Indiana had already hired Curt Cignetti by the time Nick Saban announced his retirement from coaching. Even if Cignetti had been available, hindsight is 20/20 and Alabama would have burned down if its administration had hired a coach from James Madison to replace arguably the greatest college football coach of all time.
Cignetti has been a smashing success at Indiana, and he came from Saban’s coaching tree, as did the other 3 coaches still alive in the College Football Playoff. Saban was asked by Pat McAfee on Wednesday why Alabama didn’t hire from within his tree, and Saban responded that he wasn’t sure there was a coach available who made sense at the time.
Nonetheless, Saban said Alabama needs to get pointed “in the right direction” again.
Kalen DeBoer made sense. He’d just come off a national championship appearance with Washington, the culmination of a remarkable 2-year turnaround. He was one of the hottest names in the sport.
Two years later, the luster has dulled and Alabama has taken a step back from its perch atop the sport. DeBoer’s second season ended with his team getting its teeth kicked in by Cignetti’s at the Rose Bowl.
“I do think that Kalen DeBoer is a really good coach and doing a good job here,” Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show. “This is a tough transition, especially in this environment that we live in in college football, in terms of players coming and going. I think there were like 26 players that got into the portal when I retired. That’s a lot to overcome for anybody. It would have been a lot to overcome even for one of the guys that formerly coached for me.”
"It's not bad to get in the playoffs and finish in the final eight, but not the expectation around here, which is tough to live up to sometimes." Nick Saban on Kalen DeBoer and Alabama after their loss CFP quarterfinal loss to Indiana (via @patmcafeeshow) pic.twitter.com/aluwlKtDDx
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) January 7, 2026Saban went on to say he “fully” supports athletic director Greg Byrne’s decision.
But…
“I’m hoping they get the ship going in the right direction here,” Saban said. “It’s not bad to get in the playoffs and finish in the final 8, but not the expectation around here, which is tough to live up to sometimes.”
DeBoer is 20-8 in his first 2 seasons. Saban went 19-8 in his first 2 seasons. In Year 3, Saban went undefeated and won a BCS Championship. Is DeBoer close to that? The 38-3 loss to Indiana suggests not.
Nick Saban says Kalen DeBoer hasn’t met Alabama expectation Saturday Down South.
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