBoer to replace Nick Saban. Andy and Tim Watts of BamaOnline discuss the man brave enough to be the guy after THE guy.Want to watch the instant reaction? Head to YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/lvqHkheDwzw

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It's an emergency show. You hear the sirens. Tim Watts is here. We are talking new Alabama head coach, Tim Watts, publisher of Bama Online. He's covered a lot of these coaching searches. This one ends with Kalen DeBoer of Washington coming to Tuscaloosa. What do you think, Tim? Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I'm going to look back and I'm going to

ask people, how long do y'all think this search took? You know what I mean? Like talking to Alabama fans. I mean, it's this morning I woke up and there was a panic, like, how can this take that long? I mean, even at one point I was a little, I was sort of like anxious and I'm like, it hadn't even 48 hours. First of all, Greg Byrne put a clock on him that you have to admire 72 hours. You know, are you the smartest guy in the room or not? He is. I mean, he put a clock on himself, which is very much unheard of. He could have said, give me a week, you know, give me five to seven days. He said 72 hours and he delivered in, what was it? 46 hours, 41, 45 hours. I mean, he, so a lot of smoke screen. I think it's kicked off with the Dan Lanning rumors. I mean,

Saban retires at four and then the world goes crazy thinking Dan Lanning is in Tuscaloosa at 6 PM. So I think we just set the clock then, and I think we set the forest on fire and was watching it burn. Well, the landing thing was funny, and I did a little coaching search 101 on the show last night where I explained, they don't go to the town where the school is to interview. That's not how that works. I'm sure we'll probably get a full download from from greg burn the alabama ad about how this all went down but my guess is that caitlin deborah and greg burn probably met either at a neutral site or in seattle where caitlin deborah

was working at washington that would make a lot more sense but yeah it's it's interesting because you know the thought is you you go through the names Lanning was was an obvious one but so was Mike Norvell so was Steve Sarkeesian and so was Kalen DeBoer and everybody got a raise yeah I mean you look you know I'm saying on the BOL YouTube channel just a minute ago. I mean, you had like Kaiser Soze running this, Jimmy Sexton, knowing better than anybody how to work this system, get what his guys need, an incredible job he does for his guys. So you saw a lot of guys fall dominoes-wise.

And for some reason, I think that turned into Alabama was being turned down. I don't think Alabama even got close to the table with Dan Lanning. I think he was watching TV at home that night, you know, blew up and had to make a statement the next day. We haven't heard there was any contact there. You know, you saw coaches tweeting out. And this is, you know, we talked about this on the first one. We had coaches saying, and this always happened, hey,

I'm staying right where I'm at, turning it down, you know, often before they even got the offer, though. But you start running through there, Sark, all the names mentioned. Now, I will say it's kind of odd that we actually had the name on the list. You know, Greg Byrne, again, you go back to that Alabama coaching search with Nate Oates. I don't know if he's on the list now if we did hot board. I mean, it just came out of the blue.

But if you look at the parallels, if you look at the comparisons with Kalen DeBoer and Nate Oates, you can see a guy that started small ball, assistant coach, high school coach, worked his way up. Nate Oates is obviously doing a great job at Alabama. I think the biggest question for Alabama fans is that the NIA, a lot of his wins came in NIA. But what I'm going to say to them is simple. You're not lucky to win at every single level you go to. You're good. You're good. That's what happens. You don't get lucky at every level. It's no easier to win at the NAIA level than it is

at any other level. That is competitive football. All those guys don't even play in field. You got to know how to coach. So the guys that win, when you look at just coaching and the coaches I've talked to, it's only been a handful so far, a little over a handful. They all think the guy can coach and that's, I mean, that's where football starts on the field. Yeah. And something to remember, he took over a team that was four and eight in 2021 and then went 25 and three during what might've been the deepest period the PAC 12 ever had.

And so it's a pretty, it's a pretty big accomplishment. I think the big question is, and I'll throw it out there because we've got one in the chat right now. Not that, Karen. So happy Alabama got their own version of Brian Harsin. Just because his last job was in the Northwest does not mean this is going to be Brian Harsin. But I will ask you that question. It is always a question when somebody from outside SEC country comes into the sec do we think he can

recruit in the sec i mean nick saban did that right he came yes from michigan state to lsu that's what i'm saying he came from out he did that urban meyer too left most of his staff at michigan state if i recall correctly right yes correct put together a cat a staff at lsu that's unprecedented yeah they that's unprecedented. That's the one where they show the photos, who's on staff, and they've circled 90% of the heads because now they're all head coaches. I don't think that him being from the West Coast is anything other than a coincidence. I mean, I'm not sure you could get more short-sighted than that. I mean, the problem with Brian Harsin, nobody ever said it was football-related at related at auburn right what did they say he didn't have any connections in the south he didn't

