Kalen DeBoer Named New Head Coach at Alabama

Milbank native Kalen DeBoer has been named the new head coach for Alabama. University officials announced the decision today. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you might not know that DeBoer has most recently been the head coach of the University of Washington Huskies. This past season, he guided them to an undefeated regular season, a Pac 12 Championship, and helped them to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship. The Huskies lost the title game, but DeBoer’s stellar success after taking over at UW helped rocket him into the limelight.

DeBoer, 49, will have big shoes to fill in Tuscaloosa. Coach Nick Saban, 72, who retired on Wednesday leaves the Crimson Tide with six national championships, nine SEC titles, and a 206-29 record. If you do the math, that’s an average over 87 percent!

DeBoer, however, also brings an impressive record with him, although his career is much shorter. Overall he stands at 104 and 12. During his two seasons with the Huskies he went 25-3. Back in 2005-2009, when he served as the head coach at the University of Sioux Falls (NAIA), the Cougars went 67-3 and had three undefeated seasons. 

Sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel, “Washington offered DeBoer a new contract that would have made him one of the 10 highest-paid coaches in the FBS and more than double his annual salary of $4.2 million, but DeBoer turned it down.”

Head coach at Alabama is one of the most coveted positions in college football and DeBoer called it “the chance of a lifetime.” It is also one of the most highly rewarded. Deboer’s deal is rumored to be in the $10 million-per-year range. The move also includes an additional price tag of approximately $12 million that Alabama will need to pay to the Huskies in buyout money. 

ESPN plans to hold a press conference tomorrow at 1 p.m.(CT) to introduce DeBoer.