After 13 games we're 9-4. Let's revisit our thoughts and outlook on Coach Kalen DeBoer

[UAH]

Trying to figure out how a guy with a reputation for offense hasn't been able to do anything more with Alabama's offense in week 11 than he did in week 1.

Was DeBoer's success on offense tied to the OC he lost the NFL? What about his overall success as a coach?

I had what is likely a highly controversial thought this morning but it occurred to me that Mike Shula knew more about SEC football, particularly offense, than DeBoer. Recruiting and probation to a degree was his downfall. He was a QB who certainly stayed in the game until the very last play!

One has to be a bit nostalgic this morning for the Tiffin kick and the incredible results that CNS had here.

 

[carder24]

Yeah, the one thing that seems suspicious about the whole QB situation is that if DeBoer thought he already has the QB on the roster who could run his offense next season (Simpson?) then why didn't he install his offense this season and go with Simpson instead of waiting for next? It's foolish to go with a QB who can't run it just so the guy can pad his stats and maybe go higher in the draft. OTOH if DeBoer doesn't think he currently has the QB to run his offense then he'll have to turn to the portal and Simpson has no future.

Generally there is not an argument against that being preferred path, but all the surrounding discussion here alludes to.probable commitments by player "leadership" and coaching staff to keep roster together - and who knows but based on the reshared CKD interview, maybe that was a one year arrangement to scheme around who we have (most notably QB, but could be extended to OL etc not fitting). Maybe there was an expectation of better results, but still.unimaginable that those commitments are so binding that we don't try to work out of the awful.play and full game nose dives in our losses.
The adapted/restricted offense could be working against development of the other guys, would assume a back up.would have to step into.running same restricted offense, not learning whole other offense on the side.

 

[CrimsonTitles]

Exactly...how that game can be pinned on anyone on offense when they scored 35 points with only like 17 minutes of possession is beyond me.

The D and Womack are the reason we lost that game.

So you're saying we wouldn't have won without the 2 turnovers? That's really all it comes down to.

 

[colbysullivan]

Nope…can’t agree with that.

The offense scored more than 2 points every minute it possessed the ball against Vandy.

That game is almost completely on the defense for letting Vandy control the ball for 43 minutes and being nearly totally incapable of getting any stops.

Without the pick 6 and fumble, we win.

 

[B1GTide]

Without the pick 6 and fumble, we win.

Vandy pushed your defense around like they were little girls in that game. Your defense failed utterly. The offense was not perfect, but it shouldn't have had to be perfect against Vandy.

 

[Bama9001]

The defense got the critical stop in 4Q. They were rewarded with a Milroe turnover.

Back to Deboer. I'm thinking/hoping that he actually knows what he's doing. By all accounts he was left with a terrible mess by CNS and I'm guessing he relied on some very poor advice.

We probably need to just accept the fact that we won't really know anything until after next year. I'd really, really, really like to see a group of players that resemble a cohesive team next fall. It would be a major bonus if that cohesive team looked like it was executing some kind of plan.

Because of the circumstances he inherited, Deboer is basically going to be in HIS first year next fall. This just feels like a throwaway year that Deboer inherited from CNS because the latter did not want to deal with it.

 

[B1GTide]

The defense got the critical stop in 4Q. They were rewarded with a Milroe turnover.

Vandy punted twice in the game and scored on every other possession. They possessed the ball for 42:08 in the game. They dragged Alabama up and down the field from the first snap to the last.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

The D did not help much against OU either. 267 yards on the ground on 50 carries (over 5ypc)! The QB had half that. You'd think they would have walked more people up to stop that after 40 carries or so.

TBF, we should have scored at least 30...not 3.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Trying to figure out how a guy with a reputation for offense hasn't been able to do anything more with Alabama's offense in week 11 than he did in week 1.

Was DeBoer's success on offense tied to the OC he lost the NFL? What about his overall success as a coach?

Lank handcuffs and a QB that doesn't fit his system...

 

[CrimsonTitles]

Trying to figure out how a guy with a reputation for offense hasn't been able to do anything more with Alabama's offense in week 11 than he did in week 1.

Was DeBoer's success on offense tied to the OC he lost the NFL? What about his overall success as a coach?

Because this isn't his offense. This is the offense they derived specifically for Milroe. He's only installed like 30% of his offense

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Because this isn't his offense. This is the offense they derived specifically for Milroe.

Correct!

We won't see CKD's offense until next season after Lank is gone...

 

[colbysullivan]

Vandy pushed your defense around like they were little girls in that game. Your defense failed utterly. The offense was not perfect, but it shouldn't have had to be perfect against Vandy.

I agree that the defense mostly cost us the game, but the offense is not blameless. Boom or bust is not the answer when you need to chew clock.

 

[bamaclimber]

I'll say again, a guy who has won 90% of his games as a HC at multiple schools doesn't suddenly forgot how he did that.