hire southern coaches he didn't recruit at all right right he didn't he didn't chase the kind of players you have to chase at auburn because you you've got to chase the kind of players that alabama and georgia are chasing so if caitlin deborah comes in and he's chasing the same guys that kirby smart's chasing and as aggressively as Kirby Smart, then it'll be just fine. I mean, he's chasing the guys that had the fact that Dan Lanning's chasing. He's chasing, I mean, look at his wins. Look at his biggest wins. I mean, he's beating Dan Lanning, who's a terrific coach. Oregon's a good program. Look at his record against the top coaches. Look at the talent he had on the field. Also, he's very familiar with the portal.

And, hey, that's the world we're living in. The transfer portal is big and all. I mean, that's basically saying LeBron James goes to the Hawks. He's going to suck, you know, because Brian Harsin did. I mean, you've got to be really simple to think that. Yeah, I would say let's give him a chance and let's see who he hires because we don't know yet what's going to happen at Washington. You know, Ryan Grubb is the OC at Washington, actually interviewed for the Alabama job before Tommy Reese got it.

And we don't know if Ryan Grubb is going to get promoted. If he doesn't get promoted, I would imagine he's coming with that. He's calling plays at Alabama. But then we don't know about the rest of the staff. You know, there's a lot of good coaches on Alabama staff. Oh, by the way, there's a lot of good coaches on Alabama staff. Oh, by the way, there's also this guy that's going to have an office in the building named Nick Saban. We might be able to help him as he hires people.

I mean, basically, when you say the stuff that some of these people say about Brian Harsin, you're calling a lot of people stupid. That's what you're doing. Greg Byrne literally said the guy's got to be able to build relationships. The guy's got to be able to coach. You know, and I get Brian Harsin didn't do a good job at Auburn for whatever reason, but most of that was related. It wasn't his football acronym. He comes in, doesn't recruit well. I mean, that's exactly what DeBoer's got to do. He's got to come in and recruit. There's no way he's going to go to Alabama thinking he doesn't have to recruit. And like you said, you don't build a program with no talent.

He knew how to get talent. He knew how to put guys on there. And, hey, he keeps his roster intact. He doesn't have to recruit a lot. He's got a loaded roster. So, I mean, you look at this. To me, this is like a semester in college. You got your six-week report card.

It's an A. You got an A. You hired a really good coach, one of the hottest coaches in the country the guy was in the you know the playoffs national championship game now we have to judge how does he fill out his staff right who does he get and then we'll have a second grade because this thing could go from an a to an a plus plus or to an a to a you know b minus that's going to depend on who comes with him and who he brings with him so ryan in the chat you know it's a bad hire when even the Alabama fans have to explain why it's a good hire. You know it's bad when even the Auburn fans are doing nothing more than getting

ready to watch this disaster. I think the Auburn fans are more worried about them revamping their own staff, which by the way, this would have been your opportunity to take advantage of Alabama not having a coach, but it doesn't seem like that's happening. No, I mean, I'm looking at the Auburn front page, Auburn Live, who does a great job. Zach Etheridge resigns, Carnell Williams resigns. I mean, I think that's pretty presumptuous there to act like all's well with that coaching staff. They're having to redo their coaching staff as well. And you know what? You don't get a window. That's not a shot at who freaks. You better do what you got to do to win right away. If you're not comfortable with who you got, you go and you make your moves. But I mean, I don't know if Auburn fans are celebrating.

I don't know what other people's reaction. I think it's Nick Saban and anything less. And we discussed this on your show. Anything less than Steve Sarkeesian or Kirby Smart is going to be seen as a downgrade. I mean, and even they're probably a downgrade. It's Nick Saban, the greatest coach ever. You can't really go above the greatest coach ever. Yeah, exactly. And the thing is, Kalen DeBoer is going to be under intense pressure.

He's going to be under intense scrutiny. And it's not fair, but what Nick Saban did, no one's ever been able to do before. And so it's not fair to think he's just going to pick it up and keep doing that. But I just wonder, what's the difference between the Alabama administration and the Alabama fan base? Because I'm sure the Alabama fan base, if Kalen DeBoer makes the playoff, but they don't make it out of the quarterfinals in the first two years, they're going to be ready to fire him.

You know what? What about the Alabama administration? That applied to Nick Saban. True. I mean, you think Nick Saban missed the playoffs last year and everybody wasn't – there wasn't people saying that he was past his prime and all that stuff. Absolutely.

