Alabama football is starting everything over under Kalen DeBoer.
Nick Saban elevated the Crimson Tide’s program in 17 years to have specific expectations.
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He pushed the Tide to win conference championships, national championships, and be a relentless football team. DeBoer has the same aspirations, but things begin new with him understanding who are the best players at each position. Alabama is going to have competition because the cream at each spot needs to rise. The issues that plagued the Tide in the last three seasons from winning a national title is not having the best player at each role. DeBoer does not have ties of loyalty to certain players, so the individuals that earn starting positions have to prove themselves. He expressed this concept on Monday after spring practice.
“Every year is different,” DeBoer said on the benchmarks he wants Alabama to hit.
“You have to start over from scratch. If this was year two for me here, I would still go back to the bare bones of setting down expectations because we are around 30 new players that are in the program. You have to talk about what is the tempo that we are operating with practice. You have to go back to those detailed conversations and lay out the expectations in a way where everyone is on the same page because there are guys who took their first snaps as a college football player here. I understand that there are some guys that did some things during the bowl season as early enrollees, but we would start over from scratch. We would be intentional on our communication as coaches. We would be intentional on what we are asking the new leaders that are having to step up. They may have been leaders before, but there is a new dynamic that takes place because there are guys that are gone that were integral pieces to not just the production but to the leadership of the team last year. It all starts over, whether it’s first year, second year, or third year, it all starts over.”
It is about to exciting to see which players prove themselves to DeBoer and his staff to be starters.
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Stephen M. Smith is the senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
