Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: W v UAFM Tuscaloosa.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into another emergency episode of the Low Tide here on 90.7, the Capstone. Nicholas Persley, Joe shots. We're not joined today by Adam Hambray is on the road for some Alabama adapted athletics responsibilities. That's exciting.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And of course, the news breaks.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Well, that's only fitting.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Anyway, folks, it's January twelveth, it's Friday, and Alabama has a new head coach. Multiple sources are reporting that Washington's Kalyn Deborah has accepted an offer to become the next head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Obviously, Kalyn Deborah just took Washington to the national championship game, and just a few short days later, he signed up to come to Tuscaloosa. Joe, your immediate.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I'm not really surprised that they went after a guy like Deborah. I mean, this is someone who, if you look at kind of Greg Byrne, we talked about it even a little bit in the preshow kind of the way that Byrne has hired some coaches.
Really, his huge other big hire outside of this would be Nate Oates, who is kind of an unknown guy from Buffalo. And now you're going Kaylin Deborah, who I think a lot of people were looking at the Alabama coaching race and know, okay, is it going to know? Because you're probably not going to get Kirby. So is it going to be sark? Is it going to be Dan Lanning? Is it going to be Mike Norvell? And just seemed like all these guys had kind of fallen out of the Alabama job if you were looking on social media. And then I think for Greg Byrne, this was a really kind of smart decision. I mean, this is Kalen de Bor, who has a career record of 104 and twelve and then has won essentially anywhere he's gone to.
He started out in Sioux Falls in South Dakota, where I believe he played at Sioux Falls as a player. He did, yeah, he was a wide receiver there. Was there for five years, won three NAIA championships, amassed a record of 67 and three. Only had one total conference loss in his first year. And then he got hired at Fresno State in the Mountain west and Covid season he was three and three. So whatever. Then his second year is nine and three, six and two. Finishes second in the conference, and I believe they lost the conference title game that year.
And then obviously, like we've talked about it, gets hired at Washington, goes 25 and three over two seasons again, only loses two conference games, which were both in 2020. ₩2. The Alamo bowl, beat Texas in the Sugar bowl this past season and then came up short in the national championship. So this is a guy that has won anywhere that he's been. And I think obviously those numbers speak for themselves. And I guess now it's just kind of a question of whether he can keep that up in a very hyper competitive sec.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Look, for me, right yesterday I talked a lot know wanting Lane Kiffin.
It quickly became apparent that that wasn't going to be an option. Neither were several of the other coaches whose names were being thrown around. Mike Norvell, Steve Sarkeesian, both signing extensions as early as this morning. I believe a lot of guys got paid, let's just say that.
But this is a great hire for Greg Byrne and it kind of follows his methodology, I guess you would say.
What was the biggest thing that Greg Byrne had to get in a coaching hire? Well, it was to find somebody who could come in and win now, because you're not walking into a program that needs to be rebuilt. Right. This is a lot different than the Nick Saban hire. Nick Saban was coming into a program that had fallen by the wayside, that had this championship pedigree and had these expectations of excellence, but that had kind of fallen by the wayside and gotten away from tradition and that sort of thing. And when now you're trying to find somebody to follow up. Nick Saban, the greatest coach maybe ever in any sport, but you have a program that went to the College Football Playoff this year and came within a touchdown of taking down the number one team in the country who eventually won the national championship.
So you're very much in a win now mode. If you're Alabama, there is no rebuild. It's a reload, just like Nick Saban was famous for.
And I think that this is a home run higher if you're Greg Byrne, like you said, joe Deborah is a proven winner at every level he is coached at. Now we're going to get into this. He has seen a rapid ascent through the coaching ranks. I mean, this is insane when you look at know, Sioux Falls coordinator jobs, ocs at several places. Fresno State spends a year at Fresno State spends a year at Washington and now he's at Alabama. And this is a guy who only has twelve losses in his career as a head coach and a fantastic postseason record.
And everywhere he's been coach of the year awards followed, really three time NAIA coach of the year, two time PaC twelve coach of the year, two time AP Pac twelve coach of the year, the AP coach of the year this year, as well as the Walter camp coach of the year this year. So you really went out, if you're Greg Byrne, in my opinion, and you got a proven winner who can come in and make a huge impact on Alabama immediately.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And I will say this too.
This is a guy who has won, especially with his two years at Washington. I'm not super familiar with NAIA football. I don't know the roster makeup of Sioux Falls almost at all.
But this is a guy who, if you look at how many times he's won with on paper the second best team in these games, I mean, you're looking at just this year, for example, for know, you played Oregon twice, beat him twice. Oregon, if you were to go on paper, probably has a more talented team. If you were to look at recruiting and rankings and stuff like that, everyone thought Oregon was just going to steamroll them in that PA twelve championship game. They beat Texas with the uber amount of talent Texas always has.
