Twenty months into his “retirement” after 17 years as Alabama‘s head football coach, Nick Saban still has an office inside Bryant-Denny Stadium and continues to serve the program in an advisory role. It was in that position that 73-year-old Saban got a first-hand look at this year’s Crimson Tide. And during a discussion on ESPN’s […]
Twenty months into his “retirement” after 17 years as Alabama‘s head football coach, Nick Saban still has an office inside Bryant-Denny Stadium and continues to serve the program in an advisory role. It was in that position that 73-year-old Saban got a first-hand look at this year’s Crimson Tide.
And during a discussion on ESPN’s College GameDay ahead of No. 8 Alabama’s season-opener at Florida State, Saban relayed his perception of “a different culture” developing within the program ahead of its second season under his successor, Kalen DeBoer. The only problem? Saturday’s 31-17 season-opening loss at unranked Florida State (1-0) showed not much has really changed in Tuscaloosa after the Tide once again fell flat on the road, dropping its fifth game and third straight away from home dating back to last season.
While many Alabama (0-1) fans are already calling for DeBoer’s job, ESPN and SEC Network firebrand Paul Finebaum believes at least some of the vitriol should be directed at DeBoer’s predecessor, seven-time national championship-winning head coach Nick Saban.
“Blame us, blame anyone you want, blame Greg McElroy, but how about Nick Saban on College GameDay talking about ‘I went down there a couple of times to practices and I saw the difference in culture,’” Finebaum said Sunday on The Matt Barrie Show podcast. “Now I realize Nick Saban is in a prickly position here, but I wondered as I heard him say that, how do you change a culture after one season? I’ve never seen that before. Usually the culture is developed in the first day that a coach takes over. And a lot of coaches will sacrifice the first season to make sure the culture is correct. That didn’t happen.”
What did happen Saturday was more of the same undisciplined play and uncharacteristic mistakes that plagued Alabama much of last season under DeBoer, who dropped to just 9-5 in 14 games in Tuscaloosa. That includes going just 1-3 over the last four games following an embarrassing Novemeber road loss at Oklahoma and dropping the ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Michigan on New Year’s Eve last year.
And with SEC play beginning a month from now at No. 5 Georgia (1-0), the road doesn’t get any easier as the seat under DeBoer begins to get a little toasty.
“My forecasting skills right now are equal to Jim Cramer on Wall Street, we’d all go broke if we listened to the comments. But the point is, what I can read are the tea leaves of Kalen DeBoer’s future. And they’re rather murky at the moment.,” Finebaum continued. “When you start to think about Georgia at the end of September, road trips to Missouri and South Carolina, home games against LSU, Tennessee and Oklahoma, and a road game at the end of the year at Auburn. Who would’ve thought in the state of Alabama, before we even get to Sept. 1st that Hugh Freeze is off the hot seat and Kalen DeBoer is on the hot seat?”
Category: General Sports
