Report: Kalen DeBoer in Contract Negotiations with Alabama

The Washington head coach took the Huskies to the CFP championship game this past season.

Alabama may have its next head football coach less than 48 hours after Nick Saban's surprise retirement on Wednesday.

Washington head Kalen DeBoer is in contract negotiations Friday afternoon to become the next football coach at Alabama according to a report by ESPN. His buyout from Washington would be $12 million. 

ESPN's Pete Thamel says it would be a "stark reversal" if DeBoer does not take the Alabama job, despite attempts from Washington to up his contract to keep him in Seattle. 

Earlier in the day, Texas' Steve Sarkisian and Florida State's Mike Norvell re-affirmed their commitments to their respective schools and both received contract extensions after being rumored as names in Alabama's search. 

DeBoer has spent the past two seasons as the head coach of the Washington Huskies, most recently leading them 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.

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.

He has stops as an assistant at Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and Indiana. His first FBS head coaching job was at Fresno State, where he led the Bulldogs to a 12-6 record over two seasons. 

DeBoer parlayed that success into the head gig at Washington. He led the Huskies to a 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. 

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. 

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