When Alabama loses, Nick Saban has not been above criticism. I don't know where that starts. I mean, there's just a certain level. I mean, I still think you got to recalibrate when he leaves, but I do think it helps the board. You got a 12 team playoff. Alabama should be a fairly competitive team and in that running for a top 12. But again, I mean, I'm just me. I'm just a one step at a guy. You judge this guy, whether you feel he's a good coach or not. I find the fact that fans whose teams haven't sniffed the college football playoffs are making fun of a coach who just was in the national championship. Right. I find a little bit of irony there, you know. Well, he took him from four and eight to the national championship game in two years. That's the the crazy part. And I would think that does prove that he can take. And here's the

thing. I always look at the best coaches can take theirs and beat yours or take yours and beat theirs. He strikes me as that kind of guy. Yeah, I think the football coach on the field, I think that's what he does best. I think that's what he's going to be known for. And I think the football coach on the field, I think that's what he does best. I think that's what he's going to be known for, and I think that's where you have to start with any coaching staff. Again, you want them to be able to coach football, right, because we've seen guys that were really great recruiters. You mentioned Ron Zook on the show we did last time. They had unbelievable classes.

I mean, just insane talent that he brought in. And Urban Meyer, who could coach football, came in, took that talent, took it to the next level. So I would rather have a coach, knowing he can coach, who can figure out recruiting because I tell you what's not easy to do. It's not easy to figure out how to be a college coach in your 50s. Yeah, I covered Ron's look at Florida. And, you know, if you look at that, it's actually a pretty similar situation

because Steve Sp spurrier was coming off one of his best teams he was still kind of at the height of his powers when he left florida it wasn't like bobby bowden to jimbo fisher where bowden had down years before jimbo took over you know spurrier was like i i think 2001 might have been his best team at florida and i say that as someone who's on his national championship team like I think oh one might have been better and so you go from that to Ron Zook he inherits Rex Grossman and he's like okay everything's going to be great but that guy had to learn how to be a head coach and if you look at his results they weren't terrible but they weren't good enough and he was bringing in the talent but like you said it took an Urban Meyer to coach that talent.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you think, and in my opinion, Steve Sarkeesian is probably in that top two or three top coaches in the country, right? I don't think there's any doubt he knows how to coach. He's a great play caller. Texas is a monster. Good recruiting classes, all that. Well, DeBoer's beaten back-to-back years in games that matter, in the playoffs

and in a bowl game. So you also look at Dan Lanning. Everybody thinks he's a terrific up-and-comer coach. He's had a very good record against him, though. So it's not like he's down here beating guys we're not aware of. And I'm saying those wins were huge because I think Oregon and Lanning's a good program. I think Steve Sarkeesian in Texas is a good program. I'm saying he's matched up with some of the best of the best, and he's certainly held his own. Yeah, and he does. And this is the thing we talk about with certain coaches.

Because like with Lane Kiffin, as good as he's been, he's struggled against Saban. He's struggled when he's had to play Kirby Smart. And, you know, DeBoer so far, playing at some of the best that he's played against, he's beaten him. He didn't beat Jim Harbaugh the other night, but he's done pretty well other than that.

Beat Sarkeesian in the Sugar Bowl. They just went head to head. I think we could argue that Sarke had more talent in that game. Didn't end up winning it. So this is going to be a really interesting transition because I do, like you said, I think it matters who you hire, how you come in. Do you say, listen, I'm unfamiliar with this area, but I'm going to bring in some people who are very familiar with it and trust them to help get me up to speed. Again, again, I covered urban Meyer when he got to Florida, it was the same thing. He found people who were experienced recruiting. Like he kept Charlie

strong. He went and hired doc holiday, who was very experienced recruiting the state of Florida. And those are the, those were the guys that helped him get up to speed in an area that he was unfamiliar with. Yeah. And urban's another guy, you know, we talked about Nick saving, where's urban from where, where was his connection. He's from Ohio and coming from Utah. So with Urban Meyer, the next Brian Harsin, you know, maybe he's, you know, maybe this guy's the next. But that's exactly what they said when he got there. They said, oh, you can't, can't win running that offense. Can't win coming from Utah. They don't remember, you know, they don't remember all their hotcakes. I mean, I've got Alabama, Some of my best Alabama friends are now convinced they were all behind NATOs.

Like they grew up watching University of Buffalo basketball. They lost their mind. And for me, I had to do research myself. I'm not the Buffalo expert either. Still digging into Washington. But I do think that what you see on the field is what you get. And like you said, we'll see more. We'll know more down the road.