That's kind of what I'm looking at when you look at a guy like Deborah is your idea or your thought process is he can do that with Washington and kind of the talent that he has there. Hopefully it's elevated at Alabama. Hopefully it's just coming into this, the recruiting class he would have had, had he stayed at Washington. So the 2024 recruiting class for Washington had an overall ranking of 29th. Alabama is like third on a lot of second on some area, on some websites. So you're looking at an upgrade in talent now and we'll get into this. It's now a question of whether you can keep that and rein that in. And we talked about on the last emergency show when Nick Saban retired. People probably will leave and it's his job to keep it on track. But like you said, nick, this is not a rebuilding Alabama program. This is a program that's built up and he has to come in and his responsibility is to come in and just immediately win. I mean, you're probably thinking the minimum expectations, a championship in four years at least, and maybe a couple SEC championship wins, you're at least in the playoff.
If you're going to take a four year gap, you're going to want the playoffs every four years. One of those, at least one to be a championship and maybe two SEC championships along the way. So that's kind of the expectation you're coming into.
And everything in his record has shown he's been able to do that at some of these schools. I mean, Washington was four and eight when he took over. He immediately goes eleven and two and then 14 and one to a championship. So there's no reason to think he can't do it at Alabama where he has the resources.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Look, here's the facts of the matter. When you get the head coaching job at Alabama, especially in the condition that it's in now, you're not getting the keys to a Honda. You're getting the keys to a Ferrari that is ready to hit the track as we speak. And look, I'm not going to tell you that this guy can't come in and win immediately because his head coaching record shows you that he can win immediately. Let's look back at it. So he takes the Sioux Falls job in 2005, immediately comes in. They're eleven and two and they have one conference loss and they finish second. They lost in the NAIA semifinal game the very next year, 14 and NAIA championship the year after that. He's got one loss and it was in the championship game. And the two consecutive years after that, both title games, he lost one conference game in his career at Sioux Falls. Then we go to Fresno State, shortened year in 2020, goes three and three. Okay, we'll scratch that one off. Tough year with COVID and everything. The very next season, nine and three, six and two in conference.
It goes to a bowl game.
Very exciting. Then in Washington, eleven and two in the first season, two conference losses. They win the Alamo bowl, obviously, against Steve Sarkeesian in Texas. And then the very next year, 14 and one, nine and conference. You beat Dan Lanning in Oregon twice.
Sorry. You beat Dan landing in Oregon three times over those two years, but you beat him twice in the same season. You win the PAC twelve championship.
You win the Sugar bowl against Texas and Steve Sarkeesian again, and you fall in the national championship game to the number one team in the country who beat Alabama.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: So all told, in his career he has only ever lost eight conference games.
That is insane.
Let's see, he has, sorry, three playoff or postseason losses in his career, one in the NAIA semifinal, one in the championship game, and then the loss in the national championship game, which is insane.
So for all we know, he can come straight in and win in Alabama. And it's not like he doesn't have the resources to do it. It's not like he doesn't have the backing.
I don't think that there is a better situation in the country to just come into than Alabama, especially a team like this, if you can keep a lot of the pieces together. Now, one thing that we're going to talk about as we go on here, we're going to be with you for about an hour today up until 05:00 but one thing we have to talk about is they play a very different style of football than this year's Alabama team did.
And you are talking about two coaches, Nick Saban and Kalyn de Bor, who have very different philosophies.
Nick Saban, obviously a defensive back specialist, a defensive guy at heart, and Kalen Duboer, who was a wide receiver in college and is an offensive mastermind.
It's going to be very interesting. One thing that I will say, right, do I think that Kalen de Bour was the first option?
No.
I would imagine that there were several calls made to guys like Steve Sarkeesian just to judge interest, right?
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: He's young, into his career at Texas and already shown that he can take them to the playoff. So maybe he's not ready to move on quite yet.
A lot of guys got paid and they all have the same agent, which is worth noting.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Jimmy Sexton's rolling in it, right?
[00:13:28] Speaker A: Jimmy Sexton might be agent of the year already and we're twelve days into the year.
But one thing I want everybody to remember is that just last year, when Alabama was searching for an offensive coordinator who was Nick Saban's number one choice to come to Alabama, it was Kalen, Deborah's main man. I believe I'm scratching on names right now.
It's Kalen de Bor's offensive coordinator at Washington, which produced the best offense in the entire country this last season. Now, granted, it's a lot different than what was played this season, you're looking at a wildly different coaching philosophy and also not just on the football side of things. Kayla de Bour has a social media account which is first in history for.
