{"id":199522,"date":"2025-07-11T19:17:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T19:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/199522\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T19:17:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T19:17:21","slug":"fans-are-not-gonna-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/199522\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fans are not gonna wait’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alabama<\/a>\u2018s inaugural campaign under former Washington<\/a> head coach Kalen DeBoer<\/a> was full of ups and downs. Such can be expected in the first year of a tenure.<\/p>\n

The Crimson Tide shot to a No. 1 ranking following a 42-10 drumming of Wisconsin<\/a> and an incredible 41-34 win over Georgia<\/a>, but went just 5-4 over their final nine games with losses to Vanderbilt<\/a>, No. 11 Tennessee<\/a>, Oklahoma<\/a> and Michigan<\/a>. It marked the first season that Alabama had lost three games to unranked opponents since 2007 (Nick Saban<\/a>\u2018s first season).<\/p>\n

Due to a disappointing first year and the amount of pressure being placed on him this season, former NFL wide receiver and ESPN analyst Harry Douglas<\/a> placed DeBoer on the hot seat this year. He did so on Friday morning\u2019s edition of \u201cGet Up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to Alabama and Kalen DeBoer,\u201d Douglas responded when asked about coaches on the hot seat. \u201cAnd it\u2019s hard when you have to follow a legend. You have to follow a legend like Nick Saban and you don\u2019t make the College Football Playoff in your first year. You don\u2019t play for an SEC Championship. I tell you one thing, fans are not gonna wait. They\u2019re gonna put this pressure on Coach DeBoer. He now has his offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb<\/a>, who we had at the University of Washington. Let\u2019s see if things can get better for the Alabama Crimson Tide moving forward in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finebaum says Alabama fans could turn on DeBoer<\/p>\n

Prior to the 2024 season, the Crimson Tide had lost four games in a season just six times in the 2000s (all coming within a 2000-2007 span). Although Douglas was extremely bullish on DeBoer, fellow ESPN analyst Paul FInebaum took a softer approach and applauded him for his recruiting. However, he did claim that things could turn quickly if results don\u2019t show up early.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Alabama fans] are conflicted because of what Harry said,\u201d Finebaum said. \u201cFollowing Nick Saban is impossible. It took nearly 30 years to replace Bear Bryant at Alabama. The problem is that Kalen DeBoer appears well but he blew three games last year as double-digit favorites (Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Michigan). That happened three times in about 120 games under Nick Saban. But he has done one thing really well\u2026 he\u2019s recruited at an absolutely elite level. That\u2019s happening right now for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a better quarterback this year than he did last year, so I think Alabama fans are gonna gather around him and hug him until he starts losing games. But yes, Harry, you\u2019re right, they\u2019ll turn on him very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabama\u00a0opens the season at Florida State<\/a> on August 30. The game is\u00a0set for<\/a>\u00a0a 3:30 p.m. ET kick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alabama\u2018s inaugural campaign under former Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer was full of ups and downs. Such can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,11182,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-199522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kalen-deboer-93-milbank-01","10":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114836212643586202","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}