On Monday night, the confetti finally settled in Miami with another program being crowned as college football's elite. Indiana hoisted their first National Championship trophy in school history, beating the Miami Hurricanes in Hard Rock Stadium. This championship run by the Hoosiers encapsulated the frustrating reality of Alabama fans seeing three of the last four champions knock off the Crimson Tide en route to reaching the college football's highest mountain top.
The other two seasons that Alabama lost to the eventual title winner happened back in 2022, when Ohio State knocked off the Tide in the National Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. And then again in the 2023-24 season, when Michigan went on to win it all after beating Alabama at the Rose Bowl in the semifinals. This daunting dynamic, toppled by the fact that Indiana was able to accomplish this feat with one of Nick Saban's greatest disciples, coach Cignetti, doesn't sit right with many Tide fans when they turn their attention to Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. That frustration mostly steams is because DeBoer, like Curt Cignetti, both took over their respective programs at the same time, back in January 2024.
When this took place, many had the notion that DeBoer had been set up for more instant success in Tuscaloosa than Cignetti when taking over for Saban after his historic 17-year tenure at Alabama due to the structure and pool of talent previously already embedded within the program. That outlook quickly changed after seeing Cignetti construct arguably one of the greatest rebuilds in all of sports by exceeding all expectations in Bloomington when leading Indiana to the postseason in his first year in 2024, then taking the country by storm en route to capping off the Hoosiers' perfect 16-0 championship run.
Kalen DeBoer is feeling the pressure heading into year three at Alabama
Cignetti's success, mixed with three of the last four champions eliminating the Tide en route to winning it all, along with DeBoer's struggles over his first two seasons at the helm at Alabama, now leaves the fans questioning just how close or far the program is to actually getting back to the promised land. For DeBoer himself, those dynamics have the strong potential to set up what many may consider to be a "make it or break it" year for the third-year head coach on the job. That pressure may even be highlighted after seeing many outlets like ESPN and CBS prematurely rank Alabama lower than usual in the 2026-27 way-too-early college football rankings.
Nonetheless, with DeBoer and company's slow start this off-season, Alabama has managed to rebound nicely with a few quality additions in the transfer portal on both sides of the football, with more potentially on the way. With that being said, it'll be interesting to see the patience level Alabama fans truly have for DeBoer this spring, summer, and fall after seeing Cignetti do what many considered to be the impossible this past playoff run, as the two coaches will now forever be notably synced together along the same timeline in the minds of many moving forward.