Vanderbilt loss will make Kalen DeBoer feel the weight of the Alabama job

The honeymoon is over for Kalen DeBoer and Alabama football. It was always going to end with a loss, and it was always going to be a loss before DeBoer felt the real weight of what this job is.

Anyone rushing to a conclusion on whether or not DeBoer is the right successor for Saban after five games is jumping the gun. But that's kind of the point, isn't it? It's the fact that so many already are passing judgement that makes this job the most unique in college sports.

Being the head coach at Alabama has always been a buzzsaw. It has crushed plenty of coaches with nice resumes. Ray Perkins couldn't handle it as the replacement for Coach Bryant. Bill Curry got ran off after winning an SEC title because he dared lose to Auburn three times in a row.

It chewed up and spit out former players in Mike DuBose and Mike Shula. It is unforgiving, unless you win. And win a lot. An unreasonable amount, even. Fans were never satsified with Perkins or Curry, who won 68% and 72% of the games they coached, respectively.

And, unfortunately for DeBoer, expectations are higher now than they've ever been. Alabama fans are no longer living in the past with Coach Bryant's shadow casting over the guy walking the sideline. There's the bigger, more recent shadow of Nick Saban to deal with.

Saban did what nobody thought could be done: he one-upped the Bear. Saban somehow surpassed the legacy of Coach Bryant, a man revered almsot as much as a deity in the state. He was too successful for any coach to really have a shot of filling those shoes.

Tide fans are unrealistic. They believe their team should be the very best every season and will accept little else. DeBoer isn't on the hot seat after one bad loss, but the pressure is building. Plenty are calling for widespread defensive changes following Saturday's lackluster performance on that side of the ball.

Alabama's defense was shredded, by Vanderbilt, in a way that rarely happened in the Saban era. When it did, it was generational talents who typically did the shredding; the Cam Newton's, Johnny Manziel's, DeShaun Watson's. Every now and then there was a Bo Wallace or Trevor Knight or Nick Marshall thrown in, but those were rare cases where the talent level of the team was pretty high, too.

Make no mistake about it, this is a game Saban just didn't lose. Not after he got his players in. The 2007 loss to UL Monroe has been a popular talking point, but that Alabama team wasn't on the same wavelength of talent as the 2024 version.

Saban inherited a six win team. DeBoer inherited an SEC Champion, and despite some transfer portal attrition, there's not a more talented roster in the country than what he has in Tuscaloosa.

The real parallel is an unfriendly one. In 1999, Mike DuBose had his best team in Tuscaloosa, a team led by future NFL stars in Shaun Alexander and Chris Samuels, as well as David Palmer-lite in Freddie Milons.

Some off the field stuff had put DuBose on the hot seat already in year three, and the pressure mounted following a 29-28 home loss to Louisiana Tech in week three. DuBose saved his job with an overtime win in the Swamp, and ultimately led Alabama to its first Iron Bowl win at Jordan-Hare, and a second win over Florida in the SEC Championship.

DuBose got a one year reprieve, but was officially fired midway through a disaster of a 2000 season.

The other parallel isn't much better; the last time Alabama lost to Vanderbilt was 1984, the second year of Ray Perkins replacing Coach Bryant.

I'm a realist. I know how this likely ends for DeBoer. He's never going to win at the level Saban did, nobody could. Alabama hit the one-in-a-million lotto by finding Saban, someone who could surpass Coach Bryant. That'll never happen again.

The problem with the end of the greatest run in the history of the sport is that it'll never be as good as it was again. Those of us with our heads on straight understand that. But the vocal majority do not. And it's because the program hit the coaching lottery for a second time with Saban. It's happened twice, so why can't it happen again, they wonder.

DeBoer has a quiet confidence about him. He thought he knew what he was walking into when he accepted this job in January. If he didn't, he'll know it now. And it might just be a culture shock for a guy from South Dakota to find out just how much football means in this part of the country.