Kalen DeBoer’s session with reporters last week at SEC Media Days in Tampa was scrutinized with the intensity of a scientist glaring into a microscope, looking for the finest details to report.
In the case of the Alabama head coach who’s heading into a crucial Year 3 in Tuscaloosa, it was the local Crimson Tide and national media peppering DeBoer to get answers that would surely be dissected, word by word. Some of DeBoer’s answers gave no particular indication which way he was leaning, like when he was asked to compare and contrast Keelon Russell with Austin Mack and shed some light on where each quarterback is right now in the heated battle to be the starter.
But other answers to other questions produced some eyebrow-raising as fall camp looms. This exercise is surely an inexact science, but we’ll give it a shot anyway. So here are the 3 most important things that Kalen DeBoer said at Media Days:
1. What he said about potential impact of freshmen EJ Crowell and Cederian Morgan
Keep in mind this high-profile duo are true freshmen, and true freshmen are often hard-pressed to make too much of an impact right away, especially at a place like Alabama. But in his podium presser, Kalen DeBoer didn’t brush off the possibility — or even the likelihood — that Crowell and/or Morgan could do some special things in 2026. And don’t underestimate the significance of this, either.
DeBoer’s reply about Crowell and Morgan was in response to a question about the explosion onto the college football scene by Ryan Coleman-Williams in 2024. The reporter in Tampa was wondering if DeBoer thought Crowell and/or Morgan could do “something similar,” which is a loaded thought, considering Coleman-Williams caught 48 passes for 865 yards and 8 touchdowns during that iconic freshman season.
Yes, Crowell is a 5-star product and, yes, Morgan is a 4-star kid, so both players are ultimately expected to do big things in Tuscaloosa. They might just be Alabama’s next great running back and wide receiver. But asking for or expecting huge things from them as true freshmen is a whole different story. Apparently though, DeBoer isn’t closing the book on that potential story in 2026. In fact, he’s leaving the book wide open and maybe even inviting the intriguing possibility.
“Ryan that year as a freshman was that guy, and we’re going to need that from those guys that you mentioned. Both EJ and Cederian, I think, are guys that we’ll be looking to that could have an impact that is significant and one that’s needed to help our football team,” said DeBoer, who apparently has liked what he’s seen from the pair of freshmen this offseason.
“They put in the work. They are — they have a level of urgency, knowing there is an opportunity for them to contribute at a high level,” DeBoer added. “They have the capability as well.”
Remember those words from Media Days as you watch Crowell and Morgan this fall. We’ll see if breakout potential becomes reality.
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This one garnered some headlines in the aftermath of Media Days, because it’s Alabama and Alabama isn’t usually accused of “flying under the radar.” It’s usually just the opposite, but there was Kalen DeBoer at the podium, being asked if his team is flying under the radar and if that’s something he prefers as a head coach. DeBoer didn’t flat out deny it or even try to deflect it — he leaned into it and basically told his team to be motivated by it.
“Yeah, I understand why with a lot of new faces. And that’s OK, you know, because we got to go prove it. We do,” DeBoer said. “We got to go out and get the job done. That’s really how I feel every year. It doesn’t matter how many guys return. Last year, we returned, I think, 16 seniors and we had to go prove it. We had to do some things, not just talk it.”
DeBoer all but called out the 2026 team to go prove the naysayers, the haters, wrong.
“And so, this team has a lot of new faces. … So, until we prove it, we understand there will be doubt, because those expectations as we talked about are extremely high in the program,” DeBoer said.
The SEC preseason media poll that was revealed 2 days after DeBoer took the podium simply backed up that, yes, Alabama might just be flying under the radar and that the Crimson Tide have plenty of doubters. That media poll predicted that Bama would finish 6th in the SEC. Sixth? Alabama? The Tide also managed a measly 3 first-place votes in the poll. Three? Alabama?
That’s right. Welcome to the new reality for Alabama football in 2026. This isn’t your Nick Saban-led Crimson Tide program. These are different times, and DeBoer seems to get that pretty well. Now it’s up to his team to embrace the doubt and the pressure to prove those doubters wrong.
3. What he said about his time at Alabama being defined by winning a national title
This answer got a lot of attention because of what Kalen DeBoer didn’t say. DeBoer enters Year 3 at Alabama, which just happens to be the same year that Nick Saban won his first of 6 national championships in Tuscaloosa. You think DeBoer has heard about that one a time or 2 this offseason?
Well, he was asked the inevitable “championship” question at Media Days, and, no, DeBoer didn’t take the bait and respond by saying he absolutely had to win a national title at Alabama in order to be defined the correct way. Instead, he flipped it all around on the reporter in that moment and took the question in a whole different direction.
“I certainly know that’s an important part of what’s happened in the program, so wouldn’t doubt if that’s the case. I’m not focused on that,” DeBoer said. “I’m focused on just helping our program be the best and trying to bring out the best and raise the level of everyone around me, from coaching staff to our players, trying to maximize what we’re capable of every single day.”
DeBoer didn’t dismiss the key question totally. He actually acknowledged that he could very well be defined when it’s all said and done by whether or not he wins that elusive national championship, like all the ones that Saban fed to a ravenous fan base. But DeBoer also chose his own particular path in that answer, telling the reporter, the assembled media, Alabama fans and the college football world that he’s not going to dwell on a national title that may or may not be won defining his years in Tuscaloosa.
It was a most interesting answer that probably wasn’t too popular with the legions of DeBoer doubters. But it was uniquely DeBoer, who wasn’t about to give in to the popular narrative that he might just be coaching for his job this fall. DeBoer knows he’s not Saban, because who really is?
With that absolute reality, DeBoer departed the Media Days frenzy and will soon enter another frenzy when Sept. 5 arrives. It’ll be the season opener against East Carolina, and it’ll be followed by a whole new set of tough questions. Such is life following a legend at Alabama.
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