TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Kalen DeBoer’s plane hadn’t even landed in Tuscaloosa before he reached out to Alabama’s most important recruit.
It was a Friday night in January after DeBoer’s whirlwind courtship to become the successor to Nick Saban, a seven-time national champion and relentless recruiter. DeBoer was mid-air when he called coveted wide receiver Ryan Williams, who had de-committed from the Crimson Tide after Saban’s retirement.
Twelve days after that call, Williams re-committed to Alabama, where he figures to make an immediate impact as a freshman.
It didn’t hurt that Jeff Kelly and Williams — his star player, a top-five prospect nationally — were watching together as DeBoer’s high-powered Washington offense outlasted Texas in the College Football Playoff when two Huskies’ receivers topped 120 yards.
“I really thought Ryan would go elsewhere,” recalled Kelly, Williams’ coach at Saraland High School in suburban Mobile. “He took a couple of official visits and then he went up and spent the weekend (in Tuscaloosa). He really came back with just a great confidence and a feel for a guy that he could go in and play for.
“When he got back from that visit, I think he knew that was the place for him. It felt like home.”
Saban was businesslike and a larger-than-life figure when he walked into high schools and recruits’ living rooms, drawing attention and top prospects like a magnet.
DeBoer is more low-key, affable and quietly confident. He shows no signs of feeling the pressure that comes with replacing a coach who won seven national championships (including one at LSU) with deep, talented teams year in, year out.
“He’s just one of the guys. He is pleasant,” Mark Freeman, coach at Thompson High School in suburban Birmingham, said of DeBoer. “Coach has a lot on him. I think he does a great job of hiding his stress points and some of the difficulties he has with the job. He hides it.”
Saban built his program on the recruiting trail, piling up blue-chip prospects and future high NFL draft picks from Julio Jones to Tua Tagovailoa to Bryce Young, the Tide’s fourth Heisman Trophy winner under Saban and ever.
A fiercely intense and sometimes scowling force on the sidelines, Saban was as effective as any coach in living rooms and high schools throughout the Southeast and beyond.
“When coach Saban shows up at your campus, it’s kind of like what I would imagine it was back in the day when Elvis would show up,” Kelly said. “He had such a presence and a respect and a following.”
DeBoer is still building that in ‘Bama country.
The question comes so frequently, it would have undoubtedly frustrated Saban: What’s it like to be the man who replaces The Man?
Every single time, DeBoer takes it in stride like it’s the first time he’s heard it.
“I totally get it. I understand there’s only one Coach Saban,” DeBoer said at SEC media days in July. “There will only ever be one Coach Saban. This program is special, and I guess I just take it as a great honor to be the one that gets to do everything we can to carry on the tradition.”
Maybe it’s his nature to not be phased by such things. A lesson from his coach at Sioux Falls in South Dakota, Bob Young, also hit home. DeBoer said Young told him he started as a young high school coach trying to be like his idol Vince Lombardi. He found “you just have to be who you are” and find your own path in leading a team, the Alabama coach said.
“Everyone’s different, right? We all have our ways of leading a team,” DeBoer said, who noted there are certain “non-negotiables” like discipline and commitment.
“I think a lot of those things are very similar,” DeBoer said. “They may just be done in different ways. Obviously there’s a recipe for success with what Coach Saban did that was outstanding, the best to probably ever do it. I just know there’s different ways to do things and it can all be done right, it can all be effective.”
Ron McKeevery remembers being an off-the-field staffer at Eastern Michigan sharing a two-bedroom house with then-offensive coordinator DeBoer — once an on-field opponent as players — and Ryan Grubbs.
Two bedrooms. Three residents. The higher-ranking DeBoer claimed the living room, where he wrapped himself in a blanket and slept on the floor.
“He’s one of those guys that will do stuff nine times before he asks you to do it even once,” said McKeevery, who remains with DeBoer as his special assistant. “He’s going to be the hardest-working guy in the room. He grew up on a farm in South Dakota, so he’s been a model of the intensity and hard work that’s necessary to win at a high level. But he balances that with the compassion and the humility.”
McKeevery says DeBoer is “100% still the same guy” who happily yielded the bedrooms to his colleagues.
“That’s probably the biggest thing about him, why he’s the perfect guy for the job,” McKeevery said. “He’s got the right balance of humility and reverence for a place like Alabama mixed with a quiet confidence in his abilities and his knowledge of the game.
“The bright lights of SEC football are not going to be too big for him. But he’s gonna be the same guy that I played against.”
So far, DeBoer has built a 2025 recruiting class rated No. 2 nationally, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.
His biggest coups have come outside the state, including landing Texas quarterback Keelon Russell. Rival Auburn, meanwhile, has pulled in pledges from eight of the state’s top-10 2025 recruits.
Still, DeBoer did hit the ground running. Saraland’s Kelly figures the first call from Alabama’s new coach “was probably on his plane flight” to Tuscaloosa.
Courtney Morgan, DeBoer’s general manager, said the coach hit every speaking engagement he could after he arrived. They quickly went to the state’s four biggest cities — Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville and Birmingham — and hosted socials on recruiting trips to meet as many coaches as possible.
DeBoer can’t be Saban and doesn’t try in recruiting or otherwise. “That’s like Phil Jackson walking in a house,” Morgan said of Saban.
But unlike some of his earlier coaching stops, DeBoer now runs a program where he can recruit nationally. Combine that work ethic with the Bama logo and that, Morgan says, “is when the magic happens.”
“I think with Coach DeBoer, that’s actually who he is as a person,” said Morgan, pointing to his boss’s sincerity. “That’s the No. 1 characteristic of him that jumps out for everyone who meets him is how friendly and down to earth he is.”
Another coach who made a similar long-distance move, Boise State’s Bryan Harsin, struggled to make land in-state recruits at Auburn. Freeman said he has already met DeBoer three times, three more than Harsin.
When Western Kentucky visits No. 5 Alabama on Aug. 31, the on-field comparisons to Saban will also begin, though DeBoer clearly is already carving out his own niche, his own approach.
“Coach Saban is an iconic hero, particularly in our state. And I think coach DeBoer will grow into that in some ways,” said Freeman, who is longtime friends with Tide assistant and Saban holdover Freddie Roach. “There’s never been another Coach (Bear) Bryant, in my opinion.
“I don’t think that there will be another Coach Saban down there, but that doesn’t mean Coach DeBoer won’t have his place the same way. Just different styles.”
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