ESPN analyst puts Kalen DeBoer on hot seat: 'Fans are not gonna wait'

Kalen DeBoer is just one full season into replacing college football’s most all-time accomplished head coach, but Alabama’s second-year man is already on the hot seat.

That’s according to ESPN analyst Harry Douglas, who believes the Crimson Tide’s disappointing first year under DeBoer’s leadership, combined with an impatient fan base with very high standards, could spell trouble for the coach.

“It’s hard when you have to follow a legend. You have to follow a legend like Nick Saban and you don’t make the College Football Playoff in your first year,” Douglas said on Get Up.

“You don’t play for an SEC Championship. I tell you one thing: fans are not gonna wait. They’re gonna put this pressure on DeBoer... Let’s see if things can get better for the Alabama Crimson Tide moving forward in 2025.”

Alabama didn’t exactly fold under DeBoer’s direction last season, winning 9 games, including a signature early win against No. 2 Georgia that propelled the team into the No. 1 ranking the following week.

But the Tide stumbled to a forgettable 5-4 stretch to end the season, with a shocking loss to traditional SEC punching bag Vanderbilt, at rival Tennessee, and then on the road against an unranked Oklahoma team that all but kiboshed their playoff hopes.

It all ended with another loss, against a Michigan opponent whose passing offense was virtually nonexistent all year, in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

Before last fall, Alabama lost four games in one season just six times in this century, and in 2024 it lost three games to unranked opponents for the first time since 2007, Saban’s debut season with the program.

Still, going 9-4 isn’t the worst debut for a head coach in the SEC, or anywhere, especially when it was followed by a stretch of recruiting that once again confirms Alabama as one of the major powers in the sport.

DeBoer’s first chance to change the narrative comes on the road against Florida State on Aug. 30.

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