Alabama’s football team is going through big changes. They have a new coach, Kalen DeBoer, who came from Washington. He started strong by beating Georgia, which was a big deal.
But then things got tricky.
Alabama lost to Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Fans are getting worried because they’re not used to losing like this, especially since Nick Saban only had two losses in a season once before.
ESPN’s Rece Davis isn’t shocked by the challenges. He explains that everything about the program is different now than it was just ten months ago. “This transition, any transition, when you follow someone like Nick Saban was never going to be smooth,” Davis said on The Paul Finebaum Show. Imagine this: for 17 years, practice happened at 3:30 PM. Now? Morning sessions! And music during practice—unheard of before. Freshmen have their own podcasts now, whereas they couldn’t even speak publicly before. Even assistant coaches have more freedom to talk!
DeBoer wants to keep Alabama’s standards high. His past record shows he knows how to run a successful program. Before coming to Alabama, he led Washington to a national championship appearance.
Davis believes there’s nothing wrong with DeBoer’s approach; it’s just different from Saban’s style. He urges Alabama fans to be patient as DeBoer gets settled in. “There’s nothing wrong with any of that, just the entire environment has changed around,” Davis said. “Any type of transition is going to be tough, particularly tough when a standard that has been set previously is the greatest standard in the history of the sport.”
However, if Alabama loses again to Missouri on Saturday, patience might run out fast. Alabama hasn’t had three regular-season losses since 2010. Back then, Saban had just won his first national championship with them. Starting off with a 9-3 record or worse could really upset fans.
Remember folks, change takes time!