DeBoer Reveals Biggest Lesson After Year 1

Year one at any new program is bound to come with learning curves. For Kalen DeBoer in his first year at Alabama, it was more of a learning cliff, with DeBoer arriving in Tuscaloosa late in the coaching cycle last season.

Get our free mobile app

DeBoer had very little of the Tide's previous staff returning as well (some not due to his decision), as Alabama only returned two coaches, Robert Gillespie and Freddie Roach, from the staff that won the SEC in 2023. Both coaches remain on Alabama's staff.

"Continuity always makes things just a little bit easier to kind of work through," DeBoer told Christian Miller in an exclusive radio interview on Tuesday. DeBoer also gave credit to Coach Saban's recruiting, saying he took over a "very talented" team, although the Tide was inexperienced at some positions, namely the secondary.

The Tide returns veterans all along the roster in 2025, and for DeBoer, that's a big point of emphasis as Alabama tries to improve from a 9-4 record last season.

"Just understand what the expectations are," DeBoer continued. "When you have the experiences together like we had, it makes it more - it hits you a little different when you go through the tough times, especially, because those are the ones you're learning from. We've had a great offseason just dissecting everything from the good, the bad, and ugly - what we had come our way and how we've got to be better, especially in those critical moments to win the one-score games, and we had three of those last year.

"Excited about the way the guys have been coachable. They're eager to learn, they're hungry for success. It shows through action. That's really been what they've done. Very little talk. Just all action. That's really been their focus consistently all summer and all offseason."

So what was the biggest lesson DeBoer learned from his 9-4 debut season at Alabama?

"I think there's a mindset you're trying to instill," DeBoer said. "I think everything always goes back to reps, right? You get better with what you do with reps, I get better with what I do with reps. Then it's reps in a setting that you understand, right? The combination of all those things coming together. Reps together, because it doesn't matter what I know. It matters what our guys know. It doesn't matter if our coordinators have an opponent dialed up. It matters that our players understand what those opponents do.

"It's reps together. It's situations. It's experiences that we share. It's all of that. I don't know if I'm answering that if it's something that you learned, but it's just something that you know is part of a process. It's part of - and I hate to say it - there's sometimes that growing pains that come along with it because those reps aren't dialed in. They haven't had as many banked reps to where you're completely dialed in, and you fall just short. It might be as simple as a third or fourth down conversion or a missed assignment. The more reps you have, the more locked in you are."

DeBoer also talked about having guys get another year in the offensive system, such as competing quarterbacks Ty Simpson and Austin Mack, as well as sophomore wide receiver Ryan Williams. It doesn't just apply to players who are young or haven't seen the field yet, but also guys like Parker Brailsford and Germie Bernard as well.

"Yeah, he knew the offense, but he's got to get it communicated and the calls and the trust up and down from the left tackle to the right tackle, they've all got to be on the same page," DeBoer said. "A lot of growth offensively.

"A lot of different pieces there when it goes from Game 1 to Game 2, Year 1 to Year 2," he said."There needs to be progress. There needs to be depth to what we have in our culture and just how we operate. That just comes, again, through the experiences we share."

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_.