[00:14:24] Speaker B: Alabama's football coaches to have a social.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Media account, which is pretty wild. And from everything that I can't see it going wrong, from everything that I've heard people say about Kaitlyn, Deborah, he's a very open guy with the media, so we could see something completely different here at Alabama than we've ever experienced. It is going to be interesting for sure.
We're going to head to break. When we come back, we'll still be here chatting about Kalyn, Deborah, and we're going to talk about maybe what that offense looks like next season here on 90.7, you sats production of WVUAFM 90.7, a division of student media at the University of Alabama. Support us by leaving a review rating or following us on x at WVUAFM Sports welcome back in, ladies and gentlemen, to the low tide here on 90.7, the capstone. Nicholas and Joe obviously talking about Alabama's newest head coach, Kalyn Deborah. Multiple sources are reporting that Kalyn Deborah has officially informed his team that he is taking the job in Tuscaloosa.
Obviously a massive day for the Alabama football program.
I want to talk about the contrasting styles of these two guys.
Obviously not only just the contrasting styles of the coaches, but the contrasting styles of the conferences that they play in. Obviously going from the PaC twelve to the SEC going to be a big adjustment. What do you think that Kalin Deborah brings to Alabama that maybe people aren't expecting?
[00:16:26] Speaker B: I would just say a huge emphasis on the passing game. I would liken it a little bit to what maybe Alabama fans were looking at with Sarkeesian, although Sarkeesian is a masterful, like, calling his own plays, running his own offense type of thing.
But I mean, Deborah, I'm looking at some numbers here. This was a graphic that I pulled from, I believe it was the Paul Feinbaum show. They're comparing Alabama and Washington's passing games over the last two seasons. And Washington has a higher completion percentage, higher passing yards per game, more passing touchdowns and a little higher interceptions.
It's a 70 passing touchdown to 21 interceptions. Alabama ran 60 passing touchdowns or had 60 passing touchdowns to 14 interceptions. So higher touchdown, higher picks. But the passing yards per game for Washington over the last two seasons was 356 yards, which was the most in FBS and albeit PaC twelve schedule. And you got to play USC in there, so that's like an easy 500 yard day for a quarterback. So not quite the SEC schedule, but I think it just kind of shows that he is committed to throwing the ball down the field, getting vertical, getting everyone in the passing game. I could imagine a guy like Justice Haynes out of the backfield getting a lot of touches, not necessarily as a running back, but as a swing option or a screen pass or getting him in kind of routes that we saw with Naji Harris, where in 2020 Mac Jones could kind of dump it off into open space and Naji Harris doesn't get touched for five, six yards. I could see Haynes having a very similar role to that with Deborah behind the helm. So I think just my expectations know it's probably not going to be as fluid as it was at Washington, just with the competition that you're going to have to play, but you're looking at a lot of passing attempts, a lot of passing yards. It's going to be probably a very fun offense to watch regardless, for sure.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: So one thing that I talked about when we first came on the air was the fact that this is a massive change for Alabama. You're going from a defensive minded head coach to an offensive minded head coach. Obviously you're going to see this huge emphasis on the passing game. It will be very interesting to see who he's bringing with him. Okay.
In my mind, I would not be surprised if he brought his offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb, who likely will be the first person offered to step up into the Washington head coach role.
It's going to be interesting.
Now, I did also talk about last season, who did Nick Saban go after as his first target to be the Crimson Tides offensive coordinator for this season? It was Ryan Grubb. And after he turned down that job, which obviously was a good decision, he turned Washington into the number one offense in the country that has multiple wide receivers who turned themselves into potential first round guys.
And a quarterback in Michael Pennix, who when he first came from Indiana, he was not viewed as a first round type talent. He wasn't really even viewed as an NFL type guy. Now, he may be one of the first quarterbacks off the board in the upcoming draft, but it's going to be very interesting to see. Does Ryan Grubb come with Kalen Dubore? And obviously that would mean that Tommy Reese is out.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Yeah, Tommy Reese was the only guy in the coaching room for a couple days.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: I think. I think. But that can also be a plus, right? You got a new head coach coming in and you pretty much have a clean slate. As far as the coaches know, obviously no defensive coordinator and potentially some flexibility with the offensive coordinator position.
But I think it's exciting because Kalyn Duboir knows how to build a great offense. He's a genius on the x's and o's because like you mentioned, there are several times where he has won with the second best team on the field. Both of the times that they played Oregon this season, Oregon was the favorites and it felt like, hey, Oregon is more talented, they should win these games. But did they? No, they didn't. They lost both of those games. And when it mattered the most, same thing happened in the PaC twelve championship game. And they went to the College Football playoff over Oregon, who a lot of people saw as one of the best teams in the country, myself included.
