It took many Alabama football fans years to move on from Bear Bryant. Moving on from Nick Saban has been easier simply because the days of coaches staying at one school for decades are nearly over. Still, moving on from Saban is far from complete. Doing so will take at least one National Championship.
The 9-4, 2024 Alabama Crimson Tide season is mostly viewed as a failure. For perspective, Alabama lost five or more games in a season three times between Bryant's last season and the Gene Stallings-coached 1992 National Championship. After Stallings left, Alabama lost five or more games seven times before Nick Saban. Saban's first Alabama team went 7-6. Yes, 9-4 was a major disappointment, but the Crimson Tide football program has been in worse shape many times.
During Nick Saban's glorious run, he reminded players (and fans) more than once that success is not a continuum. Alabama must achieve it again. It is unrealistic and unfair to Kalen DeBoer that for Alabama Football, success is measured almost solely by national championships. So be it. There is no indication that DeBoer shrinks from the task.
Alabama Football fans and Kalen DeBoer
Kalen DeBoer stepped into the toughest job in college football, replacing a legend. Since Bryant's second season in 1959, any Alabama football season with more than three losses is deemed a failure. Nick Saban once joked to Steve Spurrier that if he ever lost three games again, as Saban and Alabama did in 2010, he would be fired. Spurrier was not sure Saban was joking. Not only did DeBoer's first Alabama team lose four games, but one of the losses was to Vanderbilt.
Bryant lost to Vandy in 1969. The Bear survived it because he had won three Alabama National Championships before the shocking loss. Ray Perkins lost to Vanderbilt in 1984, in a home game. After two more seasons, Perkins chose to return to the NFL. Losing to Vandy did not cause Perkins to leave the Crimson Tide. But the pall of doubt that loss created never fully dissipated.
Kalen DeBoer was recently asked which head coach loss bothers him the most. It was not last season's Vandy game. The loss occurred when DeBoer was an NAIA head coach at Sioux Falls. "We lost a game 55-0 in the national semifinal in 2005. We just weren’t good enough. We won the national championship the very next year. But that one, it haunts me just because it was embarrassing at the time and you’re like ‘Wow, we’ve got a long ways to go,’ but that was one of the greatest learning moments that I always still draw on."
Hating losses more than loving wins is something DeBoer and Saban share. Alabama football fans hope DeBoer will also share some, not inconsiderable, propensity for winning. Until DeBoer proves that, doubts will linger.