Nick Saban continues to field questions about Kalen DeBoer Alabama hire

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After Alabama football’s 38-3 loss to Indiana in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl, former Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban continues to field questions about Kalen DeBoer’s credentials.

Despite leading the Crimson Tide to its first CFP win since 2021, attention during Saban’s appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” was turned to how each head coach of a CFP semifinal team — Mario Cristobal at Miami, Curt Cignetti at Indiana, Pete Golding at Ole Miss and Dan Lanning at Oregon — coached at Alabama under Saban.

McAfee questioned Saban if Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne made the right call hiring DeBoer, who had a winning track record, but never worked under Saban.

“I think if somebody was available, I’m not sure anybody was available that they could have maybe gotten to come here,” Saban said. “And I do think Kalen DeBoer is a really good coach and doing a good job here. 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 26 players that got in the portal when I retired. So that’s a lot to overcome for anybody, and it would have been a lot to overcome even for one of the guys that formerly coached for me. So I fully support Greg Byrne and what he decided to do and how he’s done it. And I’m hoping that they get the ship going in the right direction here. It’s not bad to get in the playoffs and finish in the final eight, but not the expectation around here, which is hard to live up to sometimes.”

DeBoer led Alabama to an 11-4 record, one that included a 34-24 CFP first-round road win against Oklahoma.

Alabama opens the 2026 season against East Carolina Saturday, Sept. 5.

Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Nick Saban talks Kalen DeBoer, Alabama after Indiana loss

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