I can understand if Alabama's pitiful performance against Tennessee on Saturday night was the last straw for you with Kalen DeBoer. I get it. I really do. These kinds of losses have piled up over his three seasons as the Tide's head coach. Every ounce of optimism is quickly ripped away. Every single year.
Call me foolish, but I still believe DeBoer can win big at Alabama.
But he's not going to do without changes at both offensive and defensive coordinator.
Year three of Kane Wommack as the DC and year two of Ryan Grubb as the OC, and there are just too many holes, too obvious of weaknesses on both sides of the ball, and shrinking optimism that those issues are going to get fixed.
DeBoer said after the game that the conversations with the team were going to be uncomfortable. That needs to start with Grubb and Wommack.
Kalen DeBoer may have no choice but to move on from Ryan Grubb and Kane Wommack to win big at Alabama
Alabama's offense mustered just 10 points against Tennessee on Saturday in Knoxville, one week after scoring just 17 points against Georgia.
For the second straight season, Alabama's offensive identity is non-existent outside of hoping the quarterback can play hero ball. There's not enough stubbornness with the run game. Not enough plays to make a young QB comfortable. Despite Tennessee's obvious advantage up front on the defensive line, Grubb continued to call slow-developing pass plays that didn't get open down the field, and even if they did, Russell didn't have enough time before the pocket collapsed anyway.
Look at what Tennessee did with their young QB, George MacIntyre. It was exclusively quick throws and RPOs to get the ball out of his hands. The Vols were able to stay ahead of the sticks thanks to their ground game, while Alabama's issues from last season reared their head up front.
Grubb can't seem to figure out how to call an offense without perfect play from his QB. That worked with Michael Penix at Washington, a fifth-year senior. That worked some last year with Ty Simpson, despite no run game to speak of, because Simpson was a fourth-year player. But with a second-year QB making the most difficult road start of his young career, you've got to do something, anything, to help him get into the flow of the game.
Maybe it sounds a bit ridiculous to criticize Wommack in a game in which the defense kept Alabama in the game for long stretches. But if you really look at it, this was a limited, one-dimensional Tennessee offense that never threatened to throw the ball down the field, and yet Wommack and his defense couldn't get off the field in the second half.
Why? It's hard not to blame his scheme. Too many plays with three down linemen and soft boxes against heavy personnel from Tennessee. And way, way too much soft coverage by the defensive backs that allowed 10 yards of cushion and quick, simple throws for MacIntyre to help the offense stay balanced.
That came to a head with a 15-play, 72-yard touchdown drive that ate up nine and a half minutes of clock and effectively put the game to bed.
I've been a Wommack defender through his first two seasons. I thought he overcame some obvious personnel issues and some real youth to field two good - not great - defenses in 2024 and 2025. But there's no excuse for how this defense has played. Not with the level of talent on that side of the ball. This was supposed to be the year they jumped from good to great. Instead, they've jumped backward toward mediocrity.
If DeBoer wants to win a national championship at Alabama, he may be forced to make a fundamental change defensively. They need to get tougher; they need to get more aggressive. Wommack's teams play on their toes too much instead of dictating terms. If they aren't producing turnovers, they aren't very effective on a down-to-down basis.
That change may be easier for DeBoer to stomach than the other.
DeBoer and Grubb are close. They've worked together for a long time. It was inevitable once Grubb was fired by the Seahawks that he would wind up in Tuscaloosa. But one and a half years into his tenure as the Tide's OC, it looks like a failed experiment. One that DeBoer may have no choice but to move on from this offseason.
The Seahawks cut ties with Grubb and won the Super Bowl the very next year. Perhaps DeBoer making the same decision could lead to the same result for Alabama.
Right now, it's tough to see a path forward with either coordinator continuing on in 2027 and beyond.
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