Silly season has started a little bit earlier than expected. At roughly the halfway point of the 2025 college football season, five Power Four head coaches have been relieved of their duties. DeShaun Foster and Brent Pry were the first to go, with Mike Gundy and Sam Pittman to follow shortly thereafter. The fifth Power Four head coach to be let go was James Franklin out of Penn State.
That came as a bit of a shocker. Penn State was a playoff team a season ago. Then again, Franklin's Nittany Lions started out 0-3 in Big Ten play. Back-to-back-to-back losses to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern will do that to you. That being said, even if Penn State would be willing to pay him a lot of money, there is virtually no chance Kalen DeBoer would ever leave Alabama willingly to go there.
CBS Sports Adam Breneman believes DeBoer would be much happier coaching the Nittany Lions...
The more I think about it the more I like Kalen DeBoer as a Penn State candidate
— Adam Breneman (@AdamBreneman81) October 17, 2025
Do we know if he’s happy at Alabama??
Clear path to the playoffs every year in the Big Ten
Don’t need to follow in footsteps of Saban
What are we even talking about here? It does not matter if DeBoer is happy or not. Alabama is the far better job over Penn State. Nobody leaves a top-four job in the sport willingly under any conceivable circumstance! You do not leave Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State or Texas for any reason at all. Penn State is a good job, but it has become the rough equivalent of Auburn in the new Big Ten. Why go?
DeBoer may not hail from the southeast, but he is not exactly a midwesterner by his birthright either...
Kalen DeBoer made a smart decision to leave Washington for Alabama
Look. There were always going to be challenges for DeBoer in being the man to replace the legend that is Nick Saban. Somebody had to do it, and it was him. This is the guy that Saban has endorsed, one that athletic director Greg Byrne has raved out. Coming to Tuscaloosa may have been a bit of a culture shock for him, but the easiest way to get in the good graces at Alabama is to win ballgames.
As far as the notion of Penn State being the easier job over Alabama, is it really? Again, it has become the Big Ten equivalent of Auburn. In a best-case scenario, you can look forward to playing third fiddle to your two biggest rivals of note. At the end of the day, Auburn struggles to compete with Alabama or Georgia, just like Penn State cannot compete with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan or whomever...
In the end, DeBoer knew what he was doing in signing up to be Alabama's head coach. Replacing Saban was always part of it. He was never afraid of that. It is all about going to a place steeped in winning tradition, where football is a priority over everything else. Football is a huge deal in Happy Valley, but nothing compares to what a great SEC program looks like. DeBoer is never going there.
The only way DeBoer leads the Nittany Lions is if he were to ever be relieved of his Alabama duties.