Understood. And agree...mostly. However, I'd somewhat counter with the caveat that he's never won in the SEC, or east of the Mississippi for that matter. So I agree, he doesn't suddenly forget how to win, but you could also say he is just learning how to win in the SEC (hopefully). How well he does that is TBD.

 

[carder24]

Would counter similar might have been said about Sarkisian and Kiffin before

 

[teamplayer]

Exactly...how that game can be pinned on anyone on offense when they scored 35 points with only like 17 minutes of possession is beyond me.

The D and Womack are the reason we lost that game.

The offense got the ball four times with the chance to tie or take the lead and failed miserably each time. It's a team game, and the offense had plenty of failings in that game. The defense was worse, but the offense was also poor.

 

[arthurdawg]

I think losing Grubb to the NFL hurt more than people realize, but when you have a incompetent QB who has tied your hands, this what you get

Yeah... I think MIlroe is basic issue that has really affected this team, although Grubb and plenty of other issues played a role. He is not good. Basically he can run really fast in a straight line if he gets around to deciding it is time to take off, and he can throw the ball downfield, which is easier to do than the reads up front. But no QB skills, no ability to read the field, etc. Basically what they give him works at times and we get big plays, or the opposing D has the athletes and plays him properly and see Okie, Tenn, etc. Because they are so focused on him, we don't use our RBs, and we don't stress opposing Ds by targeting any of a decent group of WRs other than RW,

As for the defense... I may be totally wrong, but I'm not convinced we have the talent that we think we have there. I feel that our DL are not as good as many think. Not bad, but we don't have any disruptors. Q was a player but a drop off from the last few years. Our ILB look to go high in the draft, but I again, I don't feel like they have that ineffable component that we've seen through the years. Ro, Foster, and others were just there and blew up play after play. These guys don't do that. And our secondary is just a patchwork of freshmen and transfers and a few holdovers who are solid SEC dudes but not in the same league as the best we had under CNS. I'm not smart enough to know the technical points, but I don't feel like the defense is some super talented unit that Wommack is dreadfully bad at coaching. And frankly, our defense under CNS was much more vulnerable these past few years. Steele cleaned it up for the first time since probably 2017-8, but several of the big playmaking studs from that unit are gone.

 

[Rocky Mtn Bob]

Back to Deboer. I'm thinking/hoping that he actually knows what he's doing. By all accounts he was left with a terrible mess by CNS and I'm guessing he relied on some very poor advice.

We probably need to just accept the fact that we won't really know anything until after next year. I'd really, really, really like to see a group of players that resemble a cohesive team next fall. It would be a major bonus if that cohesive team looked like it was executing some kind of plan.

Because of the circumstances he inherited, Deboer is basically going to be in HIS first year next fall. This just feels like a throwaway year that Deboer inherited from CNS because the latter did not want to deal with it.

A cogent and thought-provoking post.

It's a pleasant surprise to encounter an, "Hmm. I haven't considered that angle before," post.

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

The defense got the critical stop in 4Q. They were rewarded with a Milroe turnover.

Back to Deboer. I'm thinking/hoping that he actually knows what he's doing. By all accounts he was left with a terrible mess by CNS and I'm guessing he relied on some very poor advice.

We probably need to just accept the fact that we won't really know anything until after next year. I'd really, really, really like to see a group of players that resemble a cohesive team next fall. It would be a major bonus if that cohesive team looked like it was executing some kind of plan.

Because of the circumstances he inherited, Deboer is basically going to be in HIS first year next fall. This just feels like a throwaway year that Deboer inherited from CNS because the latter did not want to deal with it.

And where might we be had he decided to take the bull by the horns and deal with it? We will never know, but once DeBoer gets his scheme implemented I think we will see a vast difference.........just get the defense squared away

 

[imauafan]

Because this isn't his offense. This is the offense they derived specifically for Milroe. He's only installed like 30% of his offense

So we're not running 70% of the double-reverse, flea-fickers that we could be running?

 

[KrAzY3]

Part of the problem is that this team's only issues are not on offense. I openly questioned what DeBoer would look like without Penix and it's easy enough to just place the blame on Milroe, but DeBoer's job is to sort out issues on offense. The main issue there is he overly relies on the QB, so the solution is the problem in this case, the normal reaction to not having a reliable passing game is to develop a more reliable running game but that's not really a thing his offenses do. DeBoer's offenses live and die by QB play.

Which bring us to the other giant problem. Alabama is bad against the run. Their scoring defense is actually pretty good, but both in terms of yards per game and average per rush this defense is soft against the run, creating a way to make them very beatable.

Basically, the issue is that while this is in fact a very good team, it's also a very flawed team. Stop the QB, run the ball, you have this team beat. It's not balanced in terms of both the ability to run the ball and stop the run.