While it may not happen right away, we should know by about the halfway point of this upcoming college football season if Kalen DeBoer is going to work or not at Alabama. In his first year leading the Crimson Tide, Alabama went 9-3 during the regular season, but came up one spot shy of making the recently expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. DeBoer needs to make it at least once by 2026.
Although I am cautiously optimistic about that happening this season, I am afraid he has too many cooks in the kitchen from a coordinator standpoint. They are tasked with making something tasty with the ingredients that Nick Saban and his staff picked out. What could go wrong? That being said, I am intrigued to see Alabama have three players on the Walter Camp Preseason All-American Team.
Alabama is tied with Clemson, Indiana, Penn State and Texas for the most players to make either the first or second team. Making the first team for the Crimson Tide are wide receiver Ryan Williams and offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor. Defensive lineman Tim Keenan III is the lone Alabama player to make the second team. To me, these three players making either of the teams does mean something.
Water will find its level when it comes to the Crimson Tide, but do they have the right captain, though?
Kalen DeBoer will need to get Alabama's quartebrack situation right first
When it comes to the three Alabama stars who made the Walter Camp Preseason All-American Team, how can you not love the talent and upside Williams possesses? He does things receiving the football I have only seen Larry Fitzgerald and DeVonta Smith do at the college level. I could go either way with Proctor, mostly because he quit on the team, went home to Iowa, and then came back months later.
As far as Keenan is concerned, I trust the talent pool on defense when it comes to Alabama more so than most teams in college football. If an Alabama front-seven player has the gold star approval of noted talent evaluators, I usually agree with them. What I am concerned with Alabama is if DeBoer is going to win with Alabama's kind of players, as compared to his Washington kind of guys this season?
What worked in Washington is not likely to work in Alabama. The Huskies were playing in the old Pac-12. This is the SEC. With four co-coordinators on the roster last year, as well as Ryan Grubb coming in this year to run the offense, who is really calling the shots here? Even more concerning, the ongoing quarterback battle between Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell has felt tepid quite recently.
I would argue that Simpson is the guy to start the season before the more talented Russell eventually takes over midseason. The big question I am trying to answer with myself is will Alabama go 10-2 or better this season. That feels like the line of demarcation of they get to double-digit wins, they will make the playoff. There are signature wins to be had vs. the likes of Georgia, LSU and several others.
However, this is a team that lost to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt a season ago. Falling to rival Tennessee is understandable, as the Vols were a 10-2 playoff team from a season ago. That being said, Alabama was the best program in the country throughout the first 10 years of the College Football Playoff. They made it just about every season. If DeBoer cannot make it in his first three years, he must go.
Fortunately for him, he is a good head coach that has a talented roster that could take advantage.