Nick Saban’s Faith in Kalen DeBoer Shines Through as Ex-Alabama HC Delivers Strong Verdict on Player Departure

While Kalen DeBoer continues to shine his light on Alabama and transform it, Nick Saban has returned with some strong words for players who had decided to part ways with the team. Tony Tsoukalas took to X on 17th July to share what Nick Saban had to say regarding player departures. “Nick Saban commended Ryan Williams for waiting and continuing to consider Alabama after Kalen DeBoer took over. Saban believes several other players will be sorry they left Alabama,” Tsoukalas covered in his post. It won’t be a surprise if players later on regret leaving the team because the progress that Kalen DeBoer is making on the frontline is amazing.

On The Next Round, Joel Klatt gave his opinion regarding DeBoer. “Kalen is competitively proficient. This guy wins at an insanely high level everywhere,” he mentioned. DeBoer has proved his worth with Sioux Falls, Washington State, and Fresno State. He took struggling teams to the top of their programs with a completely revamped offense. During the transfer portal, Alabama saw the departure of notable players like Peyton Woodyard, Caleb Downs, Trey Amos, Kristian Story, and Jameer Grimsley. However, Tides also managed to grab players like Domani Jackson (USC), Keon Sabb (Michigan), Kam Howard (Charlotte), DaShawn Jones (Wake Forest), and King Mack (Penn State).

This brings us a fresh perspective regarding the starting experience that Alabama lost and gained. With the 10 departing players in the transfer portal, Alabama lost a combined 17 starts. However, with the fresh new gains, the team saw a combined gain of 29 starts. This is major and shows that even though Saban is gone, DeBoer managed to turn around the recruitment for the team. That is not all though, DeBoer is already getting Jalen Milroe ready to become the next Heisman contender as well.

The ace up his sleeve

 “At practice, I threw a really good ball. I was looking at the sideline to get the next play, the next signal, and Coach DeBoer came up to me and was like ‘Hey what happened’, and I was like what do you mean what happened?… Coach, I was worried about the next play and he was like ‘I want you to celebrate, I want you to be excited, that was a really good pass,’” This is what Jalen Milroe had to say about DeBoer on Saturday Down South when the young QB was asked about the new coaching style the team has to adapt to. DeBoer’s friendly way of getting to know his players and connecting with them was what made Milroe prefer him over Saban.

Saban has always been on the strict side, however, DeBoer made it so that Milroe can be relaxed and can focus on his offensive talents. DeBoer already has a record of shaping great players. Michael Penix Jr. is a prime example of this. JD Pickell explained this perfectly on the HeadCount. “He’s an offensive mastermind… this has been his offense at different stops. When he had Michael Penix Jr. at Washington, what happened? They cooked,” he said. This same philosophy has been carried forward for Milroe as well. The team is all set and ready to accomplish great things and honestly, Nick Saban couldn’t be more proud of what DeBoer has achieved in such a short span.