Jeff Allen had been around Alabama football working under Nick Saban as long as nearly anyone in the building. One of Saban’s first hires in 2007 when the former head coach took over the program, Allen was concerned when Saban stepped down in January of 2024.
“It was mass chaos for a few, couple of days,” the longtime UA head athletic trainer said Monday, during an appearance on the ‘Hey Coach” radio show on the Crimson Tide Sports Network. “Greg (Byrne) did a great job, went out, knew who he wanted, went out and got him, and got him here Friday night. But from Wednesday afternoon until Friday night… It was chaos a little bit. Players really worried, staff worried. Just, what we had know for so long was gone.”
The target of Byrne’s search to replace the man who won six national titles in Tuscaloosa was current head coach Kalen DeBoer. The former Washington head coach landed at Tuscaloosa National Airport that Friday evening, and Byrne drove him straight to the team facility, where he spoke to the assembled Crimson Tide.
Allen, who the new coach immediately retained, said he could pay DeBoer “a lot of compliments.” However, the “best compliment,” came from how he handled the scene in Mal Moore Athletic Facility, as fans and television cameras gathered outside to try and catch a glimpse of Saban’s replacement.
“You could tell, he walked in the room and immediately took charge of the room in a positive way,” Allen said. “Told them he was there to take care of them. Told them he wanted to continue everything that they had built and he just immediately kind of got them recentered. And after about a week, you could see the chaos level in our building really, really drop.
“That’s the best compliment I can pay him, because he took a locker room that obviously he didn’t recruit, and that came here to play for another coach, and he quickly, quickly showed them who he was as a man and as a football coach, and that really struck me.”
DeBoer is now in the midst of his second year of spring practice at Alabama. He and the Crimson Tide disappointed by UA standards in 2024, going 9-4 and finishing the year with a loss in the ReliaQuest Bowl to Michigan.
As Alabama looks to bounce back, Allen said the atmosphere at spring practice this year has been “a lot different.”
“Not that last spring was bad,” Allen said on the show. “But there’s a learning curve to a new staff and a new coach for everyone in the building. I don’t care who you are, what you do. We have to change how we do things for what (DeBoer) wants, and same with the players. They were learning a new offense, they were learning a new defense. Most of them had new position coaches. They clearly had a new head coach.
“So I would say that this year, the difference is everybody seems more comfortable. Sometimes in sports, we don’t like that word, comfortable. But in this situation, that’s a good thing. Our players are comfortable. They want to be here. They know they want to be here, and you can sense a different demeanor. Again, I think there wasn’t bad at all last spring, there was just a little anxiety and a little nervousness, and that’s a hard thing to overcome.”
Alabama finishes spring practice on Saturday, with an open session for A-Day at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
