CFB Insider Bruce Feldman: How Alabama Landed on Kalen DeBoer to Replace Saban | The Rich Eisen Show

CFB Insider Bruce Feldman and Rich Eisen discuss Nick Saban’s surprising retirement and how Alabama found his successor in UW’s Kalen DeBoer.

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When you walked out of here last Wednesday you’re in the parking lot and you look down at your phone and what happened I missed a text from somebody saying hey just a heads up hearing that Sabin is going to retire tonight you should look into it well I made some

Calls nobody could confirm it at that point now what I think we knew was you know in retrospect was he wanted to tell his team first once that happened then the news was fair game so was there any sense at all during the season that this could be his final always a speculation

That that was going to happen at some point right that he eventually wants to go work at ESPN and be on TV and talk about the game and the grind of being a college football coach especially in this day and age with the transfer portal and nil and all the stuff that

Comes with it I think it’s exhausting and even for Nick sabbin and I think he knew this was a really good job he did from how bad the how un Alabama like the team was at the beginning of the year yes to what they were like to be a

Playoff team and almost make it to the championship game so do we know when he did you pinpoint when he knew did he you think he strolled on the sidelines of the Rose Bowl maybe looked around saying uh this is it does he know it there’s a funny moment that happened after the

Game so at the at Rose Bowl um I remember being with a CL bunch of people right outside the Michigan locker room and Sabin had just done his postgame press conference he comes down the ramp of the Rose Bowl in the golf cart really has to stop because there’s a cluster of

People in the way who are you know kind of where the Michigan locker room is and he kind of looks and sees everybody and does this kind of like pageanty wave and gives this kind of half smile and I remember thinking well that was notu the expression I was expecting from Ni sa

And you I was kind of almost expecting the the famous Urban Meyer loose to Michigan State Pizza Box look right where it’s just defeated and disgusted and all those other things and I was like that was a you know I remember the expression of Sabin and look you know I

Brought that up when I was trying to confirm last week I don’t know about seven days ago at this time to somebody I was like I wonder if he knew at that point then I just coached my last game you know and my guess is he probably did

Right sure don’t you think yeah cuz I don’t think he was going back and forth on it you know to the end you don’t make a decision like that that you know reactionary but I I think he probably had to feel at that point this is it I

Mean you look at some of the reactions in retrospect of people saw him around the game and I think it maybe is a little more foreshadowing than we probably could have imagined and and this may be naive to say but I I was kind of stunned that there wasn’t a

Handpicked successor you know that there that there’s nobody on the staff that there was nobody from this group I mean like if it had gotten to the point where it got past kin dor we had heard that they were going to at least interview Tommy reesi offensive coordinator but

Tommy ree is like just barely 30 and the idea that you would replace him and Sabin had you know ideally you know the best coach out there is Kirby Smart who is his Protegé but Kirby Smart’s got you know he played at Georgia he’s from Georgia he’s got a really good situation

A great situation at Georgia and you don’t want to be the guy to replace Nick Sabin if you already got that I just think the you know if Sark was still the offensive coordinator I know the people inside Alabama really think highly of him and what he had done there but he’s

A Texas and in a lot of ways Sark has a better situation than if he were to come back to Alabama because at Texas he’s replacing Tom Herman at Alabama you were replacing the greatest coach of all time that’s just a heavy Shadow is that why they because again you just Ed the

Phrase getting past kayn dor I mean how many coaches because it seems like they kicked that they they kicked a ton of tires here starting with Dan L and then with sarkeesian and then with Mike norell and then they they got the Washington coach to say yes is that

Is that a fair assessment of the way this I know I I mean I know they like Dan Lanning he had been there you know but by the way you know K deor is three and0 against Dan Landing no by the way I’m I’m not clearly clearly I I I saw

What he with my own two eyes I think I think it was a case of this I think that they were really impressed by kin dbor as more people found out about who he is and what he’s about um you know he’s the he was the one guy that really has no

Ties to the region I mean Mike norval had never coached in the SEC but he’s in Tallahassee of Florida State he coached at Memphis he’s obviously recruited in that footprint a lot um but by the same token two of the greatest coaches most successful coaches in recent history came to the

SEC with no CC experience one was Nick Sabin before he got to LSU and the other one was Urban Meyer before he got to Gainesville and those hires worked out really you know terrifically for those schools so I don’t know you know in sark’s case I think there was probably

Interest but I don’t know how far they actually got down would have got down the road with him uh Mike norell I think there were real conversations there I don’t know what the order of sequence is I’m sure in the Florida State Side they’re going to say Mike norell was the

Choice in the Alabama side they’re going to say yeah was we were always interested in more you know Ken deor was a guy we thought would be you know more ready to take on the responsibility of following Nick Sabin you know the Dan Lanning one Dan landing’s deal and we

Reported this um after Sabin had Ste down his buyout is so big it’s way bigger than what has been reported um with just Oregon and so everything I know having been around him and and had a lot of conversations with him is that he really loved it up there

He feels like he’s got a really good thing it seems like he’s got a really good thing Oregon’s got the nil piece figured out like that team I would say is to me would be the favorite to win the Big 10 in their first year based on

What he has coming back sure so I don’t think he pulls I don’t think he was in a position to go hey I’m really coveting that job but I don’t I think a lot of stuff were not working out for for it to go in that direction anyway it’s just it

Just was kind of surprising to me that Alabama just didn’t get its pick because if it’s Alabama because of what and I know those are monsterized shoes to fill and you never want to be the guy after the guy but I mean I I I might want to

Live in Alabama’s locker room you know what I mean like that’s there those facilities and one would think the support that they must have is second the alignment piece of it that I’ve heard is different where if you’re a head coach someplace else you have to go

Through a lot of other stuff to maybe get something rubber stamped yes whereas is certainly at Alabama when you’re Nick Sabin there wasn’t much of that resistance or or uh you know bureaucracy to weade through so I think those situations were really good but

Again you know in a lot of ways I don’t I don’t think the Gap is is significantly bigger at almost any of those programs by the way Texas is going into the secc this year I mean again I think what Steve sarkeesian’s done there I think he kind of knew rolling here why

Would I leave you know as opposed to there um you know the the one that’s curious to me a little bit would be Florida State and Mike noral just because we know how much friction there’s been with the leadership at Florida State to try to get out from

Under the ACC and for Mike norell if he could have gone and I don’t honestly do not know if there was an offer I think those things are get caught into semantics and it’s unlike there’s a level of transpar that comes with the NFL protocols that there is none of that

In college so and I think you know Greg bur the ad I think if you had asked him you know I’m sure he respects Mike norell I get the feeling he’s very you know the more time he spent around kayin the more dor the more he’s probably

Feels very confident he’s got the guy catch the rich eyes and show every single day on the Roku Channel 12 to 3 Eastern for free