Also, something interesting that you have to mention, Washington had the best offensive line in the country this year.
That's another thing. That's something that Alabama fans were frustrated with this past season. Especially in the Michigan game. So you could potentially see a lot of improvement in that department.
I want to ask this right, if you're Kaylin Dubois, and obviously we're probably going to find this out tomorrow would probably be when his introductory press conference will be. We'll have all your coverage here on 90.7, the capstone and on our website, gameday ua.edu. Shameless had to get it in there.
And obviously, I'm sure that there will be many discussions, many videos from the airport arrival potentially tonight. We'll see. It's a bit of a monsoon in Tuscaloo.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: I don't know how many flights are getting in.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: But I want to ask you this, if you're Kaylin Dubois, what is your message to the locker room, to the recruits, to all these guys?
How do you keep this ship intact?
[00:22:47] Speaker B: I would say that if you're walking into a room and you have into that big Alabama room that Nick Saban gives speeches in and talks to the players, and this is your first time really at Washington, is a power five job. But at a job of this level of magnitude and especially this level of telling, I would imagine you're telling your players, the first thing that I would say is like, pump the brakes on any of these very intense decisions that you might make. I mean, we've seen the past couple of know Ryan Williams decommitted from Alabama, who's a really talented wide receiver.
Isaiah Bond announced he was transferring earlier today before they actually announced Deborah was getting hired. So I would say if I was Kaylen Dubois, to kind of keep the ship intact, I'd just kind of go into the room and this is. Who's to say that we're going to fall off? Who's to say that we can't just keep this going like you're walking in, you're Kaylin Dubois. You're walking into one of the best situations in football. We talked about it earlier where you have the number two, number three recruiting class in the country coming in into your team right now and you already have one of the best rosters in the country at your disposal right now. So this is not like you kind of compared to when Nick Saban came in and the roster was depleted and the players weren't all that great and Saban kind of had to rebuild it. You don't have to do that. So if I'm to bore, I'm telling them, listen, we don't have to go through this period of losing four or five games. We're not going to rebuild the program. The program is here, the standard is still there.
It's my job.
If I'm the coach, it's my job. And it's your job as the players to keep that standard up. And we talked about it a lot with, or we've talked about it a lot with bowl opt outs under, you know, representing the university and keeping your faith and trusting the process and playing to a standard. Every game that you go into as an Alabama football player, there's a standard that's expected to be met. And Deborah, I think his first thing is he's just got to establish that standard to a locker room that might not or might be questioning whether it's over or not.
So I guess that would just be kind of my first message to them. Obviously, I'd probably call a couple of recruits, a couple of guys and tell them to, hey, especially if you're an offensive player, you're going to get a lot of action on my team. So please do not decommit.
We talked about it over.
I think it was either pre show or during the know Julian Sands probably mean you're getting a guy who's going to have this level of passing game in his arsenal and he's getting one of the best quarterbacks in the country coming in. You already have Milro and Ty Simpson. People forget. I mean, there's probably a legitimate quarterback battle that's going to be played. I mean, last year there was a quarterback battle, but essentially after USF it was quiet. I would expect this one is going to be way more intense because Milro by all purposes might not run that style of offense or might not be able to as effectively as.
[00:26:21] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think that there would be a lot of evolution that's going to happen there. But also, I would not put it past Caleb, Deborah, to come in and try to play with what he's got this season because you're talking about a team that went to the playoff this season and was leading that game against Michigan with three minutes to go.
So this is a team that can get to that pinnacle. They've shown you that they have all the potential there and this team only got better and better and better from when they lost that game against Texas. And you're coming into a new season, you got a twelve team playoff incoming and really have the potential to go on a run.
I think that really you have a pretty easy job if you're Kayla and Dubore to get people to stay. Right. Especially for the offensive guys. Right. If you're Kayla, Deborah, you can come in and offensive, you're looking at your offense and you're saying, guys, how could you not want to stay here and play in this system? Right? It may not look exactly like, you know, in just a season, but turned several guys who did not have real NFL prospects into very high draft picks, guys who are going to be sought after in the NFL draft, wide receivers, going to get a lot of yards. What's something that we have constantly said on this show over the past season? We talked about how it seemed like Alabama doesn't have those star receivers anymore. They don't have those guys who are studs.
