×

MARLER: Is Alabama about to lose Kalen DeBoer?

Dec 11, 2025 | 10:10 AM
Kalen DeBoer

Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images

By Chris Marler

It feels like we were just talking about this a week ago, the doomsday scenario for Alabama if they closed the season with an embarrassing stumble, feeding the narrative that the issue isn’t simply whether Kalen DeBoer is the guy, but whether he was ever the guy to begin with.

That felt like a pretty common narrative around the program last year, this offseason and especially after the loss to Florida State. 

Fan Reactions and the Coaching Question

Irrational fans overreacting to losses is nothing new, and if you asked Bama fans after Week 1 if they wanted him to stay or go a lot of them would’ve probably helped him pack. The question about firing a coach isn’t just whether or not you should do it, it’s who you are going to get to replace him. You cannot risk sinking the program by firing the right guy, and hiring (another) wrong one. 

As the season went on, Alabama kept winning and DeBoer’s popularity kept growing, And, apparently not just in Tuscaloosa. Job after job after job kept opening, but Alabama fans didn’t care because “not their monkey, not their circus.” 

The Oklahoma Loss and Rising Anxiety

But then they lost to Oklahoma, and suddenly that top-five ranking and eight-game win streak gave way to the anxiety and frustration of being thrust into a win-or-go-home reality. If a road game in the Iron Bowl and potential playoff berth wasn’t enough to deal with, now Alabama fans had to worry about coaching rumors involving Penn State and their head coach. 

These are uncharted waters for most Alabama fans.

The Hypotheticals Begin

I wrote about this potential doomsday scenario roughly two weeks ago, before the Iron Bowl. At the time, I assumed a win would be enough to quiet the outside noise. That noise wasn’t just the fan base frustrated by the loss to Oklahoma. It also included an unreasonable number of hypothetical situations being thrown around.

What if Alabama loses to Auburn? What if they lose and miss the playoff? What if they lose and DeBoer bolts for the Penn State job? What if Penn State has already reached some sort of agreement with him, and that’s why they haven’t hired a coach yet?

A New Reality for Alabama Fans

For the first time in a long while, Alabama is experiencing what 95 percent of college football fans have dealt with forever. And for the first time, when someone asks, “Would ___ leave for ___?” there are a few jobs, especially in this cycle, where the answer can’t be an automatic no.

That’s why the Penn State rumors were intriguing. None of them were validated by anyone in Tuscaloosa, but there were some around the program that thought he’d entertain it if they lost to Auburn. They were able to weather that storm, but two weeks later they’re in it all over again, and it’s even worse than before. An embarrassing loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship game where the offense looked like anything but a playoff team. 

Enter Michigan

But even though Bama fans thought they were out of the coaching rumor circus, a shocking firing of Sherrone Moore by Michigan on Wednesday thrust them right back into it. And now Alabama has to go through it all over again, except this time, the next opponent is legitimately good, and the school trying to court their coach has deeper pockets, friendlier fans and far more reasonable expectations.

DeBoer’s Strengths and Weaknesses

DeBoer has done a good job so far at Alabama. He’s been elite against elite competition, more often than not, not just in Tuscaloosa, but throughout his entire career. 

Where Kalen DeBoer has not done a good job is finding ways to maintain that wave of confidence and positivity from the fanbase. And, unlike anywhere else he’s been, that happiness and warm feeling of support goes away pretty quickly in Tuscaloosa. Winning eight games in a row means nothing if you lose the ninth. Beating top-10 teams means even less if you can’t beat unranked ones that ultimately cost you a playoff berth. 

Everything out of Tuscaloosa is pointing to the fact that he doesn’t want to leave. It’s also clear he doesn’t want to spend the entire off-season on the hot seat as he enters what would be his third year at Alabama. I would assume he especially doesn’t want to deal with an ungrateful and angry fanbase after he just led them to the CFP. But, that will most likely be exactly what happens.

What We Do Know

I can’t confidently say whether or not he would leave, or to what level he would entertain the idea of leaving. I do feel very confident about a few things, though. 

  1. Alabama isn’t good enough to win the national title this year, and the offseason will be coming very soon. 
  2. DeBoer will be one of, if not the first, target that Michigan will go after. 
  3. DeBoer would not leave a job like Alabama to start another massive project at another blue blood program by himself. 

