Last season, the Alabama coaching staff had to take on a different personality than they would have preferred. Once Nick Saban retired, it was open season on the Crimson Tide roster. Even though Greg Byrne only took two days to secure Kalen DeBoer as the team's new head coach, it was challenging to keep the wolves away.
The Transfer Portal was open for Alabama players, but there was a limited ability for DeBoer and company to fight back. They secured a few players from Washington, like Germie Bernard, Parker Brailsford, Austin Mack, and Josh Cuevas, but for the most part, Alabama couldn't do much until the spring window, which is always a much smaller crop of players.
Because of that, DeBoer and the staff had to make more concessions than they wanted to a year ago to keep the roster together as much as possible. That led to a dip in the standard across the board, more leniency on issues than would have normally been allowed, and a much longer leash for the starting QB than he probably deserved.
That's out the window now. Alabama strength coach David Ballou - one of the few holdovers from the Saban era in Tuscaloosa - talked about the message he and the coaching staff delivered to the team as soon as the 2024 season ended in an appearance on "Hey Coach" on Wednesday night.
“We had a very emphatic and direct message to our guys,” Ballou said. "What just happened wasn’t good enough. There were some things that were addressed.”
2024 wasn't good enough - Alabama's coaches made sure the players knew it
Effectively, DeBoer was the substitute teacher for Alabama last season. He's now a tenured professor. He let Alabama's players do things their way last season to avoid upsetting the apple cart. The results spoke for themselves. This year, the Crimson Tide will do things DeBoer's way. That was agreed upon in January after Alabama lost in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Those who couldn't accept that were shown the door.
‘This is how we’re going to do things," Ballou said. "If you don’t want to be here, leave.”
With the Transfer Portal open both ways, the winter window allowed DeBoer and the coaching staff to fight back and build the roster the way they wanted. In 2024, DeBoer was coaching a Nick Saban team. In 2025, this is a DeBoer team through and through.
The buy-in is high. The attitude around the program has changed completely. There's a lot of optimism in Tuscaloosa and in the fanbase that this team has the chance to be special.
That's all well and good, but the only thing that really matters is the results on the field. Talk is cheap, and Alabama fans are ready to see it put to action.