Alabama fans may not be sold on Kalen DeBoer as the right fit as the head coach of the Crimson Tide, but even the majority of his detractors in the fanbase agree that he's a good coach. The question is whether or not he's a good fit in Tuscaloosa.
That question has seemingly influenced the national perception of DeBoer, who has been a proven winner everywhere he's been. And contrary to popular belief, he's winning at Alabama so far too. No, he hasn't delivered a national championship in his first two seasons, but he did lead the Crimson Tide to the SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff in year two, despite facing a pretty major roster overhaul following Nick Saban's retirement and the subsequent portal exodus.
Being the head coach at Alabama isn't an easy job. It's especially not easy when you are following in the footsteps of the greatest head coach of all time. Alabama may not have the best coach in college football anymore as they did during Saban's 17-years on the sideline, but they still have an elite coach calling the shots.
CBS Sports' Brad Crawford seems to agree. In his ranking of all 16 SEC head coaches, he placed DeBoer at No. 3, behind only Georgia's Kirby Smart and Texas' Steve Sarkisian.
Kalen DeBoer ranked as the No. 3 SEC head coach by CBS Sports
That ranking is fair-ish. Smart as No. 1 is indisputable. He's a two-time national championship-winning head coach and has Georgia consistently in the title race every single year. While it has been four years now since the Bulldogs last won a playoff game, his ranking as the top dog isn't debatable, despite DeBoer's 2-1 record head-to-head.
Sarkisian vs. DeBoer is a debate, however. DeBoer went 2-0 against Sarkisian's Longhorns while he was the head coach at Washington. They have yet to square off with DeBoer at Alabama.
Sarkisian is a good coach, but not many have earned the same benefit of the doubt that he frequently has. He's gone 48-20 across five seasons as the Texas head coach, giving him an average record of 10-4 each season, pretty similar to what DeBoer has done at Alabama so far.
He had back-to-back Top 5 finishes in 2023 and 2024, but he has yet to break through with a national title in Austin despite having a significant payroll advantage over almost everyone else. There's a world where Sarkisian is on the hot seat this year if Texas misses the College Football Playoff again.
LSU's Lane Kiffin and Texas A&M's Mike Elko round out the top five in Crawford's rankings. Kiffin did an incredible job at Ole Miss, but now steps into a job with much higher expectations. Merely making the playoff consistently won't be good enough in Baton Rouge; he was hired to win a national title or two.
Elko has done a great job so far at Texas A&M, but similarly to Sarkisian, he's going to have to break through eventually with the resources at his disposal in College Station.
Add us as a preferred source on Google