I think that's something that could very easily change under Kalen D'Ivore. You're probably going to see him trying to get as many of those guys as possible. Now, recruiting is a big question for him. I'd say it's probably the biggest question mark that you have besides the fact that he's new to the SEC. New SEC guy. Not that I think that that's really as big of a deal anymore, or at least not as much as people would make it seem.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Yeah, not with what I mean, the guy's twelve and two versus top 25 opponents.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's pretty good.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Like you're going to be playing top 25 opponents almost regularly in the SEC, especially now with Texas and Oklahoma coming in. So he has the experience against those big name coaches. I don't put much stake in the whole hole. He's never been in the SEC.
Honestly, if you can recruit a guy to Washington, that's harder.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: I would imagine some other things that I want to talk about is like, look, he's already got some good things working in his favor when it comes to roster, right? Just went through the early signing period and all but six of Alabama's original commitments already enrolled. Classes have started already. So these guys would have to transfer in order to leave. They would have to use their one time transfer, but then they'd have to get admitted and enroll at a new school. And that's tough. Lots of places are on different schedules, lots of crazy things. So really if you're calendar, you just have to key in on some of those big targets, big commitments that Alabama had. Like Julian Sane, who you've got to ensure he's the number one quarterback and the number three prospect in that cycle and a guy that would fit perfectly into what I would imagine an Alabama Kaylin Dubore offense looking, you know, at the same time he can look and say like, hey, look at Michael Pennix right. He was a guy who didn't even start with me.
I wasn't here for his entire career. Like I could be for yours. And look at what he's going to do and point and say like, hey, look at know when he's one of the first quarterbacks off the board in the NFL draft, you could say, well, look at that. Now, obviously everybody on the roster right now has that 30 DH transfer window that started when Nick Saban did decide to retire. Isaiah Bond, obviously already in the portal. Now, he does have the choice to stay here. Just because you enter the portal does not mean you have to go somewhere.
Uh, and another thing that should be pointed out, the players at Washington have the exact same option. So potentially you could see a number of guys from Washington, guys who were coming in in that last, who were coming back for another season. We're getting ready to make another run. Those guys could potentially follow Dubois to Alabama. So I think when you first get here, it's really going to be about keeping the roster that you have intact and adding some pieces. Now, it is going to be tough because depending on what you lose, depending on what he determines that the holes in this team are, you have to wait a little bit before the portal comes open again. It won't open until later in the spring for non graduates and you won't be able to pick anybody up. But you're inheriting a team that won an SEC title, beat Georgia, reigning back to back national champions, and who hadn't lost a game in, what was it, 27 games, 29 games in a row, and went to the college football playoff and came within three minutes of taking down the number one team in the country and the eventual national champions. So I think you're walking into a fantastic situation and your goal has got to be to keep as much as possible around. Also, one thing, Nick Saban is still around.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: Yeah, he's still.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: That's a major plus. If you're Kaylin dwar now, some people are going to Kaylin Bohr. You know, it's his show. And I'm sure that Nick Saban will stay out of the, you know, it doesn't hurt to have the greatest coach of all time in his office in Bryant Denny. And if the past couple of days had been any sign, Nick Saban is going to keep showing up for work because the guy will not show up for work.
I believe I saw a tweet that he was here at his normal time again today, even though they have cleared out his office.
So constantly working, even in retirement, yeah.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: And the thing with keeping Saban here is that I do hear that the point of Kaylin Dubore should have full reins over his program, and I'm sure he will.
But the stories of Nick Saban and Kalen, Deborah, they do have some similarities. I mean, obviously both of these guys, if you go back to when Nick Saban first entered the SEC at LSU, he had never touched SEC football before. He came from Michigan State and Toledo and schools up north and then came down to the SEC, won the title with LSU, went to the, went to the NFL, and probably some other stops I'm missing. I forgot.
But Deborah is very similar that he's new to the SEC country and Nick Saban knows what that's like. And this is arguably the greatest guy to learn. Not arguably, it is the greatest guy to learn from in terms of getting adapted to SEC, just culture and lifestyle and how to run an SEC level of program. So it would be interesting to see, I guess, just kind of how it all works out. I saw that Washington cornerback Jabbar Muhammad entered the transfer. I mean, he's one of the best corners in the country.
I would imagine a name pretty high on his transfer list will be Alabama because he essentially announced it after it was rumored that Deborah was going to go to Alabama.
So that's a name to look out for. He could have a really good season here. And that's kind of the other thing, too. I mean, you talked about the portal window being open for Washington players. Just how many of them want to come here? And then who from the portal would even play?
How many of these guys will play? Because Deborah is not going to just bring over all 75 scholarship guys from Washington and replace Alabama's whole roster.
