Goodman:5 star wr agreed For Alabama, Kalen DeBoer hiring $50 million contracts for…
Goodman:5 star wr agreed For Alabama, Kalen DeBoer hiring $50 million contracts for…
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This is an opinion column.
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The top five names to replace Nick Saban at Alabama went like this.
In no particular order, they were Kalen DeBoer, Steve Sarkisian, Mike Norvell, Dan Lanning and Dabo Swinney.
After the first couple weeks of the football season, it looks like Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne earned his paycheck.
Clemson is probably wishing Byrne had hired Dabo.
As for Norvell, what did his team practice during fall camp, interpretive dance? It certainly wasn’t football. The Seminoles are 0-2 after Monday night’s 28-13 loss to Boston College. BC rushed for 260 yards against FSU after Georgia Tech averaged 6.5 yards per play last week.
FSU and Clemson are currently suing the ACC in the hopes of leaving the conference. To go where, Division II?
Norvell was considered a finalist to succeed Saban at Alabama. At this rate, FSU’s coach will be an analyst at Alabama by next season.
Who hires Deion Sanders first, FSU or Florida?
For Alabama, the other hot name in the offseason was Lanning at Oregon, but even he lost some shine after Week 1. The Ducks looked timid against Idaho, and struggled to a 24-14 victory. How very demure. How very … Big Ten.
It’s too early to know if new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer was a home-run hire, but the vibes are bright and sunny going into Week 2. DeBoer was hired away from Washington after leading the Huskies to the national championship game. There were questions, of course. He had only coached four seasons at the FBS level and he wasn’t familiar with the SEC.
Byrne took a chance, but he’s beginning to look like a genius. I’ve been critical of Alabama’s athletics director in the past. It’s a tough job filled with difficult decisions. He got this one right. It’s not just that DeBoer has done everything correct so far. It’s more than that. DeBoer’s disposition is a perfect encore to Saban’s authoritative approach to coaching.
Is DeBoer going to win a national championship at Alabama? No clue. The game is different today and will be even more different tomorrow. Cash changes everything. Major college football is now a professional sport.
In the pros, motivations are different. Some coaches can thrive in that environment and some cannot.
Did Byrne take all of that into account in the offseason when he was faced with the most important decision of his career? If so, then he might go down as the greatest athletics director in the history of the SEC.
Go back to Saturday in College Station, Texas. Remember what Saban said on ESPN College GameDay? Not the S-bomb, although that was hilarious. I mean the other bit. Saban said it’s not just about the money, but also who you spend it on.
Joseph Goodman
The biggest decision of Saban’s time as coach of the Miami Dolphins was signing a new quarterback. Miami got it wrong. The Fins had a chance to sign Drew Brees but instead traded for Daunte Culpepper.
Huge mistake. It was a colossal error in team management and Saban later left Miami for Alabama. Had the Dolphins signed Brees, Saban probably would have stayed put.
FSU had an excellent quarterback last season. The Noles went into the transfer portal to replace Jordan Travis. Big miss. For whatever reason, new FSU quarterback DJ Uiagalelei can’t find his rhythm with the Noles.
At Vanderbilt, coach Clark Lea brought in Diego Pavia from New Mexico State. The Commodores upset Virginia Tech in Week 1.
At Auburn, Hugh Freeze decided to stick with Payton Thorne rather than bring in a new quarterback. Thorne played well in the season opener against Alabama A&M, but that was just a tune-up. The real season begins this week for Auburn when Cal travels across the country for a game at Jordan-Hare.
Cal brought in sixth-year quarterback Chandler Rogers from North Texas in the offseason, but Bears coach Justin Wilcox decided to go with veteran Fernando Mendoza in the season opener. He didn’t exactly light it up, going 15 of 22 passing for 158 yards and a touchdown against UC Davis.
Coaching major college football has never been more difficult. More money, more problems. Like the NFL, how coaches and their staffers build rosters will determine who makes the playoffs.
At Alabama, it’s beginning to look like Byrne could somehow see into the future
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