One of the biggest doubts that outsiders perpetuate about Alabama Football is whether or not the program will be able to maintain its blue collar identity under the new regime.
Head Coach Kalen DeBoer comes to Tuscaloosa from Washington and is originally from South Dakota. While he lacked ties and familiarity with the South at the time of his hiring, he has had to undergo a crash course over the last several months. Given that he has assembled a top-notch coaching staff, kept most of the roster intact, and has recruited fairly well thus far, I would say DeBoer is acclimating quickly. He may come from a different part of the country, but Kalen DeBoer is a winner with blue collar traits of his own.
With several more coaches and players coming from Washington along with DeBoer, this year’s Alabama team will have a hint of West Coast flavor. However, DeBoer’s teams at Washington were not your typical PAC-12 teams. Sure, they had Heisman contenders at quarterback and wide receiver, fitting the stereotype on the surface. However, they were also gritty and tough in the trenches on both sides of the ball, with the offensive line winning the 2023 Joe Moore Award.
This spring, the Huskies’ offensive tackles, Troy Fautanu (first round) and Roger Rogengarten (second round), were both drafted into the NFL. Center Parker Brailsford, another vital piece of that line, has joined DeBoer in Tuscaloosa. Bralen Trice, a third-round pick on defense, was one of college football’s most physical edge players.
Though the PAC-12 was known for offense (especially passing the ball), the league as a whole got a lot more physical over the last two or three years of its existence. Utah brought a lunch pail attitude to the PAC-12 and saw incredible success, winning the league in 2021 and 2022. Oregon, under Mario Cristobal and now Dan Lanning, has been trying to recruit and build its roster like an SEC team for the last half decade.
Coach DeBoer is no stranger to physicality and hard-nosed football. Additionally, he is aware of the magnitude of the situation he is stepping into and appreciates the history of Alabama Football. I have little doubt that he has educated himself on that history and has a feel for what it will take to win in the SEC.
His staff, which includes holdovers Freddie Roach and Robert Gillespie, as well as a defensive coordinator in Kane Wommack, who is well-versed in the region, will assist to smooth the transition. A roster dominated by former Nick Saban recruits will also help.
I don’t think Alabama will have any trouble maintaining its blue collar identity under Kalen DeBoer. If anything, I would argue that the 2024 iteration of the Tide could be more reminiscent of early Saban-era teams. Complacency and entitlement were just beginning to bleed into the program over the final few years of Saban’s tenure, and now Alabama gets a fresh start.
