Kalen DeBoer to be Alabama Football's Next Head Coach

The former Washington head coach and reigning AP Coach of the Year will be replacing Nick Saban.

Greg Byrne has found his guy. 

Kalen DeBoer will be the next head football coach at the University of Alabama according to multiple reports, stepping in to replace Nick Saban after the legendary coach announced his retirement. 

DeBoer has spent the past two seasons as the head coach of the Washington Huskies, most recently leading the Huskies to a 14-1 record, a Pac-12 Championship and the College Football Playoff championship game. 

He is the back-to-back Pac 12 Coach of the year and 2023 AP Coach of the Year after helping Washington to its second CFP appearance and No. 2 finish. 

The 49-year-old only has four years of head coaching experience at the FBS level and just two at a Power Five school. However, wherever DeBoer has gone, success has followed. 

He started his coaching career as a wide receiver coach at his alma mater, Sioux Falls, which was then an NAIA school. After a brief stop at a local high school, DeBoer took over as head coach of Sioux Falls, leading the program to a 67-3 record over five seasons and three NAIA national titles. 

DeBoer made the jump to the FCS level as the offensive coordinator for Southern Illinois from 2010-2013. He moved up to the FBS level with a stop as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Eastern Michigan from 2014-2016. 

His next job was in California as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Fresno State in 2017 and 2018. It would later become the spot where he got his first FBS head coaching job in 2020. Between the two stints at Fresno State, DeBoer spent one season as offensive coordinator at Indiana, where he first worked with Michael Penix Jr. 

DeBoer was announced as Washington's head coach in December 2021 and led the Huskies to a 25-3 record over two seasons. In 2023, he coached the Huskies to have a top-15 scoring offense at 36 points per game. After dealing with multiple season-ending injuries, DeBoer stuck with Penix at quarterback on the way to a runner-up finish for the Heisman Trophy. 

Overall, DeBoer has a 104-12 record as a head coach and 37-9 at the FBS level. He has a 2-1 bowl record and is 1-1 in the College Football Playoff. He has 10 wins over ranked opponents over the last two seasons, tied with Georgia for the most in college football. 

Some of the other coaches considered in the mix were Texas' Steve Sarkisian, Oregon's Dan Lanning and Florida State's Mike Norvell. DeBoer had a 5-0 record against Sarkisian and Lanning in his two seasons at Washington. 

DeBoer will have big shoes to fill, but Saban will still be sticking around the program and has an office already getting set up inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. 

An official introductory press conference will be announced at a later time. 

This story will be updated

See also:

Nick Saban Says There's 'No Illness' for Him or Miss Terry