Kalen DeBoer's demeanor in close wins and losses not so different from Nick Saban

Alabama football fans keep hoping to see the fire from Kalen DeBoer to match his predecessor, Nick Saban. Fans were miffed at a lack of visual anger from DeBoer following last week's loss to Vanderbilt, and maybe more so as he was all smiles leaving the field following the Crimson Tide's 27-25 win over South Carolina on Saturday.

And please, don't get what I'm about to say twisted. Alabama is not playing great football right now. Hell, they're not even playing good football. That's not really up for debate, and a point that DeBoer nor any player on the team would argue.

There's much to correct, but at the end of the day Alabama is 5-1 through six games and all of its preseason goals are still in front of them. It won't be easy, but winning in the SEC never is, no matter how easy Saban made it look at times.

Saban was famous for his visible anger on the sideline, but that was typically reserved for moments of mental errors when Alabama had a game well in hand because he didn't want the team to get complacent and see those mistakes creep up down the road when a younger player could get called upon.

In losses, and in close victories, Saban was always more even-keeled, no matter the revisionist history you might hear or choose to remember. He would praise the resiliency of his team, just like DeBoer did in the postgame today.

"We always talk about finding a way to win," said DeBoer. As many times as it looked like we weren't, we did. The biggest thing I'm proud of is the response, starting early in the week."

The two game stretch we've seen from Alabama following the Georgia game has been tough. But it actually resembles a Saban-era team from 10-years ago. The 2014 Crimson Tide was upset by Ole Miss 23-17 on the road, and followed that up with a lifeless 14-13 win over a mediocre Arkansas team the following week.

Fans were pissed. I'm sure Nick Saban was too, right?

"We had a lot more energy and enthusiasm out there, more than we did last week," Saban said. "That's what won the game. We played a lot harder in the game, and we competed better in the game. The players really wanted to win the game. I was proud of that."

Who knows what Saban said to his team in the locker room, and we don't know what DeBoer has said in private, either. But publicly, both chose to be complimentary of their team because they found a way to win a game when things didn't necessarily go their way.

In fact, the fan's response to the team's struggles led to an epic Saban rant during his media availability the following week.

"Everybody's got such a high expectation for what our team should be," said Saban 10-years ago. "I was just happy to see our players happy about playing a game and winning. If you want to know the truth about it, it pisses me off when I talk to people that have this expectation that they're disappointed we only won the game 14-13, and in the way we played. You want to talk about something that's frustrating? That's frustrating, to me, for our players, who played with a lot of heart in the game."

Saban knew what buttons to push for his team and when to push them. He knew being overly critical of the team when they found a way to win a game wasn't the way. Because winning games in the SEC is hard; it's even harder now in the transfer portal era where stacking talent is nearly impossible. The playing field is more even now.

Things worked out for that 2014 team. It righted the ship the following week with a 59-0 win over Texas A&M and ultimately won the SEC and made the College Football Playoff. Time will tell if this team can do the same.

Does DeBoer have his hand on the pulse of the team like Saban did? Who knows, it's too early to tell. But what I do know is that his reaction after today's game - and after last week's loss to Vanderbilt - was more similar to Saban than people care to remember.