Former Alabama DB says having Nick Saban around could be stifling Kalen DeBoer

George Teague, who played his college football at the University of Alabama, feels Nick Saban’s proximity to the program could be stifling Kalen DeBoer.

Saban has continued to get paid by the university for his advisory role since retiring from college football. He remains connected to Alabama’s athletic program with an office on campus. Teague was a guest on the “Paul Finebaum Show,” and he explained why he felt Saban’s proximity to the program could be impacting DeBoer.

“I’ll give you the best example I can give you,” Teague said. “I’m only saying this because I lived it from Nick Saban’s standpoint a little bit. Not that I’m Nick Saban, but when I took a job one time, I became the athletic director at a school and there was a head football coach there, and I’d already been coaching, but I wasn’t the coach anymore. This guy had a hard time being who he was and trying to coach the way he was just because I was in the building and as much as I tried to talk to him about, ‘hey, man, go be you, go do your thing, go out there.’ He had a hard time remaining who he was, so much so that he ultimately left, not because I fired him or something. I think it’s hard when you have people over your shoulder, particularly when you got an icon or someone back there. He’s talking to your players still. Again, this isn’t bad stuff. It’s just I can’t imagine me trying to set my own standard in the weight room, on the field, on this, and maybe a player’s calling coach, ‘hey man, I really don’t like this, what’s going on, or I really miss you, coach,’ all these other kinds of things. And DeBoer, being a nice coach, said, ‘Hey man, I just need him to be around. I’m glad he’s here. How many times did he probably come on your show and say, man, I’m glad Saban is here when he might not have been, honestly. So it just makes it hard when you got someone over you like that when you’re trying to fill their shoes.”

DeBoer is preparing his team for his third season in Tuscaloosa. The Tide is coming off a season where it made the College Football Playoff and played in the SEC Championship.