When you lose by five touchdowns on the grandest stage in college football, there's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Kalen DeBoer and Alabama have been forced to face the humiliation firsthand. All the vitriol from the media and fans, they earned every single bit of it with the embarrassing performance at the Rose Bowl.
And despite DeBoer's public comments about there being a fine line separating Alabama and the upper echelon teams in college football now, like Indiana, the hope is that, privately, he understands that it's more akin to a chasm.
Alabama isn't close. It needs some major changes and upgrades at multiple positions - and on the coaching staff - to become a legitimate contender for the National Championship.
The biggest myth about the 2025 Crimson Tide is that it took a step forward from DeBoer's first season. That's true in that Alabama won two more games and made the College Football Playoff after missing it a year ago. But this team is statistically worse in almost every major category from last season.
The Ryan Grubb hire was supposed to fix an offense that was broken at the end of last season. Instead, the fresh paint job could only hide that Alabama was driving a beater for so long.
The 2024 team got unlucky in a loss to Vanderbilt, or it would have been 10-2 and in the College Football Playoff. In Bill Connelly's SP+ rankings, Alabama finished 4th a season ago despite a 9-4 record.
This year? After the loss to Indiana, Alabama dropped all the way to 20th. That's the Crimson Tide's worst ranking - by leaps and bounds - since Connelly created it.
So while this might have been a step forward in terms of results and where Alabama ended up, it was a sizable step backwards in advanced profiles. That's a concerning trend heading into what will be a critical year three for Alabama's head coach.
Alabama's early Transfer Portal movement shows DeBoer understands what is at stake
Perhaps I'm reading it wrong, but the first day of the Transfer Portal brought an interesting takeaway for me.
From my vantage point, it looks like DeBoer is done trying to fit square pegs in round holes. He's done trying to blend the Nick Saban roster holdovers with his own guys. He's ready to move forward into year three with a roster of his own creation.
The portal entries on the offensive line on Friday are the clearest evidence. Backups Roq Montgomery, Joseph Ionata, and Olaus Alinen all entered the Transfer Portal. All three were Saban recruits.
A complete overhaul of the offensive line seems likely. And necessary. The Crimson Tide hasn't been good enough up front in either of DeBoer's two years on the sideline. And that comes after he had one of the best offensive lines in the country at Washington.
Alabama is going to get smaller and more athletic up front to effectively run DeBoer's system.
I also believe DeBoer is ready to move forward with his own guy at QB. Ty Simpson is likely to head to the NFL Draft, but if he doesn't, there are some who believe he could ultimately choose to enter the Transfer Portal rather than return to Alabama.
Alabama's starting quarterback next season will likely be either Austin Mack or Keelon Russell, two guys that DeBoer recruited out of high school. Two guys he believes can effectively run his vertical passing system.
Simpson did everything he could with serious issues surrounding him on offense, but he's also probably not a guy DeBoer would have recruited in the first place. That's no disrespect to him, but this staff is particular about quarterbacks.
DeBoer knows the gravity of the situation he faces in Tuscaloosa. He's not presently on the hot seat, but it would take very little to push him in that direction in 2026.
DeBoer trusts his system and trusts his ability to identify and develop talent. Especially at the quarterback position.
If he's going to go down, he'd prefer to go down with a roster full of guys he hand-picked
I expect Alabama's Transfer Portal activity over the next two weeks to further reflect that.