Casagrande: The unmistakable moment facing Kalen DeBoer at Alabama

The business of penning history’s first draft can get messy.

It can be like watching a game from the blimp — analyzing the moment-by-moment while searching for the broader context in real time.

Sometimes it’s a race to find the proper framing of the moment when, in reality, this is an ongoing conversation. It will ebb and flow. Lean one way this week, then another the next.

That’s especially true as we angle for the best way to explain this era of Alabama football. That zoomed-in view from Goodyear’s airship began Jan. 10 when Nick Saban retired and gained the new main character days later with the hiring of Kalen DeBoer.

Year 1 was a predictable recalibration in the least predictable places.

Yet it created just enough of a blip in the matrix to create an opportunity for DeBoer to stamp this program in his image in Year 2.

Though certainly not his plan, a four-loss opening salvo takes some of the argument away from anyone who’d claim DeBoer is squatting on Saban’s empire.

The drum beat of those airquotes dynasty years was interrupted by a stunning loss at Vanderbilt and an equally surprising no-show at a weakened Oklahoma.

Those failures overshadowed the highlight moments like the takedown of Georgia in primetime and the domination of LSU in their snakepit.

It sets the stage for the second season when the chaos of generational transition settles into a program built more in DeBoer’s image. Nobody can deny there were some real growing pains as the internal culture of the program shed the quasi-militarized Saban system for a more, perhaps, democratic version under DeBoer.

Behind the scenes, carry-over coaches, players and staff members had to figure out a whole new way to operate. Saban left deep roots in that football complex and there’s no overselling just how different the day-to-day operation is under DeBoer.

Not necessarily worse.

Just different.

And that generally takes at least a year to reseed and replant a field so tangled in perennials.

Now, DeBoer appears to have his coaching staff back to a comfort zone that made him so effective at Washington.

It feels less like he’s trying to plug holes and keep the ship afloat now and more like time to drop the sails and find a tailwind.

With all that said, DeBoer’s got the benefit of a roster core that still bears some Saban branding.

All three players they brought to Atlanta for last week’s SEC media days played for Saban.

That’s not shocking since veteran players tend to get those slots but the transfer era brought a handful of players who’ve never played a down in their team’s jersey to last week’s media circus.

Each of those three veterans — OL Kadyn Proctor, LB Deontae Lawson and DL Tim Keenan — wasn’t backing away from the pressure of keeping the flame lit as they carry that metaphorical torch into the second year of this transition.

“It’s always a pride thing,” said Keenan, now in his fifth year at Alabama, “People are going to say what they’re going to say, but when you come behind Coach Saban, there’s a big responsibility. And Coach DeBoer has done nothing but an amazing job.

“Of course you’re going to have some rebuilding and learning some new things — learning a whole new system, you’re going to have some ups and downs but Coach DeBoer has done a wonderful job getting us where we need to be.”

That’s at least the way things appear as Year 2 begins, but obviously, that can only be judged when the talking ends and the play begins.

Only then can the real drafts of history be penned.

But where others have failed in the pursuit of following legends, DeBoer has an opportunity to break the cycle.

The talent is there.

So is the stability.

Instead of playing defense and trying to fit old pegs into new holes, DeBoer and Co. have everything in place to go hunting.

Now he just needs to do it.

Because the judgment of history isn’t patient when the pieces are in place.