You never want to be the guy who follows the guy. That's an old adage in coaching. Following a successful coach is never easy. It's even harder when that coach was the greatest in college football history and in a place where expectations were through the roof before Nick Saban reset the bar to an unreachable level.
But I have no sympathy for Kalen DeBoer, who willingly took a job that he should have known was going to be a heavy burden in a cutthroat league. Now, after just 14 games, DeBoer posits as a coach who looks completely in over his head in Tuscaloosa, in danger of allowing the job to swallow him whole.
An offseason of posturing and good vibes gave way to real football on Saturday afternoon. And the same problems that plagued Alabama a year ago were prevalent again in Tallahassee. The Crimson Tide looked like a poorly coached, ill-prepared football team. Again.
That has been a consistent theme during DeBoer's short tenure as the head coach. The once invincible Crimson Tide now looks like anything but. Against Florida State, Alabama looked more like a middle-of-the-road team than a serious championship contender.
Alabama doesn't just not play to the standard anymore - they're so far removed from it that they can't even see it anymore. And that's DeBoer's legacy in Tuscaloosa right now, along with a trail of broken long-term streaks.
All the streaks broken by Kalen DeBoer in just 14 games as Alabama's head coach
Streaks are always going to eventually come to an end. And some of the streaks Alabama went on during the Saban era were virtually unheard of. But how quickly they've come to an end - while the talent on the roster remains extremely high - is concerning about the direction of the program.
Here are the streaks that have ended on DeBoer's watch:
- Failed to win 11 games in a season for the first time in 14 years.
- Failed to win 10 games in a season for the first time in 17 years.
- Lost to Vanderbilt for the first time in 40 years.
- Lost a season opener for the first time in 24 years.
- Has Alabama with a losing record in the regular season for the first time in 22 years.
If those weren't bad enough, Saturday's loss to Florida State was the fourth time DeBoer has lost to an unranked team while at Alabama, which matches the total number of unranked teams to beat Alabama during Saban's 17 years in Tuscaloosa. Saban lost to three unranked teams during his debut season in 2007, then went on a 100-game winning streak against such opponents until a road loss to Texas A&M in 2021.
Where DeBoer and Alabama go from here is unknown. Maybe it turns out that Florida State is really good, and this loss means little in the grand scheme. Maybe the team goes on a run and ends up in the College Football Playoff.
Or maybe this loss was a sign of worse things to come. Maybe this year turns out worse than last - a terrifying thought for Alabama fans who assumed last year was rock bottom.