We've said it a lot. This is a really good roster you got already. You don't need to bring in a guy. I mean, you don't need Will Rogers coming in at quarterback. You already got four of them, and three of them might go to the NFL if it all works out.
I think if you're Caleb, Deborah. Yeah. Will Rogers got everyone sick.
You just got to preach, I would say patience. I don't know if maybe that's the best phrase, but I'd preach patience within the program to say take it. I mean, the eight day game is April.
That's the first shot you're going to see at this team, somewhat of a shot until August. And that's the other thing that we can maybe get into a little bit mean. He's going to have a very interesting schedule as the Alabama head coach, I mean, you're opening the season against Western Kentucky and USF. So as long as you're not tied with USF at halftime, you should be all good. There should be two and o. Then you go to Wisconsin, which Alabama has not been to travel to Big Ten country in the regular season, I think since like 2011 when they played Penn State back with, I think Paterno was the coach that's still at Penn State. But then, sorry, you go from at Washington or at Wisconsin. At Washington would be crazy. Then you have an actual bye week, like four weeks into the season, and then you play Georgia at home. So like, good luck. This is also his year with Alabama's permanent opponents. You have to go to Tennessee, you have to go to LSU, have to go to Oklahoma as part of them being in the SEC. Missouri's at home.
This is a tough schedule for him to get introduced to the SEC, but this is one where I think if he can convince a lot of that roster to stay around, you shouldn't have that much of a fall off, if any. Really?
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think the other thing that's working in his favor, right, is increased amount of teams in the playoffs. Twelve teams in the playoff versus just four.
It is a lot easier to get one of those spots. Look, I'm going to be the first to pump the brakes, right? You got to temper expectations. This guy, you literally just had the greatest coach of all time retire. And we will talk about this more in the next segment as we get to the top of the hour. We'll be with you until the top of the hour, but it's going to be impossible to replace the greatest head coach of all time, maybe one of the greatest head coaches in the history of sports, not just football.
So everyone's got to kind of temper their expectations, right? It's very likely that Kalen de Bour comes in and they don't win the SEC championship. Now, should they make the playoffs? Yeah, probably.
I would say that that would be anything less than that would be a disappointment. But I have a feeling that fans could get very frustrated very quickly. Right.
Fourth game into your career at Alabama, fifth week of the season, you got to play Georgia, who make no understand this, right. They are going to be on a revenge tour because they got left out of the College Football playoff, just like Alabama did the year prior when they felt like they had a legitimate chance to go and win it.
So, Kirby Smart, Georgia, they're going to be angry. And Alabama, you know, right now probably licking their chops. They're saying Alabama's vulnerable, got a new head coach. You just lost the greatest head coach of all time. So things are going to be tough. And I could see a world where Alabama loses that game and people start turning on Caleb and Deborah and it's like, all right, calm down, everybody.
Pump the brakes.
Temper your expectations.
[00:39:42] Speaker B: Yeah, well, just kind of to quickly add on to that, you talked about the twelve team playoff. There's a very real possibility Alabama loses like two games and still gets in. They could still win the national championship and he could not have maybe the greatest regular season of all. Mean. And this is admittedly for a first year SEC head coach, one of the toughest draws you can get. Because you got to remember, it's not like Alabama was playing Georgia every year as far as their kind of rotating Georgia was on the schedule as a rotating opponent. You're not playing them every year. You're probably not going to play Missouri every year. You're not playing Oklahoma every year. Now those games are getting replaced with other SEC teams.
But I mean, this is a tough year, one to try and win over this fan base.
But you are right that twelve team playoff is going to dramatically help him because that's probably the lowest expectation is just getting to that playoff with the roster.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: Right. When we come back from our break, we'll take you all the way up to the top of the hour. Obviously, we're still breaking down Kalyn divorce hiring here at the University of Alabama and we'll talk expectations headed into his first season when we come back here on 90 point sub.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: Welcome back into the low tide, ladies and gentlemen, here on 90.7 Capstone. Nicholas Joe with you until the top of the hour, talking about Alabama's new head coach, former Washington head coach Kalyn Deborah, who was recently in the college football national championship. One thing I wanted to say, saw something hilarious during the break. The Dallas Stars, on twitter. We know everyone has been asking head coach Pete Deborah, spelled exactly the same way, is still the head coach of the Dallas Stars. Pete Deborah is not leaving Texas hockey to become the head coach of the University of Alabama football program. You gotta love to see that. I love it when, who's the source? Them, officially them.
You got to love stuff like that. I think that stuff's hilarious and I think it's always fun when teams and players and coaches can kind of play fun at that little, I'm a little sad we haven't gotten anything from lane yet, just some comedy.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I don't know. Well, apparently it's been like.
