Nick Saban’s final game as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide came at the Rose Bowl two years ago. Now, in Kalen DeBoer’s second season at the helm, Saban’s successor has the Tide back in Pasadena for the College Football Playoff semifinal, and DeBoer recognizes that he wouldn’t be there without Saban’s impact during his 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa, and the one he continues to make after his retirement.
“He put all this time into this program to make it what it is. And, to me, the legacy continues when the program continues to grow and improve and be better, even when you're done,” DeBoer said at the Rose Bowl press conference on Wednesday morning in Pasadena.
Kalen DeBoer tips his cap to Nick Saban ahead of Rose Bowl matchup with Indiana
After Saban coached his final game, falling to Michigan in the CFP semifinals, DeBoer led his Washington Huskies to the national championship with a Sugar Bowl win over the Texas Longhorns. That was just DeBoer’s second season in Seattle after a two-year run as the head coach at Fresno State.
Prior to taking his first FBS head coaching job in 2020, DeBoer spent the 2019 season on Tom Allen’s staff at Indiana, coaching Michael Penix Jr., who eventually led Washington to the National Championship game in 2023 and helped DeBoer land the Alabama job. Now, DeBoer is set to face the Hoosiers with Kane Wommack, who was also an assistant in Bloomington in 2019, on his staff, against Curt Cignetti, who was a Saban assistant at Alabama from 2007-11.
When Saban strode off into retirement, he didn’t leave the cupboard bare in Tuscaloosa. While a few top players transferred away, including Julian Sayin and Caleb Downs, current superstars for the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes, DeBoer inherited the bones of a great roster and Ty Simpson.
The list of players that Saban recruited to the current Crimson Tide roster shrinks year after year, but even once that pipeline dries up entirely, he’ll still have a major impact on DeBoer and the program. That’s in the standard that he set and the brand that he built at Alabama.
“Just trying to carry on the legacy of not just coach Saban, but all the great coaches, all the great players that came here to make this place what it is,” DeBoer said, “We play for that, we play the program, to make it better for those that come after us too.”
Deboer has a chance to cement his place in that historic lineage this season by pulling an upset against the Hoosiers and potentially winning a national title in his second season, one year faster than Saban did in 2009, his third season at the helm.