Alabama departs from Nick Saban tree to hire Kalen DeBoer — a bold move by Greg Byrne | Goodbread
Bold move, Greg Byrne.
Bold as in fearless, not as in risky. Bold as in daring, not as in perilous.
Alabama's director of athletics just made the decision of a lifetime in hiring Kalen DeBoer from the University of Washington to replace the most successful college football coach of all-time in newly retired Nick Saban. It's a decision that will be tied to Byrne's career as an administrator, whether he likes it or not, until he retires himself.
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The safe thing to do would've been to hire from within the tree − the Saban coaching tree. I spoke to conventional wisdom on this topic, and it was clear.
"Who better to carry on Saban's winning ways than a coach who witnessed and learned those ways first-hand in Tuscaloosa? Don't rock the boat," conventional wisdom said. "Just keep it in a six-time national championship family."
The safe thing and bold thing are never the same. And Byrne, with UA's most precious asset at stake, had the guts to choose the latter.
There were, of course, any number of Saban-tree options for Byrne, although it can't be said that every piece of fruit on that tree hung low enough to be picked. There is no price, for instance, that Texas can't meet to keep Steve Sarkisian. But in the face of whatever pressure might've been brought to bear on Byrne to hire a chip off Alabama's championship block, he instead reached high and far, both figuratively and geographically, to pluck a coach from the Pacific Northwest with absolutely zero ties to the victory machine that's hummed without interruption in these parts for the past 16 years.
No matter how successful DeBoer's track record is, that's bold.
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It would've been unheard of, 40 years ago, for Alabama to hire someone outside the Paul W. "Bear" Bryant coaching tree after Bryant stepped down. Nor would it have even been possible, considering Bryant personally knighted one of his former players, Ray Perkins, to succeed him at Alabama. Hiring head coaches with Alabama ties proved to be a mixed bag thereafter, highlighted by Gene Stallings' 1992 national championship team and lowlighted by the bitter end of Mike DuBose's four years in the big chair.
Enough of a mixed bag that late Alabama AD Mal Moore, who played and coached for Bryant, eventually saw little reason to be confined by Crimson Tide pedigree in hiring head coaches. Seventeen years ago, when faced with a hire he knew would define his legacy in much the same way Byrne's will be defined by DeBoer, Moore went outside the tree, too. Down to Miami, where Dolphins coach Nick Saban knew nothing of Alabama tradition.
What he did know was how to win.
By the time Saban was done winning at Alabama, the school's tradition itself had been completely redefined. And so had Moore's legacy.
Given Byrne's career ties to the Pac-12 (or whatever number it is these days), perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that he landed a coach from familiar territory, unfamiliar as this territory might be to DeBoer. After a 25-3 run at Washington over two years, there's no doubt DeBoer knows his way around the sideline. He's 104-12 as a college coach, albeit most of that at an NAIA level that isn't remotely comparable to the SEC.
Did Byrne make the right move? The winning move? Time will tell.
But the move was all his. And it was plenty bold.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama hires Kalen DeBoer in bold move similar to Nick Saban's arrival
