Chris Low and Andy Staples on3 article - Early in KDB’s tenure, real concerns are surfacing in Tuscaloosa.
- Thread starter RammerJammer15
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Low being involved is bigtime. He's as close to Sexton (and thus Saban) as it gets for legit journalists.
Glad to see this. I mean, this ridiculousness with lack of physicality and discipline has gone on long enough. And Womack needs to go yesterday. Man I miss Jeremy Pruitt.
Chris Lowe just joined on3 last week. Yep, he is a good journalist. I like reading his articles. I just read this article on another site.
“We’re spoiled, always have been. But when we put a team out there that looks uninspired like we have far too many times these past two years and lose to teams that we’re clearly more talented than, that’s when it becomes a problem … and not just a bunch of spoiled fans griping.”
Enough said. This isn’t about losing games to seemingly equally talented teams. This about dropping games and being manhandled by teams we clearly have talent edge over. And THAT comes down to coaching.
Enough said. This isn’t about losing games to seemingly equally talented teams. This about dropping games and being manhandled by teams we clearly have talent edge over. And THAT comes down to coaching.
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Heck I miss Kevin Steele. Steele came in after Golding and stabilized/simplified our defensive schemes enough so players didn’t have to think too much. They read, reacted and made plays.
Now that Low has posted it, I'll confirm what he's reporting here. I've talked to some people who are close enough to some of the big donors and I was told that the deep pockets are quickly growing tired of what they're seeing. Normally, big donors "talk" with their money/donations or lack thereof. This thing better get corrected and corrected quick or there's going to be financial consequences that have nothing to do with DeBoer's buyout.
True, lucky for Steele mental toughness and relentless pursuit were still a thing in Tuscaloosa. Seems we are in the prima donna softy era in T-town thanks to this regime.
Kind of like playing poker and the dealer flips over a wild card. Then someone remarks “the price to play just went up..”
The 2023 defense was fun when they finally put it all together after that Texas loss
Saban teams normally responded well after losses and had the ability to go on a run.
Good for the power brokers. They are fuming like us due to this:
The loss to Florida State was DeBoer’s fourth to an unranked opponent since taking over in Tuscaloosa, matching the total number of games Saban lost to unranked opponents across his 17 seasons as the Crimson Tide’s head coach. DeBoer is also 5-5 in his last 10 games after a 4-0 start to his tenure last season.
bamahammer.com
The loss to Florida State was DeBoer’s fourth to an unranked opponent since taking over in Tuscaloosa, matching the total number of games Saban lost to unranked opponents across his 17 seasons as the Crimson Tide’s head coach. DeBoer is also 5-5 in his last 10 games after a 4-0 start to his tenure last season.
Alabama just got some major help to pay for a potential Kalen DeBoer buyout
Alabama is set to debut new on-field sponsorships for the first time at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
bamahammer.com
To me this was the big quote:
" You need to be able to coach Southern guys,” a coaches’ agent (not DeBoer’s) said. “They want to be coached hard. Look at the way [Georgia’s] Kirby Smart coaches."
This was my biggest concern with DeBoer from the start. Not that he can't coach, obviously he can. But can he coach these players? Can he compete in the SEC? It's not the same as the west coast. It's not the same as coaching 3 stars.
The way to get through to them and motivate them entails understanding them. The reason I had four other coaches ahead of him on my list of candidates, yes even the much maligned Dabo centered largely around this. I had Lanning ahead and he beat Lanning twice, but Lanning understands the SEC. DeBoer unfortunately does not and he better learn fast.
It was an unforced error to throw such a big contract at someone that had no experience at all with this type of situation.
" You need to be able to coach Southern guys,” a coaches’ agent (not DeBoer’s) said. “They want to be coached hard. Look at the way [Georgia’s] Kirby Smart coaches."
This was my biggest concern with DeBoer from the start. Not that he can't coach, obviously he can. But can he coach these players? Can he compete in the SEC? It's not the same as the west coast. It's not the same as coaching 3 stars.
The way to get through to them and motivate them entails understanding them. The reason I had four other coaches ahead of him on my list of candidates, yes even the much maligned Dabo centered largely around this. I had Lanning ahead and he beat Lanning twice, but Lanning understands the SEC. DeBoer unfortunately does not and he better learn fast.
It was an unforced error to throw such a big contract at someone that had no experience at all with this type of situation.
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Also about that quote... Would love to know who that agent is/his clients are. If he works for Sexton (and have to consider it a possibility), that's really telling
Also, it might not always be the "fairest" thing to compare him to Saban at every turn, but it's totally fair and expected to compare him to Kirby and the rest who are coaching now
Excellent point!
Kirby's first HC job was UGA. He made a couple of rookie mistakes early on. One was the fake punt in the SECCG against us when we weren't even in punt safe...we were in our standard defense. I don't fault a true freshman QB (Fields) for not catching that. I do fault the coaches. Upon seeing the defensive lineup, they should have called time out, regrouped and punted. If they had, it's highly unlikely we would have had the time to drive the full length of the field.
Seems like before that Kirby also had a clock-management blunder that cost them a game.
But he never repeated those mistakes. DeBoer is an experienced HC who should be well beyond the rookie mistake stage. It's entirely fair to compare (and contrast!) the DeBoer of today to the Kirby of today.
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If you want something a bit more ominous, there's this tidbit:"
" Byrne had DeBoer, and ironically enough, FSU coach Mike Norvell at the top of his list from the outset, and some will tell you the order was really Norvell and then DeBoer. Either way, they were the two Byrne wanted. "
That is basically how to make a candidate list based off of nothing but recency bias. I had both on my list, but Norvell was below Kiffin and DeBoer, closer to 10th than the top. That's an insane list if true, it's basically who won a bunch of games last season list, which is just... lazy.
Novell is 34–27 at FSU, was 38-15 at Memphis, if he was at the top of the list it says a lot about how bad the search process was. I hope that isn't true because it reeks of incompetence.
" Byrne had DeBoer, and ironically enough, FSU coach Mike Norvell at the top of his list from the outset, and some will tell you the order was really Norvell and then DeBoer. Either way, they were the two Byrne wanted. "
That is basically how to make a candidate list based off of nothing but recency bias. I had both on my list, but Norvell was below Kiffin and DeBoer, closer to 10th than the top. That's an insane list if true, it's basically who won a bunch of games last season list, which is just... lazy.
Novell is 34–27 at FSU, was 38-15 at Memphis, if he was at the top of the list it says a lot about how bad the search process was. I hope that isn't true because it reeks of incompetence.
I remembered Norvell being mentioned. I chalked it up to media and him angling for better contract/protection at FSU and that he was never seriously considered. If he was then, well, that's not great.
DeBoer feels closer to Brian Kelly than Kirby Smart.
not a coincidence that the most consistent players throughout KDB’s tenure have been the UW transfers
there’s an obvious disconnect going on with the rest of the roster but he’s getting paid the big bucks to figure it out
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