5 Nick Saban replacements without any Alabama ties

3. Kalen DeBoer is a betting favorite for this, but it is a terrible fit for him

One name that has picked up steam of late as a possible successor to Saban in Tuscaloosa is Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer. Like Dan Lanning at Oregon, he has only been at his current job for two years, but has had great success there. DeBoer had been at Fresno State previously, and has been a head coach before at lower levels of college football, but this smells like Bryan Harsin.

I get how hiring a guy outside of the Alabama family could be a good thing, but you do need some sort of cultural semblance in the SEC. Not saying that DeBoer doesn't have this, but the SEC will eat its head coaches alive, even ones that are well-tested and offer a lot of mettle. However, you all saw what the Washington offense did the last two years with Michael Penix Jr. running it for him, right?

Assuming DeBoer can recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit, as well as be willing to pander to boosters, he could make it work at Alabama. Of the potential candidates to replace Saban, DeBoer is at or near the bottom of my list. I could be proven wrong, but this one just doesn't feel right. Then again, next year will be untrodden territory for him anyway with Washington heading to a new league with a new AD.

This one feels high risk/high reward. It could work out wonderfully, but this could hit the fan so hard.