How Kalen DeBoer plans to build Alabama roster, hire staff with 'a touch of Washington'

Kalen DeBoer's to-do list is going to be anything but short.

DeBoer arrived in Tuscaloosa on Friday night, and then he held his introductory press conference Saturday afternoon. There's no time for the new Alabama football coach to rest, though. He's got a roster to construct and a coaching staff to hire.

Alabama players, upon Nick Saban retiring Wednesday, had 30 days to enter the transfer portal. That means DeBoer has to focus on re-recruiting the Alabama football roster as much as he does looking at recruiting more players via the portal.

Then there's the element of staffing. Secondary coach Travaris Robinson already left as of Saturday to join Georgia's staff.

So there's quite a few things DeBoer must do the next few hours and days.

The pitch to players began as soon as he met with them Friday night. He went straight from the airport to a meeting at the football complex.

"I try to show them a little bit of my vision, but I’ve also told them, you can’t buy into my vision until you truly know me," DeBoer said Friday. "So just give me a chance to show you a few of the things. I’m going to listen to you, I’m going to meet you where you’re at right now."

He said the threat to lose players to other schools is "real strong" so there's a sense of urgency to pitch players on staying. DeBoer has been having group meetings and one-on-one sit downs with as many as possible. He did "a bunch" Friday night and Saturday morning.

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"I don’t care where you’re at. If you see an opportunity to add to your team, and especially if it might hurt one of your competitors, you’re going to do that," DeBoer said. "Unfortunately that’s the situation that college football, college athletics is in right now, and those things can happen pretty quickly. In many cases, there’s not much as far as consequences if you’re not handling things the right way."

To help build his roster, DeBoer brought Courtney Morgan with him, who was his general manager at Washington.

"He's just so tied in to everyone in the recruiting world," Morgan said. "Players, staff members, he knows a lot of this roster. There are parents of players on this roster, he's got their numbers and he's talking with them now. Probably alluding to what we're trying to accomplish right now, holding people in place, not getting too antsy."

Getting a staff in place is important, and DeBoer understands it's key to have staff who can get in front of the players to have those conversations about their futures.

"Certainly have a strong feeling of what I’d like to do (for staff)," DeBoer said. "I don’t want to get too much into that."

He expects to make decisions over "the next day or so" but he also stressed he wants to be thorough.

"I’ll work on getting the staff in order very quickly," DeBoer said. "There will be a touch of Washington in there."

He recognizes the need for staff members with SEC connections, too.

"Some southeast ties that can help bridge the gap of my experiences here," DeBoer said. "There are experiences, having been West Coast and Indiana and just some of the recruiting, but I don’t want to lead you on that there’s every coaches phone number in my phone right now. I’ve just got to put myself in a spot where the right people are around me. I will say this, I wasn’t a West Coast guy either. I’d never been to the West coast until a few years ago. Coached at two universities out there. I think there’s an ability to adapt that I feel confident in to where we’re at. I understand what the SEC is all about. Kind of how strong and how much it means here."

Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Kalen DeBoer: New staff will have "a touch of Washington"