The tumultuous psyche and relentless excitement of a season came to an end. The transfer portal hustles, NFL draft plans and moves, instead, took the center stage as we head to the Spring practice ahead of another full-blown regular season. Before the main show kicks in, it’s high time to reevaluate the leftovers from the last season, where we went wrong, and what can go better in the next shot for the coaches and the programs in a thorough analysis. In terms of the coaching outlooks, Texas and Georgia lead the way in the pre-spring power rankings in the SEC for the 2025 season. But Alabama and Ole Miss aren’t far behind. But analyst Joe DeLeone and Blake Ruffino came to a crossroads regarding whom between Lane Kiffin and Kalen DeBoer to keep at No. 4

Alabama and Kalen DeBoer didn’t have a picture-perfect season for obvious reasons. Taking the baton from the GOAT himself after 17 long years isn’t a cakewalk. But the former Washington Huskies head coach Kalen DeBoer willingly took the risk and tried to fill Saban’s shoes. But players and fans have largely been non-cooperative to him. You can’t blame them at all, as Saban set an unmatched benchmark in Alabama, and fans can’t get over that quality fantasy even after the hero left the scene. So, DeBoer will have to enter the second year at Tuscaloosa with a chip on his shoulder.

“If Kalen DeBoer goes on to have three straight 10-win seasons and they don’t go to the national championship, he probably will get considered to be fired… Bama fans would be pissed off if in three years they don’t have a single national championship appearance.” said analyst Joe Dellone.  A 9-4 season, marking the worst since 2007 in the program’s history, wasn’t enough for DeBoer to step on the path to salvaging the eroded Alabama standards no matter how.

‘The grass isn’t really greener on the Kiffin’s side as well. But at least he has some room to breathe, as he doesn’t have to beat the odds of a legendary ex-head coach and doesn’t have to convince an extremely delusional fanbase that he is trying to do better. The psychological pressure is visibly less. Deleone made the brutal reality even more obvious, addressing an uneven treatment of fans: “Lane could go out there, coach without a shirt on, and no one would give a [ __ ]. They’d be like, ‘Look at Lane, he’s so cool.’ Meanwhile, they were mad that DeBoer was wearing a damn sweatshirt on the sidelines.”

Kiffin is seemingly in a bit safer zone simply because he isn’t finding his footing in a new blueblood program after a wasted first year. Also, after a close playoff snub and a lot of follow-up rants, Kiffin has a real chance for a breakout season, and their 2025 schedule is working in his favor. But for DeBoer, the championship appearance pressure was only another bad spell to his real recruiting stance controversy.

Kalen DeBoer turns into a laughing stock after his recent recruiting comment

Would you believe if someone told you that the playing field needs to be balanced for the classic Bama football a few years back? Simply, no. But as the standard shimmered down to an average high with an experimental squad, we are hearing it from the current head coach, Kalen DeBoer.

He believes the recent house settlement rule of the NCAA that’s supposed to allow teams to drag a big revenue is actually a good step toward implementing a balance between teams. ”That regulation where we’re all on an even playing field from the revenue-sharing standpoint helps us, just because now it comes down to what is important in recruiting, and that’s relationships and sharing your vision. People that want to be aligned with your vision and then come to a place like Alabama that has the resources, the tradition. The regulation and having a more balanced playing field help our situation,” DeBoer noted. But it is more surprising that the head coach believes Alabama is still at a disadvantage in this era of NIL recruiting.

Analyst Michael Bratton points out that it could passively mean that DeBoer wants to go back to that quintessential Saban era when there is no bidding priority, and all recruits were real. It’s really awful for DeBoer to find himself under a mocking fire again. But hopefully, he can dodge the shredded image and a roster for the better.