To understand Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, you need to know Bob Young
In a South Dakota apartment, Ken “Sid” Kortemeyer sat on his cocoa brown BarcaLounger. He put his feet up, draped an Afghan blanket over his legs and gazed at his 54-inch television.
Then Kortemeyer witnessed a small moment that reminded him of the late Bob Young.
More than 1,400 miles away, Washington was facing Oregon in the fall of 2023. At one point in the game, then-Huskies coach Kalen DeBoer made clear he disagreed with a call. Kortemeyer couldn’t hear DeBoer, but Kortemeyer didn’t need to be able to listen to know what DeBoer said. He read DeBoer’s lips, which lacked profanity or flippancy in his comment to the official.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
That’s about as sassy as DeBoer gets, said Kortemeyer, who has known him for three decades. Kortemeyer is a long-time staffer and administrator at the University of Sioux Falls, DeBoer’s alma mater and a place he coached.
“In so many ways,” Kortemeyer said, “he’s Bob personified.”
We’re all a summation of the people in our lives. The mentors. The family. The friends. DeBoer is no different. The list of DeBoer’s influences range from former teammates such as Kurtiss Riggs and Chuck Morrell to bosses such as Chris Creighton and Jeff Tedford.
“There are things I’ve learned from the head coaches I’ve coached for at all the places,” DeBoer said, “but it all started with Coach Young.”
Sioux Falls’ winningest coach of all-time, Young tallied 172 victories, 13 conference titles and one NAIA national championship over 22 seasons that ended with his retirement in 2004. As a result, he secured a spot in the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. Young lived until January 2023, when he was 83.
Looking back on Young’s life and the way he coached helps inform who DeBoer is in the present. DeBoer’s college coach and eventual boss provides a lens through which to better view the man who accepted one of the greatest challenges in the history of college football — replacing Nick Saban as the coach of Alabama.
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Bob Young and his bottomless basket of time
Young always tried his best not to meander from his script. Really. He usually failed, though. Young couldn’t help himself.
Speaking at end-of-season banquets, he had too many people he wanted to highlight. He had too many experiences and memories. All had to be shared, and when he saw a player or parent in the crowd he wanted to talk about, he would. Who was going to stop him? He was the head coach, after all.
Young had a reputation for tangents in one-on-one conversations, too. Team meetings. Recruiting trips; time became little more than a construct when Young had a chance to get to know someone.
“The way to make an impact was to have a strong relationship with the people he surrounded himself with,” DeBoer said. “It was natural. It’s who he was. It’s what he was called to do.”
Young made it seem like he had a bottomless basket of time, when in reality he didn't have much of it. Young taught math full-time in addition to leading the football team. Yet anytime he crossed paths with people, he usually talked with them. He liked to discuss more than football, too.
“He was on the go all the time,” DeBoer said. “But he always had time for you.”
Riggs, who played quarterback for Sioux Falls, recalled visits to Young’s office where the coach spent about 30 minutes asking about life before broaching the subject of football.
How is everyone? What’s the situation? What are you thinking about?
Young remembered family member’s names. He talked to the families. He invited them to chapel. He welcomed siblings, spouses, girlfriends, anyone.
“He would make you feel part of it,” Riggs said. “That’s where I think Kalen really excels. He can walk in a room and talk to everyone. Make them all feel part of it and be very genuine. It’s not fake.”
Fake didn’t work for Young when he began his coaching career. He tried it. Young started coaching high school football in South Dakota, and he decided he wanted to try channeling his best Vince Lombardi. Young strived to have that type of presence. But he didn’t. That wasn’t him. It didn’t work.
Years later, Young shared that story with DeBoer.
“Being you, that’s what you’ve got to do,” DeBoer said. “I think that’s the way it’s always got to be. People will see through it if you’re not just who you are.”
DeBoer isn’t the exact same as Young. They have their differences, but their approaches rhyme. It’s not difficult to spot echoes of Young in DeBoer. The Alabama coach learned the value of relationships, specifically the importance of availability. One way that shows — how DeBoer handles text messages.
“I’m like, ‘Kalen, you’ve got 625 text messages,’” Riggs said. “He would be replying to every single one of them. That’s because he has that value of a relationship with everyone. Coach Young really had that.”
With his spiritual life as a Christian at the forefront, Young made sure he let people know how much he cared about them, every single day, Morell said. Every conversation ended with Young saying he loved you.
“If you want to go to the core of why everybody would go to the extremes for him, it’s because you knew how much he was invested in you,” Morrell said.
In October 2021, when DeBoer coached Fresno State, the Bulldogs traveled to face Wyoming. Many of DeBoer’s teammates at Sioux Falls called Wyoming home, so it made for a prime reunion opportunity. Young also made the trip, so DeBoer asked his coach to lead Friday night chapel.
Young agreed. He spoke to the Fresno State players, discussing peaks and valleys in life and football games. Stay the course, Young advised.
“It was fun to highlight him in front of my team I was coaching and to kind of see where I came from,” DeBoer said. “Maybe it gave them a glimpse into why I am who I am.”
The guilt of letting a coach down
You did not want to hear the phrase “burns my butt” from Young.
“Literally you knew that was like him dropping 20 F-bombs on you,” Morrell said.
Young never swore. He didn’t take the Lord’s name in vain either. Young seldom even yelled. Kortemeyer never saw Young humiliate or shame any of his players or staff members. Now if a player missed a block on the middle trap, Young occasionally got in the face of a couple players, Kortemeyer said. Also, DeBoer did note there were times Young got mad, but even that came with a warning: “are you trying to make me mad?” For the most part, Young stayed even keeled.
