After 12 games we're 9-3. Let's revisit our thoughts and outlook on Coach Kalen DeBoer

[davefrat]

The reality is this, programs are being built from a player-first, player-friendly, money driven and incentivized standpoint. Coaches are afraid to do the things that many have done in the past because of the leverage the lack of NCAA leadership with rules and regulations on transferring. It really is a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. Lack of discipline leads to you losing. Discipline too much and you deplete your roster and lose because you face much more talented competition. Quite the conundrum coaching is these days.

My son plays on the JV basketball team for his high school (which is 1A, the lowest level in the state of VA) and even though the teams are mediocre at best, some of the players act like they won the NBA championship after making one 3 pointer on 1/10 shooting.

And the behavior/expectations of some of the parents certainly doesn't help.

It's a society-wide problem and I don't see it calming down anytime soon.

 

[tideindc]

It’s my understanding that CKD will be adding a very gifted offensive coach to his staff for the coming season. I think he will be a big help in terms of game planning.

 

[Evil Crimson Dragon]

It’s my understanding that CKD will be adding a very gifted offensive coach to his staff for the coming season. I think he will be a big help in terms of game planning.

Interesting.............havent heard that

 

[tideindc]

Interesting.............havent heard that

I’m far from a Tide Insider. Just turns out one of my best friends is a friend of this coach.

 

[Con]

I’m far from a Tide Insider. Just turns out one of my best friends is a friend of this coach.

You definitely have my attention.

 

[mlh]

It’s my understanding that CKD will be adding a very gifted offensive coach to his staff for the coming season. I think he will be a big help in terms of game planning.

How is he at making in-game adjustments?

 

[Krymsonman]

Losing to Vandy is NEVER ok. Never. Under any circumstances. So that is unacceptable. The TN game was a 50/50 pick for me before we played. Hate losing it but doesn't tear me up. The OU loss is very puzzling. Lots had to go wrong in that game for us to get drummed like we did. Lots of failure that has to be dealt with. I don't know that I saw any dealing with it from our performance in the AU game. AU is just that bad.

This all doesn't mean I want CKD to be fired over it, but I do want to see major improvements in communication, commitment, discipline, and dedication to THE standard that everybody yaps about but don't seem to be fully committed to implementing over the last few years.

Maybe I've been spoiled. OK.

I mentioned in another thread I thought CKD's grade for the year was an F-. That's probably very harsh but I based it on our apparent total lack of preparation or adjustments in our three losses. You're correct - we should never, ever, lose to Vandy. Why we couldn't figure that one out at halftime, I'll never know. Tennessee was ours for the taking, but we wouldn't take it. And to show up at OU, with everything in the world to play for, and lay the biggest egg of the year, smh. Everything you say in your last paragraph needs to happen now.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I mentioned in another thread I thought CKD's grade for the year was an F-. That's probably very harsh but I based it on our apparent total lack of preparation or adjustments in our three losses. You're correct - we should never, ever, lose to Vandy. Why we couldn't figure that one out at halftime, I'll never know. Tennessee was ours for the taking, but we wouldn't take it. And to show up at OU, with everything in the world to play for, and lay the biggest egg of the year, smh. Everything you say in your last paragraph needs to happen now.

I gave him a D+ so I wasn't that far behind your grade. The Vandy AND OU debacle is completely unacceptable. I'm chalking this season up to him realizing what it takes to coach in this conference and it is nothing like the PAC 12 or any other conference he's coached in. It is a meat grinder every week and we're going to get everybody's best preparation and best game.

I'm still sticking to I think ultimately he will be the right guy for the job, he just needs to do some adjusting to the style of play of the conference. It will be interesting to see the demeanor of the team and staff next season compared to this season to see if they learned anything.

 

[davefrat]

I rate the season as a failure.

 

[Tiderollin32]

This season was tough to watch for a lot of reasons. No more Saban and add NIL and all of the portaling which threw everything off of our norm.

I thought 10-2 was what we would end up being and didn’t have us losing to Vandy but did have us in a dog fight versus Oklahoma at the beginning of the season. I feel Coach Deboer can be fairly judged based off this 2nd season in which he will finally be grounded with his players and staff being used to the new conference, rules, etc.

Just imagine if UGA loses to GA Tech at home and goes 10-3 while Kirby is still at the helm with all staff and players already used to the system. I say let’s give Deboer this next year to be judged and go from there.

