Kalen DeBoer admits the truth on how close he came to leaving Alabama and joining the Michigan Wolverines as head coach
There was a time when many believed that Kalen DeBoer was going to leave Alabama and head to Michigan. He cleared the air on everything going on during that time.
Flashback to November of the 2025 season. The Alabama Crimson Tide is amid a late-season skid following injuries to key offensive stars and, of course, quarterback Ty Simpson. With the season and Alabama’s chances at the College Football Playoff on the line, many believed that the Crimson Tide head coach would have left for a school up north had he lost the Iron Bowl.
That school was the University of Michigan, where a scandal turned the program upside down. Well, in a recent sit-down interview, Coach DeBoer cleared the air on how close he actually came to joining Michigan.
Coach DeBoer says he had no intention of leaving Alabama
“I would have had to be living under a rock (not to know). I’m not naïve,” DeBoer told On3 when asked about the Michigan opening.
“I never talked to anyone, not one time. I just don’t know how you could live with yourself and look into your players’ eyes if you’re looking at other opportunities in the midst of the season and getting ready for a playoff game and hopefully making a run at a national championship.”
The noise in Tuscaloosa would have gotten really loud if the Alabama Crimson Tide missed the playoff in back-to-back years. Instead, the Crimson Tide went on to win its first postseason game under DeBoer in the 12-team era.
Of course, that led to a date with the reigning national champion, the Indiana Hoosiers, who dismantled the Tide, but it was progress nonetheless. For DeBoer, year three will be about building off of that.
It will be about going out there and not only making the team better in year three, but winning at the highest level. Showing that he is, in fact, the man for the job in Tuscaloosa. Because anything short of that, and I can already see people saying, “should have taken the Michigan job when you had a chance.”
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