Apparently there was some fake video of him declining the Alabama job on.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I listened to that. And if you legitimately think that's lame after listening to it, I mean, come on, what are we talking about?
Just unbelievable.
A couple of days ago, I think it was yesterday, literally.
Or maybe that's been two days, right, since Saban.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: Yeah, Wednesday.
[00:43:05] Speaker A: Okay, so two days.
Greg Burns said 72 hours. He said, give me 72 hours. The next time you hear from me, I'll have your next head coach. Now, to be clear, we still do not have official word from the university or from Greg Byrne, although it has been reported by several very reputable sources, most notably Pete Thammel, that Kaylin, Deborah, has informed the Washington.
I was about to say the Washington football team.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Well, technically they are.
[00:43:42] Speaker A: Technically, they are the Washington football team.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: The commanders are real confused, but he.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: Has informed the Huskies that he will be taking the job at Alabama. So it's pretty much confirmed. But it has been one day, 22 hours and 18 minutes. That is how long the Alabama coaching search lasted.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: And I believe when they hired Saban, it took them a month, maybe longer.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: Well, they had someone who then backed out, so let's hope that that's not the situation again. But one thing I did want to talk about, I don't know about you. Right. But I definitely think that Saban might have said, like, yeah, Kalyn Dworch might need to be your first option now, obviously. Do I think other calls were made? Of course. And we know that other calls were made. Several sources reporting that Steve Sarkasian was given a phone call. Why would you not call Sarkeesian? I'm sure that he was one of the names that Nick Saban had proposed. But for those who do not remember, Nick Saban's first choice for its offensive coordinator, who later turned into Tommy Reese, but his first choice for offensive coordinator was the Washington offensive coordinator.
So I think that really just made it, made a lot of that. And I do not think that Nick Saban just decided he was going to retire without having a pretty good idea of who he would.
[00:45:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you would imagine that, especially with Nick Saban, who it seems like he very much cares about maintaining the success at Alabama.
It makes sense that you would ask at least for Saban's input on who he would want and what he would want. Because if the guy's already going to have an office, he might as well like his coworker, right?
[00:45:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So Ryan Grubb was the Washington Huskies offensive coordinator, and by a lot of people's note, is probably the leading candidate to take over the Washington job if he doesn't come with Kaylin. Deborah, to Alabama, I certainly think it's going to be a very interesting time here at the university. Obviously, you've got this fresh slate coming in. Eight A is going to be strange.
[00:46:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
The first time seeing some other guy walk through that tunnel, people are probably going to cry.
But I do wonder, we talked about it a little bit when Saban retired, like how amped up the town or how amped up Tuscaloosa will be for a day.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: Because remember, just this last year's a day, how crazy it was in tuscaloos and on the strip. It was wild.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
And obviously the last time Alabama hired a coach, Nick Saban, it was a little different of a demeanor. I mean, people wanted to go to a day because Saban was supposed to save the team, and he did, in fairness. And I just wonder how it's going to look with a new guy out there. What's the support going to be like and how's it going to work? I can't imagine it's going to fall off too much because you still got a really good team, really good roster, really good expectations.
It'll be fun to see. I think that's definitely one as a student because that ticket is free. Yeah, that's one. You're definitely going to have to go.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: I think we got a little bit of trolling from Lane Kippen. Looking at next year's schedule.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: They don't even play. Alabama doesn't play.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: It's lane very fortunate. And obviously we talked about it right before we went to break. What is the new Alabama head coach Kalyn Deborah's first SEC home game in 2024, September 20. Eigth and Georgia.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I got to look this up real quick because Washington is obviously moving to the Big Ten.
Does he play a pig den game before Washington does? Because Alabama does go to Wisconsin.
[00:48:09] Speaker A: Yeah, that's interesting. Look that one up.
[00:48:12] Speaker B: I think he might be because it's like week three that he.
So Washington plays the University of Washington, plays Weber State, eastern Michigan, then Washington State. Week three, the same week Alabama goes to Wisconsin. So, yeah. Kaylin, Deborah, all this talk about conference realignment, he's going to be playing a big ten game at Alabama before Washington plays a big Ten game.
[00:48:42] Speaker A: Hey, maybe that was part of the move.
[00:48:45] Speaker B: Maybe he really didn't want to go to like, penn State, or maybe he just didn't want to play Iowa. I don't blame him.
[00:48:51] Speaker A: Well, right. I'm talking about on the Greg burn side. He's like, yeah, I need somebody with the Big Ten experience.
[00:48:58] Speaker B: Yeah, we got to get that one win.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: Well, I don't. Why would I say Big Ten experience?
Scratch that.
