Kalen DeBoer's name coming up with every big coaching vacancy or opening seems nothing more than lazy media takes. We saw it with the Penn State opening, and we just saw it again with the shocking Michigan opening. I myself wonder where people are getting their information from when it comes to these reports. I get it, it is easy to make a story out of it because there is a certain part of the Alabama fanbase that has never warmed up to DeBoer and feels like he is not living up to the Alabama standard.
There seems to be a narrative pushed that he does not like the pressure, and the expectations are too much. For him to have to officially make a statement of not being interested or contacted about the Michigan job while getting his team ready for Friday's playoff game is unfathomable and a waste of valuable time.
Just with a little critical thinking, that myth is debunked, because if DeBoer was not interested in a challenge, he would not have left Washington after playing for a national championship to replace the greatest of all time in Nick Saban. It is a good thing, unlike other schools in the same state, that Greg Byrne does not feed into some of the fanbase's craziness when making hiring decisions. He hired the right guy to follow Saban and is fully in support of him. This is a man who, in his second year, has Alabama in the playoff with a good opportunity to get revenge on Oklahoma in Norman in less than a week. As a fan base, people need to chill out and let things play out so the media has less reason to run with some of the stories they do when it comes to where our coach is going next.
Kalen DeBoer has no reason to ever want to leave Tuscaloosa on his own, with how well he has recruited and the overall success that we have seen on the field as well. Sure, there are a few instances where you would have liked to have seen a different outcome from the last two OU games, to losing to Vandy or the poor bowl performance from last season against Michigan.
Then, of course, there is the concern of how this team looked in the SEC Championship Game, but all that can be put in the rear-view mirror with a win against the Sooners. A win on Friday, which is very obtainable, allows the Tide to see a Rose Bowl game against the Indiana Hoosiers. The expectations are high, but despite media reports and some fans who cannot get past Saban no longer being on the sideline, Alabama football is not in nearly as bad a spot as some are portraying it as.