On Tuesday, Clay Travis, whose interest in college football has waned over the years in favor of his political commentary, went on The Next Round podcast and talked about the Crimson Tide’s new head coach Kalen DeBoer.
Travis, the creator of the Outkick the Coverage network, said, “Kalen DeBoer will be fired in about four years. Alabama fans are going to have completely unrealistic expectations. What I think Alabama fans are going to recognize and I think a lot of them already knew this but are seeing it now even clearer. Alabama didn't have a dynasty; Nick Saban had a dynasty. Saban could have had a dynasty at ten to 12 maybe even 15 different college football programs. That's how good he was. The success that he had I don't think will ever equal at any point of any of our lives.”
Apparently, Travis isn’t familiar with DeBoer’s 37-9 record across his four years as a head coach, two at Fresno State and the last two at Washington. DeBoer isn’t a coach he needs a long time to build a program, sure Year 1 could be rough, but if DeBoer got to the four-team College Football Playoff with Washington’s resources, it seems likely he can do it in the talent-rich south with an SEC schedule.
The other thing that Travis seems to be forgetting, probably from all his time tweeting about politics, is that Alabama has actually won a few national championships before Nick Saban. Nine to be exact.
Sure, Mike Shula and Dennis Franchione couldn’t get it done in Tuscaloosa, but the Tide have had eight head coaches since 1958 when Bear Bryant took over and three of them have won a title.
Now, DeBoer may not win it all in his third year as Saban did and he may not win six titles in 17 years, but to say that Alabama’s winning ways are over for good without Saban is insane, and exactly what you’d expect from Clay Travis.