Alabama Can’t Fire Kalen DeBoer Due to One Disastrous Reason

The Alabama Crimson Tide suffered yet another crushing defeat in the Kaleb DeBoer era during their season opener, falling to the Florida State Seminoles by a score of 31-17.

Florida State bludgeoned Alabama for 230 yards on the ground and averaging 6.1 yards per play in the affair, further placing DeBoer’s relationship with the Tuscaloosa faithful on ice.

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The Crimson Tide have gone just 9-5 since DeBoer took over as head coach last season, with four of its last five losses to Power 4 opponents coming at the hands of unranked teams. That is a polar opposite from what we saw during Nick Saban’s illustrious run at Alabama, and it has man wanting to run DeBoer out of town.

Here is the problem, though: the Crimson Tide couldn’t fire DeBoer midseason even if they wanted to. Why? Manny Navarro of The Athletic lays it out.

“Since an impressive road win over Georgia propelled them to the No. 1 spot in the AP poll last October, Alabama is 4-5 in its last nine games against Power 4 opponents, with four of the losses coming to unranked teams. That’s a fireable offense at a program with as rich of a history as Alabama,” Navarro wrote. “But DeBoer’s buyout is $70 million if he’s fired before the end of the season. Alabama doesn’t have oil money like Texas A&M to pay him to go away, as Paul Finebaum put it Monday on ESPN.”

Yeah. Alabama definitely isn’t paying DeBoer $70 million just to get out of town, so Crimson Tide fans will simply need to hope that DeBoer turns it around in the coming weeks.

DeBoer is under immense pressure at Alabama. Not only is he attempting to fill Saban’s shoes, but he is also heading one of the most prestigious programs in the history of college football. There isn’t much margin for error in Tuscaloosa, and DeBoer is finding that out the hard way.

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The 50-year-old actually had a very impressive run at Washington, leading the Huskies all the way to the National Championship Game during the 2023-24 campaign. But coaching at Washington isn’t quite the same as coaching at Alabama.

We’ll see if the Crimson Tide can recover when they host UL Monroe this Saturday. Oh, and Alabama still has five ranked opponents currently remaining on their scheduled, by the way.

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