Kalen DeBoer better turn things around quickly in Tuscaloosa.
The Alabama coach’s future is in question already after the Crimson Tide started his second season with a deafening thud, losing 31-17 to a Florida State team that went 2-10 a year ago.
It was an inauspicious start for DeBoer with Nick Saban’s massive shadow looming over him after the legendary coach retired 18 months ago.
“If Nick Saban watched this tape back, he would kick some of these kids off the team, that’s how bad it was,” ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky said Monday morning on “Get Up.”
“Alabama’s problem was their controllables. You watch this defense run to the ball and you are like, where is this effort to the ball, the angles to the ball, the tackling to the ball. “
Florida State scored 24 straight points after Alabama scored on its opening drive, and remained in control throughout the game.
DeBoer was hired by Alabama by after leading Washington to the national title game. But Alabama went 9-3 last season, and missed out on the expanded playoffs with a late-season loss to an underwhelming Oklahoma team. Alabama followed that up by losing to Michigan in the Reliaquest Bowl.
Such a season might be acceptable in some places, but not Alabama after Saban led them to six national titles in two decades.
“It’s not a talent issue, it’s a controllables issue,” Orlovsky said. “I think it is fair to say, can Kalen DeBoer survive September?… When you watch this tape they look like a shell of what Nick Saban had built them to become. When it comes to effort and toughness and desire. They look like a shell of it.”
There have been whispers — most notably by his former QB Greg McElroy — that Saban, 73, would be willing to return to coach, however he has denied that.
Saban currently works on ESPN’s “College Gameday.”
DeBoer will lead the Crimson Tide against Louisiana-Monroe and Wisconsin before an early-season SEC showdown with Georgia.