The Staff That Follows Him

Let’s talk about that last one for a moment. We didn’t know a ton about Kalen DeBoer when he got to Tuscaloosa. But, it was obvious from day one that he loves his guys and his staff. That’s one reason why eight of his former Washington assistants came with him and only two Alabama coaches were retained when he initially took the job. Six of those eight coaches had also been on DeBoer’s staff at Fresno State or Sioux Falls, and some on both. 

Those were strictly his onfield coaches. The guy who’s been given a lot of credit for most of the success DeBoer’s had at Washington and Alabama is his General Manager Courtney Morgan. Morgan is yet another staff member that came with DeBoer from Seattle to Tuscaloosa. But, prior to that he was a GM at his former alma mater. The same place where he played for 3 years and started on the offensive line for two conference championship teams. 

That place? Michigan. 

Maybe that means nothing, maybe it means something, I don’t know. I do know he wouldn’t take that big of a leap without Courtney Morgan on the plane with him. And, I would have to assume that’s not a job he’d turn down to stay in Tuscaloosa. 

The Real Threat: Time and Money

What should be the absolute biggest concern for Alabama fans though are two things: time and money. 

This has been a historical coaching carousel. Not just in volume of job openings, but in the quality of job openings. LSU, Penn State, Florida, Auburn, and now, Michigan. An absurd 15 Power 4 jobs have opened this cycle, and there are only 64 teams in all of Power 4. All of those jobs have been filled. More importantly, almost all of the most highly sought after coaches have already taken a job elsewhere. 

Black Friday

It’s like a massive Black Friday sale on big-screen TVs. At first, you don’t think much of it, you already have a TV. And a pretty new one at that, so you’re spending your money on presents for the kids instead (NIL). Then, out of nowhere, the television came crashing off the wall and broke everything it hit along the way. You need a new TV, suddenly. But, now the sale’s ended, and you either have to pay way more than you wanted or go bargain shopping. 

Michigan’s Advantage

Lucky for Michigan, they have deeper pockets than almost any other program in America. Michigan has an endowment of $17.9 billion. That’s top ten in the country, and the third highest of any public university in the United States. They also have a booster base that is willing to spend a lot of money on potentially risky investments if it will help this program win and win right away. 

Case in point: offering Bryce Underwood a reported $12 million NIL deal out of high school to flip him from LSU. There’s no reason to think they wouldn’t make a similar move again if it meant acting out of desperation or necessity, or trying to save face after what has been an embarrassing end to the Sherrone Moore era.

Michigan can do that by hiring Alabama’s head coach. 

Final Assessment

If you asked me two weeks ago if Alabama fans should be nervous about potentially losing their last game of the season and then losing their coach right after, I would have said no. But, a lot can change in two weeks. I don’t worry about Bama’s effort in wanting to keep DeBoer, but I do worry that Michigan’s combination of desperation, deep pockets and being a safe space from potentially bitter and ungrateful fans would be enough of a sales pitch to almost anyone. 

Chris Marler

More SEC News

Kalen DeBoer and Brian Kelly highlight Michigan coaching odds
With Sherrone Moore out at Michigan, new odds highlight Kalen DeBoer as the frontrunner for the Wolverines' head coaching job, along with several surprise candidates.
3h ago
MARLER: Is Alabama about to lose Kalen DeBoer?
Alabama faces rising pressure as rumors swirl around Kalen DeBoer and Michigan's search for a new coach. Could the Tide lose their head man after a shaky finish?
8h ago
SEC announces 2025 football postseason individual award winners
Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia headlines the SEC's top football honors as Offensive Player of the Year, with Cashius Howell, Tate Sandell and Clark Lea among major award winners.
Dec 10, 2025
Did Auburn finally get it right with Alex Golesh?
Auburn's hire of Alex Golesh signals a major culture shift. After years of missteps, the Tigers may finally have their offensive guru to rebuild and compete again.
Dec 10, 2025
A look ahead to the SEC's full 2025 bowl slate
A humorous look at bowl season, its chaos, its charm, and why college football fans feast on every "meaningless" matchup as the SEC seeks key wins and bragging rights.
Dec 10, 2025
Legion LA sports