He didn’t turn to yelling much, but he didn’t really have to.
“It was almost more of, if you knew you let him down, you felt more guilty for letting him down more than anything else,” Riggs said.
Young didn’t govern through fear. Instead, he poured into his players. When he felt someone could have done something better, he held players accountable. Just not in a demeaning way.
Kortemeyer recalled a conversation he once had with DeBoer in which the coach shared he doesn’t swear at players because he doesn’t want to denigrate them.
“My job is to help build confidence in them,” DeBoer said. “Help build self esteem in who they are. Yeah, we all get frustrated. Yeah, we all want things to get better sometimes than what they are, but what I really want the guys to understand is, we all want the same thing. I’m here to help them.”
DeBoer’s philosophy is this: He’s here to teach, critique and demand excellence.
“Demand greatness,” DeBoer added.
So if mistakes are made over and over again, getting after players can be required. But rather than yelling one moment and talking calmly the next, DeBoer prefers to be consistent.
“As a leader, I just have always felt, if the team is looking to me, they need to know what they’re going to get each and every day,” DeBoer said. “If I’m a certain way one day and then can’t sustain that energy at that level or that level of being vocal or that strong with your personality, then that’s not who you are."
Even keeled is a popular description for DeBoer. The same applied for Young. That might be confused with a lack of competitive fire, but it shouldn’t be. Some coaches wear their competitiveness like a badge that needs to be displayed. Others apply it in more covert ways.
“He was very intense,” DeBoer said. “There was a competitive side to him that was I think off the charts. You don’t do all those things and have the success you have without putting in a lot of work. That work has to come from somewhere, and he was just crazy competitive.”
The same can be said about DeBoer. He’s got a 104-12 coaching record spanning his time at Sioux Falls, Fresno State and Washington. He won three NAIA national championships as a head coach at Sioux Falls. Then at Washington, the Huskies reached the College Football Playoff championship game this past season. Along the way, DeBoer has received numerous coach of the year awards.
DeBoer also received an early education in coaching from Young. After DeBoer joined the Sioux Falls coaching staff, he and Young once sat in the film room, watching clips of offensive linemen taking their first steps. Over and over and over again.
Those films sessions helped DeBoer learn how to coach. He played receiver, so he knew that part of the game. Then Young helped round out his education as a young offensive coordinator, hired at 25. Young made sure DeBoer stayed on point with teachings and technical pieces, but for the most part, Young cut DeBoer loose with the call sheet and game planning.
DeBoer didn’t truly appreciate how much freedom Young gave him until later, but he pays it forward.
“Kalen does a really good job of letting his assistants coach and know that he has their back 100%,” said Riggs, who coached under DeBoer at Sioux Falls.
Empowerment has helped fuel success in DeBoer’s programs. Much like his mentor. Morrell will tell you Young’s success was less so about the Xs and Os and more so the relationships he fostered. Young took pride in building up the people around him. He made each person in the program feel like they had a role, special in the context of Sioux Falls’ success.
“Every single day you got out of bed, you looked forward to going into the facility or being at practice or being out on the road recruiting with him,” Morrell said. “You felt like you were fighting for something bigger than yourself.”
And for someone.
At first that was for Young; Morrell played for him then worked as his defensive coordinator at Sioux Falls. Then it was for DeBoer. When DeBoer replaced Young as head coach at Sioux Falls, Morrell stayed as defensive coordinator. Since then, Morrell has also served under DeBoer at Fresno State, Washington and now Alabama; Morrell is a Crimson Tide senior defensive analyst/special assistant to the head coach.
“Everybody who walks into Mal Moore (Athletic Facility) every single day knows exactly what they’re getting,” Morrell said. “You’re fortunate to have an opportunity to work for a coach like this that places a premium on the people around him. It makes you want to go above and beyond, to be able to facilitate success because you’re treated as an important piece.”
DeBoer experienced that the moment he stepped on Sioux Falls’ campus.
Kortemeyer still remembers the beautiful spring day 30-plus years later. The USF administrator walked into the gym, the location of Young’s office at the time. There, Young introduced Kortemeyer to a visiting recruit.
I’d like you to meet Kalen DeBoer. He’s going to be something very special.
The top drawer
Sitting in front of his desk one Tuscaloosa spring day in 2024, DeBoer started to tell the story about the letter.
Young sent it to him during DeBoer’s senior year in high school. It became their first correspondence.
Does DeBoer still have it?
“Oh yeah,” DeBoer replied. “It’s right here.”
DeBoer arose from the black chair in front of his desk. Then he stepped back behind his desk and opened the top drawer. He removed a piece of paper, folded twice with a “Sioux Falls College” logo at the top. In the letter, Young expressed interest in recruiting DeBoer.
When DeBoer arrived in Tuscaloosa on a plane on Jan. 12, so too did the letter. He didn’t have most of his possessions with him, but he had the letter.
“Just want to make sure it’s in a safe and secure location,” DeBoer said. “I want to have that one forever.”
As to why he keeps it there …
“I don’t know,” DeBoer said. “It’s a reminder of where it all started and those types of things I guess, seeing it right there in the top drawer whenever you open it.”
In some ways, the letter’s a reminder of how far DeBoer has come. In other ways, it’s a tangible remembrance of Young. Words from a voice that spoke into DeBoer's life at 18. A voice that speaks through his coaching to this day.
Nov. 20, 92
Dear Kalen.
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: Alabama football: To understand Kalen DeBoer, meet Bob Young
