Few teams will be as heavily scrutinized this college football season as the Alabama Crimson Tide. Although they won nine games last year under new head coach Kalen DeBoer, they still failed to reach the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. With Alabama being another year removed from the Nick Saban era, how DeBoer goes about shaping this program will decide his fortune there.
One thing that I noticed when looking at Alabama's depth chart heading into fall camp is where newcomer Nikhai Hill-Green is situated on it. The former Colorado, Charlotte and Michigan linebacker is behind Justin Jefferson at middle linebacker over on Ourlads. Jefferson is also a former transfer player, but he has been with the team a while, and moved up from the junior college ranks in 2023.
This will be Hill-Green's sixth year of college football. He spent his first three at Michigan from 2020 to 2022 before transferring to Charlotte in 2023 and again to Colorado in 2024. Hill-Green was an all-conference performer for both of his one-year stints with the 49ers and Buffaloes. I understand the SEC is a step up in competition from the Big 12 and the AAC, but should he not be starting already?
This may really come down to Alabama having too many cooks in the kitchen on DeBoer's staff.
Nikhai Hill-Green's depth chart spot is a sign of issues at play at Alabama
Look. I do expect to see Hill-Green play a ton for the Crimson Tide in what will be his final season of college football. However, I am once again reminded of how much delegation DeBoer has divvied out since taking over in Tuscaloosa. Just last season, he had two co-offensive coordinators and two co-defensive coordinators, and that was before he brought Ryan Grubb back into the fold for this fall.
If you look at Alabama's coaching roster, you can see five coaches of its coaches have either an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator label. Grubb and Kane Wommack may be more in charge on their sides of the ball, but Maurice Linguist, JaMarcus Shephard and Nick Sheridan all still retain co-coordinator labels. This brings me back to my main point. Who is even driving the bus here?
Grubb has been the more vocal one when it comes to who will be the team's Week 1 starter at quarterback. He has made it emphatically clear that it will be Ty Simpson, not one of DeBoer's guys in Austin Mack transferring over from Washington and newcomer Keelon Russell out of high school. To me, this all feels like DeBoer is too busy trying to please everyone, so please no more Mr. Nice Guy!
So how does Hill-Green factor into this equation? Yes, he will get ample playing time at Alabama because he has so much college football playing experience under his belt. However, I would not have transferred from one nine-win program to another in the Power Four if I was not guaranteed a starting job as a 24 year old. Alabama seems to be lacking one consistent voice, and that scares me.
While I am much more bullish on Alabama's upside this season than my FanSided.com colleague and False Start co-host Cody Williams, I can also understand why he is seemingly fading them every change he gets. Alabama was Alabama under Saban because he called the shots and few, if any, ever thought to challenge him. He was usually right. But under DeBoer, I am reminded of something worse.
DeBoer is a great head coach, but I am really beginning to wonder if he will regret leaving Washington.