Alabama dragged itself to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, faults, failures and feeble running game be damned, and Kalen DeBoer was part of it all.
He had a hand in the successes, and he played a part in the shortcomings. And because he’s not Nick Saban and because he happens to be following the legendary Alabama head coach, DeBoer remains a seriously polarizing figure in Tuscaloosa as he enters Year 3.
That forgettable 4-loss first year was followed last season by an SEC title game berth that produced a lopsided loss to a hated rival and a Playoff berth that ultimately produced another lopsided loss to the eventual national champion. This is why a sizable portion of Bama’s demanding fan base still needs convincing that DeBoer is The Guy, that he was the right choice to succeed Saban and that he could succeed at Saban’s level.
Those Tide fans and followers don’t want to hear that Alabama was 3 wins from a national championship last season because it just didn’t feel that way, did it? Bama was fortunate just to squeeze into the Playoff after the Atlanta meltdown against Georgia, and when Indiana throttled the Tide 38-3 in the quarterfinals, college football’s biggest prize, the one Saban captured 6 times in T-Town, felt really far away.
That’s why DeBoer has a ton to prove in 2026, starting in spring football right on through the fall. A lot of people who love this proud program are demanding a lot of things from DeBoer in Year 3, but we’ll break down the 5 biggest things DeBoer must do this season to win Alabama fans’ trust:
1. Return that toughness label to a program built on it
There were bound to be billions of comments from the peanut gallery that pours over every minute of Alabama football from August to December. In this case, Bama had made it to January again, barely. The Tide barely made the Playoff despite having 3 losses and then they barely made it into January, playing and losing badly to Indiana on New Year’s Day. The 35-point blowout was horrible enough on the surface, if you didn’t bother to watch a second, but how it looked provided enough red flags to match all that Hoosier red at the Rose Bowl.
Why? Well, there were a slew of reasons. But we go back to all those angry comments in the Alabama football social media universe, and there was one in particular that hit home. To paraphrase, it questioned Bama’s toughness as a football team and said, in no uncertain terms, that Kalen DeBoer had turned Alabama into a Pac-12 program. With all due respect to the original incarnation of Pac-12 football, with its rich history and proud programs of the past, it wasn’t a compliment. It was insinuating that the Crimson Tide, known forever for bludgeoning teams into oblivion, had gone soft, unable to outmuscle Indiana.
It wasn’t just some spoiled fans spouting off about Bama being soft. The media had grabbed hold of the burgeoning narrative that boiled over when the Tide tipped over while masquerading as an actual national championship contender as 1 of the final 8 teams standing. But the touchy “soft question” was also raised at the beginning of the 2025 season, way back on that last Saturday in August, when Alabama was bullied in the trenches by a Florida State team that ended up winning 5 games all year.
And you know who called out the Tide after that stunning and humbling Week 1 loss? It was legendary Tide quarterback AJ McCarron, who saw what winning looked like up close during his time in Tuscaloosa and, more importantly, saw what dominance up front on both sides of the ball looked like. He had biting words after Bama was gashed for 230 yards rushing by the Seminoles, and the problem to start the season came full circle like a boomerang on New Year’s Day, when Indiana bulldozed Bama for 215 yards rushing while the Tide could only manage 23 yards on the ground.
It’s those striking numbers and those strong words from those who follow, care about and write about Alabama that need to be processed and treated as motivation for the 2026 season. DeBoer took over a proud, illustrious program in 2024 that was known for winning and known for toughness, and he needs to put the latter back into the Alabama brand this fall. The peanut gallery will be watching.
2. Revive the running game that fell apart last year
This one is purposely placed below the toughness question because being able to run the football and enforce your will on the opponent has everything to do with toughness. Using that theory alone, Alabama was not nearly tough enough in 2025. Because for whatever reason — Jam Miller’s incessant injuries, nobody being able to step up behind him, the dependance on Ty Simpson and the passing game — the Crimson Tide running game was mostly nonexistent for the majority of Kalen DeBoer’s 2nd season.
It was a frankly a miracle that Alabama got as far as it did last season, within 3 victories of a national title, with such a feeble ground attack. When your leading rusher, Miller, manages just over 500 yards (504) for an entire season, it means you failed miserably to muster any kind of consistent running game. Yes, Miller fought through injuries all season, including a dislocated collarbone suffered during fall camp that kept him out until Week 5, so his final numbers could’ve been a lot better. But he only averaged 3.9 yards per carry when he was out there, and he only found the end zone 3 times.
Daniel Hill, Kevin Riley and AK Dear all did their best to pitch in as young players in the program in 2025, but they couldn’t save the Tide running game from turning the Bama offense into a 1-dimensional unit led by Simpson. Alabama averaged a miserable 3.4 yards per carry as a team last season. The Tide also averaged 104.1 yards rushing per game, which according to AL.com’s Michael Casagrande was the lowest in program history, since the statistic started being tracked in 1946. That’s 80 years worth of Alabama football, with a slew of standout running backs featured.
