Heath Hambrick Guest Columnist
The date was Jan. 12, 2024, and the Alabama football team had a new head football coach. That man was Kalen DeBoer.
DeBoer was hired to follow arguably the greatest coach of all time, Nick Saban, and to lead the most successful football program in the country. The expectation at the Capstone is to win and win now. Anything other than a National championship is a failure.
The 2024 season, the first for Kalen DeBoer at the Capstone, has been full of ups and downs. The first month of the season saw the Crimson Tide start 4-0 and rise to No. 1 in the country, a spot that Alabama fans expect their football to be.
Playing Georgia at home on Sept. 28, the game saw the Tide race out to a big lead and Georgia come back to take the lead in the fourth quarter. Alabama would come back themselves to win late in the fourth quarter, but in the second half of the Georgia game you could see there were things that needed to be cleaned up or it could be a rocky season.
The month of October was just that rocky. The trip to Nashville to play Vandy and quarterback Diego Pavia saw the Crimson Tide sleepwalk through the first half, and the Crimson Tide never recovered, losing to Vandy for the first time since 1984.
The next game, Coach DeBoer and the Tide were against South Carolina at home, and the Tide struggled to get a two-point win over the Gamecocks. On Oct. 19, the Third Saturday in October in Knoxville is a game Alabama fans want to forget.
After the Saturday night game in Death Valley against LSU, Alabama had everything in front of them that they want to accomplish. All the Crimson Tide needed to do was to win their next three games against Mercer, Oklahoma and Auburn, and they would have been in the SEC Championship Game and more than likely the College Football Playoff.
But it didn’t work out that way. A trip to Norman, Oklahoma, to take on the newest member of the SEC, the Oklahoma Sooners, would end any hopes of an SEC title and College Football Playoff berth for the first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Against the Sooners, Alabama played their worst game of the season. The now 6-6 Oklahoma team outplayed, outworked and outcoached the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the day in which the state of Alabama stands still for three and half hours for the annual Iron Bowl. We would see Alabama beat Auburn for the fifth straight year, finishing the regular season at 9-3. It was the first season with three losses since 2010.
The 2024 season, is a season of “What could have been” for Coach DeBoer and Alabama. DeBoer is the first Alabama coach to win nine games in his first season as head coach, and he is also the first coach to win his first Iron Bowl since Dennis Franchione.
The Crimson Tide will play Michigan on New Year’s Eve in the ReliaQuest Bowl at 11 a.m. on ESPN. This is the lowest-tier bowl since 2007. Alabama will be making their third appearance in the Tampa bowl game, and the first since Gene Stallings’ last game on New Year’s Day in 1997. Also in all three trips, the Crimson Tide will have played Michigan.
As an Alabama fan myself, the season has been frustrating at times but there have also been exciting times during the first year of the Kalen DeBoer era at the Capstone.
I believe that Coach DeBoer is the right man to replace Coach Saban. He has won everywhere he has been in his career, and he has done it his own way. I believe he will do the same at Alabama.
Coming into this season you knew there would be some ups and downs. We can’t forget about other first-year coaches at Alabama.
Coach Bryant went 5-4-1 and lost to Auburn, Coach Perkins went 8-4 and lost to Auburn, Coach Curry went 7-5 and lost at Memphis and to Auburn, Coach Stallings started 0-3 and finished 7-5, Mike DuBose went 4-7, Franchione went 7-5, Shula went 4-9 and lost to Northern Illinois, and Coach Saban went 7-6 with a loss to Louisiana-Monroe.
With all that being said, Coach DeBoer has won more games than any coach in Alabama history in year one. There is no reason to hit the panic button yet. I believe in 2025, Alabama will still be Alabama and have a shot at championships.
