Alabama fans praised him for getting five-star freshman, Ryan Williams to recommit and sign with the Crimson Tide, but Kalen DeBoer’s biggest accomplishment as head coach was keeping the Tide’s veteran in-state players.
He got names such as Malachi Moore, Deontae Lawson, Tim Kennan III, Quandarrius Robinson, Jah-Marien Latham, and Kobe Prentice to buy into his philosophy. All of these names are Alabama natives and the University of Alabama means everything to them. Moore, Robinson, and Latham were three players on the Tide’s 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship team as freshman during the Coronavirus pandemic.
They know what it takes to be a champion, and all three want that feeling again.
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Many conversations have happened with DeBoer and Alabama’s in-state players since he arrived in January.
He expressed to reporters at Southeastern Conference Media Days how the guys have prepared him for the Tide’s culture.
“I actually took notes,” DeBoer said about his first meeting with the in-state players for Alabama. “I’m still taking notes. These guys have been here longer than I have. Sometimes we use the saying ‘you don’t know what you don’t know.’ I am taking it all in. We want to do things, of course I want to do things the way I’ve done them in some aspects, but embracing what is important to this program and the traditions that have happened over many years. … But when it comes to this team, it is about the work we are doing right now. Listening to them and hearing them out, I think that’s the best thing you can do when you are coming in as a new coach. You want to meet them in the middle and we work together. They understand I want this team to be player led.”
DeBoer provides the framework, but he wants the players to have ownership of the team.
This what guys like Moore, Lawson, and Kennan want. They want to be able to operate a team that desires to win a national championship in DeBoer’s first year as head coach. Alabama starts preseason camp on Wednesday, July 31.
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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.
