Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer receives strong defense from man who worked under Nick Saban and Kirby Smart
Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer doesn’t have full buy-in from fans who grew accustomed to watching Nick Saban’s teams dominate week in and week out for over two and a half decades.
But Deboer does have a vote of confidence from West Alabama’s Scott Cochran, who worked under Saban for 13 years and under Kirby Smart for another four.
Cochran admitted he hadn’t met DeBoer more than one time. Still, by speaking to Ryan Williams – who was initially recruited to Tuscaloosa by Saban but retained by DeBoer after the former’s sudden retirement last January – he understands what DeBoer brings to the table.
“I met coach DeBoer one time because I was going to see former players. … What a great guy,” Cochran said, per the Tuscaloosa News. “Seemed awesome, down to earth. And the players seemed to really like him.
“When I talked to (Ryan Williams) about it, he was like, ‘Man, (DeBoer’s) a great recruiter.’ He had all all these great things to say about him. And I was like, ‘Well, that’s where you need to go,’ because at the time, I was stepping out. So I’ve heard nothing but good things.
“Now everybody thinks they can put their opinions out there. But I’m sure he’ll take that place back to new heights. I feel like he’ll do a great job.”
DeBoer is battling even more negative narratives from fans than he was in the immediate aftermath of Saban’s retirement after his team went 9-4 in 2024 with unexplainable losses to six-win Vanderbilt and Oklahoma and a ReliaQuest Bowl loss to a depleted Michigan team.
Cochran can defend his coaching peer and claim that not everyone’s opinion is valid. And to DeBoer’s credit, he doesn’t have endless NIL spending at his disposal relative to the Ohio State’s, Michigan’s, Texas’s, and Oregon’s of the world.
But being the head football coach at Alabama means you get criticized. The more other coaches chime in to defend DeBoer like this, the more it seems he’s not prepared for that spotlight.