 

[Jack Bourbon]

I think replacing Grubb at the last minute didn't do us much good. Happy with Wommack. DeBoer needs to stop looking like he just woke up in critical moments.

 

[BamaFanInTally]

I gave him a D+ so I wasn't that far behind your grade. The Vandy AND OU debacle is completely unacceptable. I'm chalking this season up to him realizing what it takes to coach in this conference and it is nothing like the PAC 12 or any other conference he's coached in. It is a meat grinder every week and we're going to get everybody's best preparation and best game.

I'm still sticking to I think ultimately he will be the right guy for the job, he just needs to do some adjusting to the style of play of the conference. It will be interesting to see the demeanor of the team and staff next season compared to this season to see if they learned anything.

Losing to Vandy with our talent level should never happen. The loss to OU was more embarrassing as to the lack of preparation and in game adjustments. If we had lost a close game to OU, most of us would feel better (and we would be in the CFP).

Another concern with CKD is the number of close games he’s had with previous teams. This entire Bama team needs to get back to making the other team quit by focusing on individual excellence, teamwork, and focusing on one play at a time. The NIL entitlement and individual stats are alive and well with this iteration.

Unfortunately the architect for this approach is now an ESPN analyst.

 

[CrimsonTitles]

All I can say is that if Nick had stayed another year we'd be in the playoff. This program is as sterling and pristine as any one can find. Now, it is beginning to ebb.

I don't necessarily think that's true. It's easy to say now, but Saban wouldn't have gotten anything more out of Milroe than DeBoer did. You can point to last year, but we also had a much easier schedule last year. Aside from Texas and the Iron Bowl, our toughest games were at home. Also 2023 was kind of a down year for the SEC. This year, the SEC was as deep and good as it's been in several years. Saban probably finds a way to win the Vandy game, but we probably still lose to Tennessee, and maybe Georgia. Oklahoma probably would have still beaten us either way due to abysmal QB play, so we'd still be looking at 9-3. Without the Georgia win, there's a good chance we'd have been behind Miami, and maybe even Ole Miss, so we would've gotten left out anyways. I'd still much rather have it this way where we beat Georgia and lose to Vandy. I'd feel much worse about this season if our best win waa South Carolina. Missing the playoffs stings, but our ceiling was always going to be limited by our QB, so we weren't going to win the natty, anyways. All in all, I give DeBoer a B+ for this season, as it could have gone so much worse.

 

[tusks_n_raider]

Despite a few hiccups I never thought we did anything but hire the right Coach and the Best available Coach.

I thought we would either be 9-3 or 10-2 this year with a chance at making the CFP and we are right on pace.

My outlook for this season is I think we get to 10-2 and either a Top 8 seed w/ a Home playoff game or a Ticket to play Texas for SECCG and a Top 4 Seed Bye in the CFP.

My outlook for the future is that whether it's this year or next year or a soon to be year after that we WILL win a NC with CKD and every year he will have us in Contention.

Look at this naive pre- OU version of TNR

So much hope about to be decimated.

Around the time I made this post I thought the job so far was in the B range trending towards B+ with a strong finish.

But that OU game was like getting an F- on your Finals test and it just destroying you grade.

Right now I'm thinking it's a D- to D+

Maybe a C- would be more fair but I can't with a straight face say that backing the wrong horse all season to the detriment of the team and failing to reach the Expanded 12 team playoff with our talent is in any way 'Satisfactory'.

We really regressed on Offense and yet refused to make a change at QB and it submarined the entire season.

The Vandy loss was Bad.

But not learning from it and letting ANOTHER .500 team use their gameplan to beat you even worse is just Horrendously Awful.

That's 'Poor' that's a D- to D+

I also say all of that with egg on my face because I was singing CKD praises for a while before we hired him.

Maybe he still works out and with his full offense installed with players he selected things will improve greatly.

I do have concerns and doubts about it now though.

Making a commitment to starting 2025 RIGHT NOW for the upcoming Bowl Game would be a step in the right direction.

 

[CrimsonTitles]

Look at this naive pre- OU version of TNR

So much hope about to be decimated.

Around the time I made this post I thought the job so far was in the B range trending towards B+ with a strong finish.

But that OU game was like getting an F- on your Finals test and it just destroying you grade.

Right now I'm thinking it's a D- to D+

Maybe a C- would be more fair but I can't with a straight face say that backing the wrong horse all season to the detriment of the team and failing to reach the Expanded 12 team playoff with our talent is in any way 'Satisfactory'.

