Kalen DeBoer's sideline fire is a great sign for Alabama despite tough loss to Georgia.

In Kalen DeBoer's three seasons as Alabama's head coach, one of the biggest criticisms from Tide fans has been that he's too stoic on the sidelines. After 17 years of Nick Saban meltdowns over the most innate details of the game, having a mild-mannered guy on the sideline instead of an absolute psychopath was difficult to get used to.

Most Alabama fans didn't care for it.

And while DeBoer has shown some emotion here and there, he's never blown up as he did during Alabama's 20-17 loss to Georgia, not the least of which was due to the three blind mice in the officiating crew.

A horrible missed pass interference in the endzone on a Keelon Russell throw to Rico Scott late in the fourth quarter caused an eruption in the stands, on the sideline, and across the state of Alabama with incensed Tide fans screaming and cursing in unison.

DeBoer was right there with them all:

I've never seen DeBoer like that. He's yelled at refs before, but he was absolutely beside himself after that non-call. As he should have been. It was a joke.

That wasn't the last moment of fire from DeBoer, either. While we have seen him upset with the officials before, we've never seen him absolutely chew out a player the way he did after Dijon Lee's boneheaded penalty gave Georgia a first down and ended any minute chance Alabama had of getting the ball back and potentially winning the game:

DeBoer probably regrets going at Lee like that, but Alabama fans didn't mind seeing it. Maybe it was a bit overboard, but it wasn't incorrect, either. Lee made a selfish decision to punch a Georgia player's helmet - twice - in a critical moment, and it did, in fact, cost the Crimson Tide the game.

Kalen DeBoer may have officially became the Alabama coach despite Georgia loss

Plenty of Alabama fans have been on the fence about DeBoer still, even after a 5-0 start to this season. Does he have what it takes to handle being the coach here and win at a high enough level?

I think the loss to Georgia answered those questions with a resounding yes.

Maybe that seems silly to you. I don't know. But the fact is that Alabama went toe-to-toe with arguably the best team in college football, proved it could physically match that team at the line of scrimmage, and had a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter if it wasn't for a horrific missed call.

DeBoer proved he could recognize a weakness and fix it. That didn't lead to a win tonight, but at 5-1 Alabama is in excellent shape still in the SEC Championship and College Football Playoff race.

Chances are, Alabama will see Georgia again. These may be the two best teams in college football.

And Alabama is just going to keep getting better. DeBoer has built a football team capable of winning at the highest level.

Now we'll get to see how that team responds to adversity coming off a loss and with a difficult road game in Knoxville on the horizon in a week.

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