This is an opinion column.
A question lingered in this tiny sportswriter brain from the moment Kalen DeBoer stepped off the plane Jan. 12 in Tuscaloosa.
What would be considered good in Year 1?
It was both quantifiable and somewhere in the abstract. There’s a hard number of wins and losses and the general mood of the program -- a vibe check as the youths would say.
As we sit nearly 11 months to the day later, it’s fair to take stock and maybe even answer these questions.
Doing so means acknowledging the unique circumstances that enveloped the whole of college football. The SEC was a different place both in numbers and scheduling this fall so the apples-to-apples comparisons to the before times don’t always align.
That said, 9-3 was right in the range of our preseason expectations. That or 10-2 seemed reasonable given the talent lost, talent retained and talent added for a reigning SEC champion in the midst of a monumental internal restructuring.
But if the baseline expectation was a seat in the first 12-team playoff, that fell short. Close, but if this was strictly pass-fail, they fell short.
On the field, it was a season played on the wildest success spectrum imaginable. From a crazy win over preseason No. 1 Georgia one week to a stunning loss at Vanderbilt the next. After recovering from a three-week slump, a shutout of ranked Missouri was followed by a convincing 42-13 annihilation at an LSU team that was ranked as high as No. 8.
From that to a blown out diaper at Oklahoma.
A 24-3 embarrassment to 1-5 team in SEC play was almost assuredly the difference between the Crimson Tide playing a first-round playoff game and going to Tampa for a bowl sponsored by a cybersecurity technology company.
DeBoer beat Auburn.
He lost to Tennessee.
It was a team that, at moments, played those at the pinnacle of the Nick Saban era. At others, they were Shula-esque.
They both teased the potential but left room for the bar to be raised.
DeBoer was good, not great.
He didn’t fall flat but also wasn’t Tubby Smith.
You might recall the rising basketball coaching talent took over the Kentucky program in 1997 after Rick Pitino went to the Boston Celtics. He inherited a team fresh off an overtime loss in the NCAA title game, and a year later, cut down the nets as the national champion in Year 1.
It was a bar he’d never be able to reach again while being told Pitino’s players were the only reason he got that ring. Over 10 seasons, he averaged a 26-8 record but was eventually run out of town.
Now, DeBoer didn’t have the same roster-retention benefit given the relaxation of transfer rules. And that’s where some of the other assessments come into play.
Recruiting meant both retaining the current roster and signing class with a limited pool of incoming transfers given the timing of the Saban for DeBoer swap. And while there were a few notable defections, DeBoer applied a tourniquet fast enough to avoid the program from bleeding out.
He got five-star Ryan Williams to recommit and salvage the 2024 signing class, then signed the No. 2-ranked class in the 2025 cycle, according to the 247Sports composite.
Closer to great than good.
There’s room to grow in state, though. Auburn signed eight of the top 10 players from Alabama as Hugh Freeze built momentum and enthusiasm, at least off the field.
Within the football complex, there’s a more relaxed mood from the quasi-militaristic feel under Saban. The tone is set at the top as DeBoer’s a down-to-earth, approachable man who isn’t easily rattled. There were no news conference blow-ups or visible anger following the surprising losses.
While there’s a leftover appetite for an occasional podium freak out, that’s not who DeBoer is.
He wasn’t hired to be a Saban clone because he isn’t.
Given some time and perspective, this assignment was harder than it might have originally appeared. DeBoer had to throw together a staff after the traditional window for coaching movement, then saw his longtime offensive coordinator (Ryan Grubb) and offensive line coach (Scott Huff) quickly leave for NFL jobs. Scrambling to replace them amid all the other moves was not insignificant.
So, it’s about moving forward.
DeBoer can now structure his staff the way he’d like if there were any concerns with the first draft while hitting the portal full speed. Recall he built a program from the ashes to the CFP finals at Washington not just with high school players but with aggressive transfer recruitment.
Ultimately, Year 1 was about keeping the ship upright and then point the bow toward the horizon.
Anyone expecting a seamless transition was unrealistic. At the same time, Missing the playoff because of two losses at unranked teams (one of whom was Vanderbilt) is a reasonable gripe.
What would be considered good in Year 1?
That.
But DeBoer came here for great.
That’s how he’ll be defined in Year 2.
