Alabama players saw a ‘new side’ of Kalen DeBoer after fiery entrance vs. Tennessee

As the light show set the scene for Alabama football’s entrance ahead of a night game against Tennessee, the Crimson Tide’s head coach was the one who set the tone.

“Thunderstruck” echoed throughout Bryant-Denny Stadium. Kalen DeBoer, trailed by his players in crimson, began his walk toward Saban Field. With each step, his pace gradually picked up. DeBoer fiercely slammed his hands together three times as he held his laminated play sheet in his right hand. His head and neck made a small twitched to the left, something a wrestling fan may remember seeing from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin after the sound of glass breaking.

DeBoer stepped onto the grass and approached the goalpost. With the laminated sheet in his hand, he slammed it against the padding of the goalpost and let out a fiery “Let’s Go!” as flames were going off, pairing with the crimson lights to reflect a reddish orange onto his skin.

He strolled in front of his men, waiting for the perfect timing to take off running through the lane created by the Million Dollar Band.

That is the evolved version of black hoodie DeBoer, a side of the former Washington and now Alabama head coach that wideout Germie Bernard, a wideout who followed DeBoer from Washington to Alabama, is not accustomed to seeing.

“That’s definitely a new side of Coach DeBoer, and it’s good,” Bernard said “We need for him to be fired up because as players, we learn from the leader. He’s the leader, and so he has to lead by example, and he’s been doing a great job of that.”

Bernard explained what it did to him and his teammates seeing this animated side of their head coach.

“Guys are fired up,” Bernard said. “It amps us up.”

Linebacker Deontae Lawson also supports the observation made by his teammate and thousands of college football fans that DeBoer has evolved.

“That’s Coach DeBoer for you,” Deontae Lawson said. “If you haven’t seen that emotion from the outside, now you have. That’s the Coach DeBoer that we’re getting used to. He’s definitely evolving.”

This is not something that the media is creating to get clicks. There is a real flip of the switch in DeBoer’s demeanor. There may be a few coach-speak answers at press conferences, but that fiery side comes out just enough in certain moments to know that it’s there even behind the podium.

On Monday, DeBoer made the statement that the college football world has not seen the best version of this season’s Alabama football team, and that can be interrupted as a warning. If the best version of Alabama is something greater than what has been displayed on the field recently, then a championship could be on the horizon for this Crimson Tide team.

This Saturday, Alabama will have to once again defeat an opponent in a game that most would refer to as a “trap game”, but this version of DeBoer seems to be approaching games with a different energy than he did last season. The Tide will play on the road at South Carolina and look to stay undefeated in SEC play.