Marler Monday: The Alabama Dynasty is dead–for real this time

By Chris Marler

Last September, Alabama fans gathered in Bryant-Denny Stadium awaiting what many wearing crimson and white thought was their doom. Kirby Smart and Georgia came to Tuscaloosa looking to exorcise about 16 years worth of demons from Nick Saban and get revenge from their loss in the SEC Championship Game that kept them from three-peating as national champions. 

The doomsday, revenge scenario never happened as Alabama beat the brakes off Georgia in the first half then held on for dear life for a 41-34 win. 

After that game, one of my college roommates and lifelong Alabama fan called me and said, “Dude, what if we just hired the next Nick Saban.”

At the time it didn’t seem completely asinine. Granted, there will never be another Nick Saban, but DeBoer beating Georgia felt much closer to “here we go again, the dynasty isn’t dead” rather than “oh my God, the wheels have completely fallen off.”

A little less than a year later, and now Google searching Kalen DeBoer’s name results in several drop down AI assumptive suggestions that all have to do with his buyout. 

How much is Kalen DeBoer getting paid? 

How much is Kalen DeBoer’s buyout? 

Where is Kalen DeBoer from? 

Why would Nick Saban leave this emotional void in my life? 

It took one week for everything to fall apart in Tuscaloosa. He followed up what many thought would be the first of many huge wins as Alabama’s head coach with the program’s first loss in 40 years to Vanderbilt. Since then, he hasn’t looked back. Or maybe forward is the better phrasing? Or game tape at the very least. 

Alabama is just 5-5 in the ten games since. He’s 1-3 in his last four. And it’s become more and more evident that Kalen DeBoer is probably not the guy for Alabama. Sure, there’s a lot of good on that resumé. He’s 15-3 against Top 25 teams which is the best in the country and 7-0 against Steve Sarkisian, Dan Lanning, Brian Kelly, and Kirby Smart. 

But the bad outweighs the good. 

A lot of what made the Alabama dynasty so remarkable wasn’t the shiny stuff you saw in bright lights. It wasn’t just the five star recruits, championship trophies, big wins, and insane number of NFL Draft Picks. 

It was the little things and attention to details that Nick Saban made a staple during his time there. Things like not losing to an unranked opponent from 2008 to 2021 in 100 games. Things like going 124-4 to unranked opponents in the 17 years he was the coach. Things like halftime adjustments. Things like player discipline. All of those things matter. 

Kalen DeBoer landed eight five stars in two years at Alabama. He’s also taken five losses, four of those to unranked teams giving him the same number in just 14 games that Saban had in over 14 years. 

The way college football is set up now, parity is becoming more and more apparent, and the losses were bound to happen. And losses are big things to Alabama fans. 

However, it’s the little things that have led to those big things, and the guy in charge doesn’t seem to know how to fix either.