Also, something I want to talk about from yesterday. We talked about how Ryan Williams, one of the big wide receiver recruits, was committed to Alabama. Five star. Very interesting activity on Twitter recently. He has been liking every single tweet that has come out about Kalyn, Deborah. So you could possibly see a recommitment.
[00:49:28] Speaker B: You think like Tuscaloosa, we eat this stuff up. Every Alabama football thing gets eaten up by us locals or by the locals in Tuscaloosa. Do you think recruits do this on purpose? You think Ryan Williams knows that? So he's like, I'm just going to like every tweet and just stir that pot and see what happens. Not that I have a feeling that there's a pretty strong chance now that he will recommit to not. I don't have any source or information on that, but just going off of who they hired, it would be kind of interesting. Just that he wouldn't recommit.
But you think he just does like Lane Kiffin for knows. Lane Kiffin knows. Anytime he tweets something with Alabama in it, it's trolling. I wonder if these recruits do the same.
[00:50:17] Speaker A: Yeah, we've got lots of interesting reactions. Malachi Moore on Instagram posting the sunglasses emoji. Sunglasses emoji looks like.
[00:50:28] Speaker B: And it seems like Caleb Downs put out a highlight reel and seems like he's all good with the higher as well. So it'll be interesting to see. I mean, we talked about.
I forgot his name. Jabbar Muhammad. I don't. Jabbar. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if he does come to Alabama. The secondary might not really have a fall off at all because you're still going to have downs. Malachi Moore, you'll have Muhammad. I mean, the defense might be on lockout. We don't know who the DC is, but it might be a lockdown defense talent wise in that secondary.
[00:51:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's going to be very interesting.
[00:51:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm also reading. This is from Pete Thamble.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: No, I know what you're reading. It's fake. Look at the count.
Lots of.
Here's what I'll ask. Right.
Boar, can you bring dubs with him?
Can he bring the husky?
[00:51:31] Speaker B: The dog? Probably.
[00:51:32] Speaker A: Yes, please.
[00:51:33] Speaker B: I love that would be rude, it seems. Can we get, can we at least.
[00:51:38] Speaker A: Get a dubs and a big Al meetup or is that off the table? You think they're a little might.
[00:51:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so, too. I think Washington might be just a tad mad. That would be like if, after the playoff show, if Alabama was like, let's do a meetup with a know, like, let's get.
And, uh. And that horse together after the playoff, snub big Al and the Florida State horse, the guy that rides in on the horse. That's essentially what that would be. That would just be mean.
[00:52:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
Could you imagine if Alabama had signed?
You thought Florida State fans hated Alabama before? Oh, man. Yeah, that'd be crazy.
Yeah. Just a lot of. Just wild times in Tuscaloosa. First off, I cannot wait to see the airport arrival videos. I got to see if they're going to rival Nick Saban's.
[00:52:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. See, that's the thing.
Nick Saban, when he got hired, was probably like an ease. Well, maybe not probably, but he was a big name. Hired like, this was the biggest guy Alabama could get. Like, Malmore was talked about how he pulled up to Nick Saban's house and wouldn't leave until Nick Saban at least talked to him about taking the.
Like, this was a very thing. This was a little different because Deborah is replacing that.
Don't know. I don't know. But it will be interesting. I'm really excited to see what the first Alabama football coach with a twitter, how that works.
[00:53:22] Speaker A: When does the first tweet come? What do we think the over under mean?
[00:53:27] Speaker B: It probably won't happen until his press conference. So I'll say Sunday, no, airport. Airport tweet, maybe.
[00:53:35] Speaker A: Lane. Kevin.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.
And I will say, too, just before we. I guess we're about to head off.
I think it just takes a lot of guts to take this job. And I think that Kalyn, Deborah, if nothing else, whether this works doesn't work. Whether he wins 20 national championships or zero, it shows that that dude is very progressive thinking. Like, very not politically progressive, but he's.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: Got the alpha mind.
[00:54:07] Speaker B: He wants that alpha mentality of, yeah, I can go in and replace Nick Saban, which not many people can. We. That was one of the negatives of this job, according to a lot of people, was you had to replace Nick Saban in those lofty expectations. And it takes a very forward and driven man to try and replace the greatest of all time. So credit to him at the very least, for him to take it, it's.
[00:54:34] Speaker A: Going to be a heck of a challenge.
Alabama has a new head coach and his name is Kaylin. Deborah, thank you for joining us on another emergency episode of the Low Tide. We'll be back with you in our normal slot on Sunday. No more emergency shows unless this falls through magically in the last hour. Then we might be right back here. But we will see you next time on low tide. Thank you for joining us, folks.
Samuel.
