Kalen DeBoer Hopeful of Carrying On Legacy of Nick Saban, Alabama Program

On January 1, 2024, Nick Saban coached his final game at Alabama in the Rose Bowl. A 27-20 loss to Michigan in overtime ended the Crimson Tide's 2023-24 season, and the Wolverines won the national title after defeating Kalen DeBoer and the Washington Huskies.

The rest is history: DeBoer was hired to take over the Alabama program on January 12, 2024, and on Thursday, the Crimson Tide will play against No. 1 Indiana in the 2026 Rose Bowl (3 p.m. CT, ESPN). The victor punches its ticket to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.

The second-year Alabama coach spoke Wednesday during a press conference about the direction of the team after Saban stepped away from coaching, specifically addressing what it takes to keep such a remarkable legacy going. That's not the easiest ask there is, not when DeBoer's predecessor won six national championships at the school and played for multiple more.

"I think the biggest thing is I have an appreciation for Coach Saban, and it was very easy for me to understand what his take was going to be on it," DeBoer said, "or how he wanted this to continue on."

This season's College Football Playoff berth was the first for DeBoer since he officially became Saban's Alabama successor. It's a vastly different set of circumstances, and a very different college football world, than when DeBoer and Washington made the four-team field in 2023. Still, the current Crimson Tide coach wants to keep building on what Saban did.

"He put all this time into this program to make it what it is. To me, the legacy continues when the program continues to grow and improve and be better, even when you're done," DeBoer said. "I think that's the way he's always been... There's a lot of players on our team that he still recruited and brought in. And he cares about them and just wants them to be successful."

Thursday's game is a major opportunity for DeBoer in the early stages of his career with Alabama, 100 years on from the program's first-ever Rose Bowl triumph. The Crimson Tide defeated Washington in that 1926 game, and now a coach with direct ties to both schools is set to vie for one of the biggest wins of his life in the prestigious contest.

"Just trying to carry on the legacy of not just Coach Saban but all the great coaches, all the great players that came here to make this place what it is," he said. "We play for that. We play for the program, to make it better for those that come after us too."

See Also: