Alabama HC Kalen DeBoer has a tone-deaf take when asked about the success of his first season
For the Alabama Crimson Tide, it's championship or bust. That's the expectation every season, even if the program is in the middle of transition and has a brand new HC. So missing the College Football Playoff and having four losses (even if one means nothing) is far from acceptable. But Kalen DeBoer is looking on the […]
For the Alabama Crimson Tide, it's championship or bust.
That's the expectation every season, even if the program is in the middle of transition and has a brand new HC.
So missing the College Football Playoff and having four losses (even if one means nothing) is far from acceptable.
But Kalen DeBoer is looking on the bright side:
Kalen DeBoer Takes a Glass-Half-Full Approach on 2024 Season
"I mean, every time you're in the locker room and you have something like this it's disappointing," said DeBoer. But I think there's a lot of things that you take from it. I know that the guys that hung in there and probably played their last game in the crimson and white they wouldn't of had it any other way as far as to show the grit, to show the determination, to show the competitiveness, they stayed the course. There's a whole lot more I just think that really goes into the last 12 months. People see what happens on a Saturday but it's guys choosing to stay here, choosing to go from one week to the next when you're on a little bit of a rollercoaster through the middle of the season. As long as we learn from it, then to me it can be a success moving forward. We're going to take all these things that happened and there's some things that happened in the game today….
"…We've got to learn from it and make sure those mistakes don't hurt us a year from now. I don't care if it's turnovers, penalties, it's everything. To me, it's a success if we move forward and take advantage of the lessons even though we don't want to learn those lessons sometimes because they're hard. We're going to learn from those lessons, move forward and be better because of it. I told the guys who played their last game, you know how much I appreciate them, I know their teammates shared how much they appreciate them as well in the locker room. I know they're going to make us proud when they move onto the next level and I promised to them we're going to continue to make them with the fight and the standard of competitiveness that they instilled in this program moving forward."
Look, I see where DeBoer is coming from when he says taking the lessons of this season, and more specifically the game against Michigan, building upon them and coming back better next season.
But instead of going a long-winded soliloquy about the 2024 season, he could have done himself a favor and helped himself with the Tide fanbase by simply saying "no, it wasn't a success."
Sure, maybe that isn't proper "coach speak" but deep down, DeBoer knows the expectations for Alabama, and missing the CFP and going 9-4 are well below those expectations.
Kalen DeBoer reveals how close he came to benching Jalen Milroe in what may have been his last game at Alabama
What a decision that would have been.