Who's coming? Who's his offensive coordinator? Who's his offensive coordinator? Who's his defensive coordinator? Who's he going to recruit? But I still go back to this, and I'm always going to go back to this. There is, like you said, a guy on campus that if you need advice, hey, what should I do to help build my staff so I can recruit in the South? Is there anybody better than Nick Saban to ask that question?

No, absolutely not. He's still there. He's still around the program. I'm not saying he's a mentor or anything, but I do think you got a guy to pick his brain. Absolutely. And, you know, I think Saban is probably smart enough to know when to insert an opinion and when to hang back, because that's the one thing you're concerned about with the all-time legend hanging around. But Saban doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who's going to,

who's going to butt in when he doesn't think he's wanted. We saw that with Phillip Fulmer, you know, you're looking up and Fulmer is an AD and all of a sudden he's on the field and, you know, on the end zone coaching the offensive lineman video escape. So that's a hard thing to do when you've got somebody leaning over you. And I think Nick Saban would never, you know, I don't think he's going to be intrusive at all. I don't think, you know, somebody, several questions,

will Nick Saban be involved with practice? No, I think if he wanted to be involved with practice, he'd still be the coach, right? I don't think you're going to look up and you're running a drill and Nick Saban's going to come walking around blowing his whistle going, no, no, no, no. That's not how you, that's not how you tackle. I don't, I'm not anticipating that. But again, you know, if I'm a coach, shoot, I'd pick Nick Saban's brain right now.

I'd call him right now and pick his brain for an hour. So I imagine any coach, you know, would want to have that access. He may trash talk the occasional corner at practice. Oh yeah. I think he even said, I think I said, I read where he told his players, like, I don't have to be in the, on the field to yell at you. You know, I can look from my office and scream at you. You know what I mean? So I don't think he'll, I think he'll be a bystander, not so innocent.

I think he will watch to see what's going on because I think that's his nature. Very curious and all that kind of stuff but um i think you know i think there's a part of people that are irritated this search didn't go on i'm talking about other fan bases i think they wanted to be like tennessee post chiano arkansas people yeah i remember arkansas i mean i remember people had 40 names listed and sam pitman was never one of them. Yep. I mean, it didn't happen. I mean, it didn't happen with a bunch of people.

So the one they got, unless it really didn't matter if it's going to be Mike Norvell or Dan Lanning or Tommy Reese, Mike Locksley, anybody but Kirby Smart or Steve Sarkeesian, people were going to have concerns, questions, and, you know, negative things to say about it. And that's just the business because he's got to prove it. He's proven it at every level. Now DeBoer's got to prove it, you know, at the University of Alabama. And I would like to point out, you've got to have a tremendous set of – well, you've got – I'm not going to say that.

You've got to have a lot of confidence to be the guy to follow Nick Saban. Because, hey, we heard nobody wanted to follow him, right? Nobody wants that job. Nobody wants to follow him. Or here's a guy that just played in the national championship game who wanted, basically could do anything he wanted at Washington. Obviously, they were doing anything they could to keep him. They would have loved to keep him, who walked away and took this challenge.

And I think you have to admire the fact that he's not, he didn't shy away from it. So Zach in the chat, active coaches who coached the national title game during the CFP era, Dabo, Ryan Day, Kirby, Sonny Dykes, and Kalen DeBoer. That's it. It's actually also Harbaugh, unless you've got some,

unless Zach knows something we don't. Zach's got breaking news. But yeah, that's a good point. I see a lot of teams teams fans of other teams talking trash and i didn't see any of their coaches on that list oddly enough yeah they're they're trying to get there they're all trying to get there so tim this has been awesome thank you so much i know you have more work to do but i want to point out so kaylin deborah was about to move into the big ten at washington he'll not get to do that but he will play a Big Ten game before he plays an SEC game. That's crazy. Bama's at

Wisconsin on September 14th. Go to State Street Brats, everybody. Get yourself some brats. But then September 28th, SEC opener. The Georgia Bulldogs in Tuscaloosa. Welcome to the SEC. There's no rest. I'll be honest. I've loved it. I certainly didn't want to go on any longer, and I wanted Alabama to get whoever they wanted. But this ride, coming up on 48 hours, has been amazing. And, you know, I know it's amazing because people I know that don't even

really follow football, just random people are talking about it and watching it and the excitement it brought. So, from this point forward, we take a breath, wait for the announcement, see who's coming with me. It's like Tom Cruise and Jerry Maguire. Who's coming with me? Now we're about to find out who's the goldfish. Well, you know the answer to that?

Show me the money! That's absolutely going to be the answer. Thank you, Tim. You got it, Andy, anytime. Thank you, Tom.