Alabama Hires Washington’s Kalen DeBoer As New Head Coach

The Crimson Tide’s hiring of DeBoer completes a rapid ascent up college football’s coaching ranks for the 49-year-old.

Alabama officially hired Washington’s Kalen DeBoer as the program’s next head football coach, the university announced in a statement Friday.

“We are excited to welcome Kalen and Nicole DeBoer, and their daughters, Alexis and Avery, to The University of Alabama," Crimson Tide athletic director Greg Byrne said in a statement. "Coach DeBoer has proven he is a winner and has done an incredible job as a head coach at each of his stops. 

“One of the things I told our team the other day is we are going to get someone who is not only a great coach with the Xs and Os, but also someone who cares about his players and someone I'd want my sons to play for, just like I would have wanted them to play for Coach Saban. We got that in Coach DeBoer.”

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DeBoer informed Washington school officials that he will be leaving Seattle for Tuscaloosa earlier Friday, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

DeBoer takes over one of the most coveted coaching jobs in the nation and will be tasked with trying to replace a legend in Nick Saban, who announced his retirement Wednesday.

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DeBoer was one of three finalists for Alabama’s vacancy, sources told SI earlier this week, joining Florida State’s Mike Norvell and Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. However, Norvell received an eight-year contract extension on Friday that will keep him in Tallahassee and pay him approximately $10 million per year. Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian were two other names rumored to be linked to Alabama, but both announced their intent to stay put.   

The hiring of DeBoer completes a meteoric rise for the 49-year-old, who began his head coaching career at the NAIA level in 2005. DeBoer led his alma mater, Sioux Falls, to a 67-3 record across five seasons, with three NAIA national championships. DeBoer later spent time as an offensive coordinator at Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and Indiana.

DeBoer returned to Fresno State for his first head coaching job at the FBS level, and went 3–3 in the COVID-shortened 2020 season before improving to 9–3 in ’21.

DeBoer showed enough in his short time with the Bulldogs to land Washington’s head coaching job in 2022. In two seasons in Seattle, he went 25–3, which included a Pac-12 title, two bowl wins (’22 Alamo and ’23 Sugar) and a national championship appearance. 

His incredible success in such a short period of time set him up to land one of the nation’s top coaching jobs. Now, Washington faces a mid-January coaching search.