By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Sports Editor
This is an opinion column
While the college football world shakes its collective head, Alabama football haters are popping open the champagne (well, okay, beer cans and bottles) and celebrating as if the big, bad nemesis is gone.
In an apparent brain fart, Crimson Tide Athletic Director Greg Byrne out of the blue not only extended the contract of Kalen DeBoer but gave him a raise and therefore, increased the cost of the buyout. Perhaps, he got lost and for a moment thought he on the other campus in the state. Seemingly out of the blue, after spring practice, Byrne increased DeBoer’s annual salary to $12.5 million (up from an already ridiculous $10.5 million) and signed him for seven years.
You could hear the Crimson Tide moans from Tuscaloosa clear out here to San Diego. And cheers from that other Alabama school that echoed to Tennessee, Texas and beyond.
“Seven more years!?,” Bama fans moaned. “It seems like 10 already!”
Many fans and alumni – myself included – felt hiring DeBoer was like putting a square peg into a round hole. A small-school guy from out West who had coached in the backwaters of college football isn’t exactly like plucking Nick Saban out of the NFL or Bear Bryant out of Texas A&M.
DeBoer is 20-8 in two years, missed the generous College Football Playoffs one year, barely made it the next and was “Alabama’d” by the new Bama, Indiana (coached by a former Saban assistant) in the second round his second year. He lost to what turned out to be a five-win Florida State by 14 points to open the 2025 season and lost two of the last three games by a combined score of 66-10. At one point from the end of his first season to the start of his second he was 4-4. A .500 coach at Alabama! Is DeBoer the next calling of, gasp, Mike Shula? They certainly both have the same calm demeanor, a similar lost look when things to sideways and an offense that can’t adjust to defenses.
There were some rumors – probably circulated by his agent Jimmy Sexton that Michigan and perhaps Penn State were pursuing DeBoer. “Take him, please!,” was the cry from many Bama fans. Maybe Bama could still get Curt Cignetti after all, or at least the Georgia Tech guy (Brent Key), who was also a Saban student.
So what does Byrne do next? Nothing. Until four months later. Of course, Byrne’s previous football hire was Rich Rodriguez at Arizona.
So to the rest of the college football world, go ahead and celebrate. The playoffs will be likely extend, practically guaranteeing DeBoer will be in it every year. He is recruiting well enough to where the talent may one time overcome the coaching enough to win it.
To Bama fans, you can no longer expect to show up to the game or an alumni bar on Saturdays pretty much knowing the Tide will win. We’re stuck with that square peg for a while so you might as well learn the PubClub.com cheer of “Win or Lose, We Booze!”
Kevin Wilkerson is a University of Alabama alumni who covered the team for Alabama newspapers. He was also in the Million Dollar Band and can tell you how it got its name.
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