Alabama fans losing it on Kalen DeBoer after back-to-back portal disasters

Kalen DeBoer did bring Alabama to the College Football Playoff this year, but for the second-straight season, he finished with four losses. By Alabama standards, that is unacceptable. 

Those losses primarily came due to a porous offensive line, a running back room with a lack of explosiveness, and a defensive line that got bowled over by Indiana in the Rose Bowl. Crimson Tide fans, understandably, expected those holes and a few more to be addressed by Kalen DeBoer and general manager Courtney Morgan, but with just five days left in the lone portal window, fans are losing faith. 

Alabama has made some key additions to the roster, like linebacker Caleb Woodson from Virginia Tech and defensive lineman Devan Thompkins from USC, but the real difference-makers have eluded the Tide. That includes NC State running back Hollywood Smoothers and Auburn wide receiver Cam Coleman. 

Alabama loses out on Cam Coleman and Hollywood Smoothers to Texas

On Sunday, the Tide got bad news on both. Coleman committed to Texas, which was seen as the leader in his recruitment along with Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Then, to make matters worse, the Longhorns flipped Smoothers, who had previously committed to the Tide. 

Coleman, a former five-star, was considered the top wide receiver in the portal and commanded a high price. It’s been speculated that he could earn as much as three million dollars for one season before leaving for the NFL. The Texas schools, buoyed by surrounding major cities or flowing with oil money, may be the only three in the country that can afford to pay that for a wide receiver without sacrificing depth on the rest of the roster. 

Alabama simply doesn’t have the financial backing to compete with those NIL behemoths. Nick Saban, at the end of his tenure, was known for getting players to take a “Saban discount,” but that advantage left the program when he left the sidelines. Now, it seems that DeBoer is struggling to go blow-for-blow with the rest of the SEC this offseason. 

That’s not the only reason that fans are frustrated with DeBoer, though. There’s also the fact that he doesn’t do more with the talent that he does have. Curt Cignetti and Indiana have money pouring into their program and have dominated in the portal this offseason, but even his current roster, which will play for a national championship next Monday night, doesn’t have a single former five-star on it. 

Maybe DeBoer and Morgan can’t outspend the rest of the country, but they’re not an underfunding program that can’t compete. Their high school classes prove that. Now, it looks as though they’ll need to lean on those young players unless they can make a later surge to close the portal window.