Who is Kalen DeBoer? Five things to know about the new Alabama football coach, who’s taking on Wisconsin Saturday
- The University of Alabama football team comes to Camp Randall
Stadium in Madison on Saturday with a new face leading the way: Kalen DeBoer, the former Washington head coach named to replace coaching legend Nick Saban for the 2024 season.
Here’s what to know about DeBoer, who turns 50 later this month:
Kalen DeBoer has a ridiculous record of 106-12
DeBoer first took a head coaching job at his alma mater of Sioux Falls from 2005 through 2009, then became a coordinator at stops in Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and Indiana, before returning to Fresno State as head coach in 2020.
He spent only a short time in Washington, in 2022 and 2023, leading the Huskies into last year’s national-championship game. Then, this offseason, he was hired at Alabama.
In nine seasons as a head coach, he has a 104-12 record, and that doesn’t include a 2-0 start at Alabama this year. He went 25-3 during his tenure with the Huskies. In fact, he became the first Washington coach to win 11 or more games in consecutive seasons, going 11-2 in 2022 and 14-1 last year; that was good enough to win Pac-12 coach of the year in both seasons.
At Sioux Falls, his teams appeared in four NAIA championship games and won three of them.
Kalen DeBoer oversaw the development of Michael Penix Jr.
DeBoer was quarterbacks coach at Indiana in 2019, when Michael Penix Jr. burst onto the scene in his redshirt freshman season, throwing for 1,394 yards in six games, shortened by injury.
After four years in the Hoosiers program, Penix transferred to Washington for the 2022 season, where he finally enjoyed fully healthy seasons under his old quarterbacks coach, now head coach for the Huskies. He passed for 4,641 yards as a junior in 13 games with 31 touchdowns and 4,903 as a senior with 36 touchdowns, en route to becoming a top-10 draft pick by th
e Atlanta Falcons.
The, uh, other UW ranked first nationally in passing in 2022 and second in total offense, the first year of Penix’s and DeBoer’s arrival; they had ranked 114th in total offense and 73rd in passing in 2021.
Kalen DeBoer worked alongside Aaron Rodgers’ old coach
DeBoer was on the staff at Fresno State with then-head coach Jeff Tedford, who was at California when Aaron Rodgers developed into a potential No. 1 pick. DeBoer was the offensive coordinator for the Bulldogs two seasons, including a Mountain West Conference championship campaign and a second season in which the Bulldogs finished the year ranked No. 18.
DeBoer returned to the program in 2020, replacing Tedford as head coach after he stepped down for health reasons. Tedford was rehired for the 2022 season when DeBoer bounced to Washington but then stepped away because of health issues again after this past season. So, Tedford both preceded and succeeded DeBoer in Fresno.
Kalen DeBoer is a record-setting athlete in his own right
DeBoer was a two-sport start at Sioux Falls. He racked up 3,400 yards and 33 touchdowns as a wide receiver for the football team, both school records at the time, and he played on the 1996 NAIA Division II national-championship team. As a baseball player, he batted a record .520 for the Cougars in 1998 during his senior season, and his .492 career mark was also a school record, just as his 37 career home runs and .944 slugging percentage were.
How has Alabama done to start the season under Kalen DeBoer?
Opening the year at No. 5, Alabama crushed Western Kentucky on Aug. 31, 63-0, with Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe passing for three touchdowns and running for two more.
The team’s win over South Florida last week was less impressive, although the Crimson Tied scored four touchdowns in the fourth quarter for a 42-16 win that looked plenty good on paper. But South Florida was within 14-13 until the first minutes of the fourth. Milroe again ran for two touchdowns and passed for a pair.
So what’s Nick Saban up to these days?
Saban announced in January he was stepping down as head coach after six national championships in 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa.
You can still find Saban today, part of ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew for the 2024 season
