Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Tennessee’s Josh Heupel have a few things in common.

The two SEC coaches are among the top paid head coaches in college football — DeBoer at $12.5 million annually and Heupel at $9 million annually.

DeBoer and Heupel are also both from South Dakota.

Heupel grew up in Aberdeen, which is about 90 minutes west of DeBoer’s hometown of Milbank.

That South Dakota connection led DeBoer to actually seek out some advice from Heupel more than 15 years ago.

At the time, Heupel was the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma and DeBoer, who had been a high school head coach, was just starting his college coaching career.

“There were just some little wrinkles here and there that we pulled from people,” said DeBoer to The Athletic in 2023. “One year, we went down to Oklahoma because Heupel was another South Dakota guy. I didn’t really know him but we knew of each other. Our hometowns are 90 miles apart. Aberdeen and Milbank are right on the same highway, so I hopped in the car, went down there and he gave me free rein. I sat in a position meeting. He got me into a room and just started studying, and then he’d answer some of my questions. I went back to Oklahoma in 2011, when Jay Norvell was also there and he was great to me.”

Heupel and DeBoer have faced each other twice in the last two years. Heupel and the Vols got the win in 2024 in Knoxville, while DeBoer and the Crimson Tide earned the win in 2025.

The two South Dakota natives will meet again on Saturday in Knoxville when Tennessee and Alabama face off in the latest installment of the historic Third Saturday in October rivalry.