Kalen DeBoer Wants Alabama to be the “Most Hated Team” in College Football

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was speaking at an event earlier this week, and the emcee hit him with a hard truth: Alabama is no longer the most hated team in college football. The Crimson Tide came second, behind the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, in the metrics used by RotoWire. Second-most-hated isn't good enough for DeBoer, who wants to see Alabama return to the mountaintop in the sport, which would likely make the Crimson Tide the most-hated team in college football.

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"We want to be the first, the most hated, and then we don't have to say or defend anything," DeBoer said with a smile.

"There's a realness to it, though. There's a way of going about it. Everyone has this quiet belief: we don't need to talk about it; we don't need to beat our chests over anything. The fanbase has the confidence and belief going forward. It's a little different in the world we're in with so many new players. We aren't the only program - all these teams have a lot of turnover, change, and new faces - so as much as it's different, you've got to try to build a program, but in the meantime, you're trying to put a team together each and every year that you can be efficient in delivering the message. Get your schemes in offensively and defensively; you've got to have a coaching staff, and that continuity and support.

"So we're coaching coaches to do things, we're coaching players because it's what they know that matters. That's what we've got to get to," DeBoer continued, "you step on the field, you know you're gonna make that catch, you know you're gonna make that block, that tackle is gonna happen. Yeah, everyone's human, but that high level of success when we walk into a stadium, you can almost feel it. You may not be there, you might not be present, but you can almost feel the Crimson Tide are doing the Walk of Champions right now, and you're 80 miles away on your way to the game, or you're tailgating five blocks down the road.

"That's the way I've felt it before. You come into town, and people don't see you, but they can feel you, and that's the way I want it to be."

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.