Not last season. Not even close. There is hope for much better in 2026, with Hill, Riley and Dear all returning with experience under their belt. Maybe 1 of them, or all 3 of them, blossoms this fall and gives that dormant running game life? Richard Young could’ve possibly helped, but he transferred to Colorado, and Hollywood Smothers could’ve really helped, but after committing to Alabama, the former NC State star flipped his commitment to SEC rival Texas. The Smothers dream faded quickly.
Then there is 5-star prize Ezavier Crowell, the in-state phenom from Jackson who’s already proven himself to be giving, buying his mother a new car for Valentine’s Day with his NIL money. Maybe Crowell can explode as a true freshman and give another gift to DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb? But despite his obvious monster talent, Crowell can’t be expected to suddenly reignite that running game in his first season of college football.
However it has to happen, it has to happen for DeBoer in 2026. Alabama can’t expect to slip into the Playoff again, much less compete for an SEC title again, with no running game.
Will Alabama make it to the Playoff again next season? Here are the Kalshi probabilities involving some of the nation’s top teams:
Prediction Markets College Football Playoff Qualifiers 2026 Learn more about Prediction Markets Kalshi Oregon 80% Ohio St. 73% Georgia 72% Texas Tech 67% Notre Dame 63% Indiana 60% Miami (FL) 60% Texas 54% LSU 51% Ole Miss 51% Predict3. Pick the right quarterback to replace Ty Simpson
Simpson didn’t totally plant the dagger by transferring to another college football powerhouse or, worse, a bitter SEC rival. Boy did he have chances though, with those insane offers from other schools who refused to accept that Simpson was going pro. Well, he is, and the Tide fan base should wish him well after his 1 and only season as the starting quarterback. Simpson wasn’t perfect, but he was really good at times and even a Heisman Trophy candidate at other times, and his departure for the NFL Draft leaves a huge void for Kalen DeBoer to fill.
With all due respect to true freshman imports Jett Thomalla and Tayden Kaawa, their potential days and nights as Alabama’s starting signal caller are likely well down the road. That leaves the 2 guys who backed up Simpson in 2025, redshirt junior Austin Mack and redshirt freshman Keelon Russell, to wage a battle for the starting job that could wind through the spring, summer and right into fall camp. They threw a combined 47 passes last season while sitting behind Simpson, with Mack throwing for 228 yards while Russell added 143.
Both of them tossed 2 touchdown passes and neither was intercepted. Neither had any real relevant moments to recount from their season behind Simpson either, which only makes their impending duel that much more of a mystery — and will likely make DeBoer’s job of picking the winner that much harder. There’s always the chance that either Mack or Russell runs away with this thing as the offseason progresses, but that’s wishful thinking, and even if that happens there’s no guarantee the guy who wins the job will win enough when the games count.
But to get back to the Playoff and stay a little longer this time, DeBoer needs the right guy this offseason to be the right guy this fall.
4. Show he and Ryan Grubb can recreate their magic in T-Town
Grubb has followed Kalen DeBoer around the country for most of the past 2 decades, and the duo has done a lot of great things at a lot of different places. They almost won a national championship together at Washington in 2023, getting the Huskies all the way to the title game before losing to Michigan. When Grubb joined DeBoer yet again last season in Tuscaloosa, the same championship-level expectations were in place, and even though Bama made the Playoff that DeBoer-Grubb magic didn’t quite materialize.
He helped mold Ty Simpson into a Heisman contender for most of the season, and Grubb no doubt played a role in the emergence of wide receivers Germie Bernard and Isaiah Horton. But the running game was largely nonexistent, and Ryan Williams fizzled as a sophomore after flourishing as a freshman, which was mystifying and frustrating.
The offense faded late in the season, too, which helped result in a home loss to Oklahoma and a blowout loss to Georgia in the SEC title game. Even in that first-round Playoff triumph at Oklahoma, the Tide only managed 260 total yards and 12 first downs. Then came the miserable offensive performance against Indiana (193 total yards, 11 first downs) that short-circuited Bama’s season and created question marks for the DeBoer-Grubb tag team going into their second season together in T-Town.
DeBoer needs their marriage to produce maximum results, like it has so often everywhere else.
5. Do what Nick Saban did in his Year 3 — or at least come close
Some would argue that Kalen DeBoer did come close to doing what Saban did in his 3rd season at Alabama. The 2025 Tide were 3 wins away from winning it all, as Saban did in 2009 to kick-start his dynasty in Tuscaloosa after taking over a fading program in 2007.
But plenty more would argue that Alabama was extremely fortunate just to make the Playoff last season, and when eventual national champion Indiana sent the Tide packing with a Rose Bowl rout, it revealed that Bama wasn’t nearly as close as some naive fans thought. This is as demanding a fan base as there is in college football, mostly because of what Saban just delivered, and now DeBoer has created his own expectations by making the Playoff, even if it all ended in such ugly fashion.
DeBoer needs Year 3 to go similarly, with another Playoff run and a much softer landing this time — unless he can actually pull off what Saban did 17 seasons earlier.
5 biggest things Kalen DeBoer must do in 2026 to win Alabama fans’ trust Saturday Down South.
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