Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Kalen DeBoer does not believe he needs to uphold the "Bama Standard" in Tuscaloosa -- having the audacity to believe he can out-scheme opponents every week without instilling a culture of relentless doggedness.
Mind over matter. But it matters that many of Nick Saban's recruits are watching something great erode into the current product.
CBS Sports' John Talty relayed his sources' sacrilege assessment of why DeBoer is failing.
"It is inherently unfair to keep writing columns like this about DeBoer failing in a way Saban never did -- but this is what he signed up for. This is what the $10 million contract that made him one of the game's top 10 highest-paid coaches was supposed to prevent," Talty wrote.
"He didn't have to choose this path. He had a contract sitting on his desk that would have paid him $9.2 million this season to stay at Washington, according to public records obtained by CBS Sports, but he wanted to follow the GOAT. He wanted his chance to show the SEC what his offense could accomplish.
"It was a potentially awkward fit from the start, the South Dakota native who had never seriously recruited the SEC now thrust into one of the most pressurized jobs in the sport. You have to be wired a certain kind of way to really succeed in the SEC the way Saban, Kirby Smart and others have, and DeBoer doesn't look up to the task. Program insiders told CBS Sports this offseason that DeBoer truly believes in his abilities to out-scheme and out-think opponents and prioritizes it over the mental toughness Saban used to drill into his teams."
This is not going to be a long-term arrangement for Alabama.
If this is how DeBoer thinks, then defensive coordinator Kane Wommack is just falling in line. Removing Wommack from the mix isn't going to change the culture. These players clearly aren't responding well to the man up top, and unless they find a drill sergeant defensive coordinator who has such a personality that he can whip this defense into shape, Alabama is going to have to replace the guy who replaced "the guy."
Saban has that personality. Too bad he'd never work for DeBoer, and if he ever did return to Tuscaloosa, AD Greg Byrne would have to admit he royally screwed up. The University of Alabama may not like the public perception that the man running their athletic department can't make a successful hire. So he may be gone with DeBoer if UA heads that way.