We really regressed on Offense and yet refused to make a change at QB and it submarined the entire season.

The Vandy loss was Bad.

But not learning from it and letting ANOTHER .500 team use their gameplan to beat you even worse is just Horrendously Awful.

That's 'Poor' that's a D- to D+

I also say all of that with egg on my face because I was singing CKD praises for a while before we hired him.

Maybe he still works out and with his full offense installed with players he selected things will improve greatly.

I do have concerns and doubts about it now though.

Making a commitment to starting 2025 RIGHT NOW for the upcoming Bowl Game would be a step in the right direction.

So one game that we lost due to QB play drops him from a B+ to a D+? Dang. We might need to recalibrate some expectations lest we turn into Auburn firing coaches every 2 years. Saban probably would have lost the Oklahoma game also, if we're being honest. Doesn't matter who the coach was, Oklahoma was not going to let Milroe beat them. I can't be too upset since this is exactly what I thought would happen if Milroe were the QB.

 

[Foleybammer]

Ya all think we have a champioship roster and DeBoer screwed it up. That's the furthest thing from the truth. Look at the All SEC Coaches team we have only six on the three teams. Milroe didn't even
make the 3rd team. Our offensive tackles aren't athletic enough to handle speed rushers.
We started freshman in the secondary and one of our All SEC players was a freshman!
No All SEC D lineman! If DeBoer beats Michigan he gets 10 wins with this crew.
Vandy and Oklahoma benefited from a bye week before playing us. If Milroe plays well
against Oklahoma or Tennessee were in the playoffs. It didn't happen

 

[TheRealPokeChop]

Still very happy. Reason to be excited. The recruiting class answered my only real questions.

Gotta get better on the road but thats been the case for a few years now.

Big fan of wommack fwiw, outside of that vandy game anyway.

If I had a wishlist it might start with a new OC and/or ST coordinator.

 

[tusks_n_raider]

So one game that we lost due to QB play drops him from a B+ to a D+? Dang. We might need to recalibrate some expectations lest we turn into Auburn firing coaches every 2 years. Saban probably would have lost the Oklahoma game also, if we're being honest. Doesn't matter who the coach was, Oklahoma was not going to let Milroe beat them. I can't be too upset since this is exactly what I thought would happen if Milroe were the QB.

I mean the whole team didn't look like they even cared.

We had everything on the line and we weren't prepared nor did we make adjustments.

He's the HC is he not?

He can make a QB change when the guy out there can't complete a pass unless it's to the other team.

He just stood there and watched us get shellacked 24-3

That's a total HC failure that destroyed the season and wasted a ton of talent.

 

[CrimsonTitles]

Ya all think we have a champioship roster and DeBoer screwed it up. That's the furthest thing from the truth. Look at the All SEC Coaches team we have only six on the three teams. Milroe didn't even
make the 3rd team. Our offensive tackles aren't athletic enough to handle speed rushers.
We started freshman in the secondary and one of our All SEC players was a freshman!
No All SEC D lineman! If DeBoer beats Michigan he gets 10 wins with this crew.
Vandy and Oklahoma benefited from a bye week before playing us. If Milroe plays well
against Oklahoma or Tennessee were in the playoffs. It didn't happen

To add, CBS' latest mock draft has 0 Bama players projected to be drafted in the 1st round. I don't even know the last time we didn't have a player drafted in the 1st round. This Bama team was nowhere near as talented as recent Bama teams.

 

[NorCalTide]

I have to give CKD somewhere between a C and a B-. On one hand Bama beat Georgia, Auburn, LSU, SC, and Missouri. Of course the losses to Vandy, Tennessee, and Oklahoma were brutal. So for me the wins kind of balance the losses to a C.

But then you consider how much depth was lost from this team via the transfer portal and then some of the key players that left and you have to bump up what was accomplished a little bit. You also have to account for the fact that he inherited a dynamic, but limited quarterback. At his best Milroe was a Heisman level candidate. But when he wasn't on his game he was really bad and not the kind of QB that could game manage when he was off. When you consider these factors I think CKD rises to C+/B- territory.

I think we will learn a lot more about him as a coach this year with an entire recruiting class and portal class entering/exiting. This year has been cooking with what you have in the pantry and a few items you brought with you. Next year is much more about him cooking with more of his own ingredients. Grading won't be so forgiving next year.