Kalen DeBoer is the right coach for the future, but not the right one for Alabama

Alabama football head coach Kalen DeBoer was tasked with the unenviable task of fitting a round peg into a square hole. Unsurprisingly, the results resulted in the Crimson Tide having their worst start to a season since 2007 with seven games.

After the loss to Tennessee in Knoxville, Alabama fell to 2-5 and no longer resembled the team that started the game against Georiga three weeks ago 28-0 and earned a decisive win over the team many thought it was in DeBoer's first season , she had been displaced by Alabama as the benchmark of college football.

Whether Georgia is the standard or not, one thing is clear after the third Saturday in October: Alabama is no longer the standard. Vols fans still stormed the field after beating them, but I wouldn't expect the same in Baton Rouge if LSU beat the Crimson Tide in three weeks.

Because beating Alabama isn't a big deal right now. Vanderbilt did it. A Tennessee team with many warts made it. This likely won't be the last loss we'll see in DeBoer's debut season at the Capstone, and while the Tide aren't out of the playoff race, they're hoping to be on life support and the doctor is preparing to pull the plug.

Whether DeBoer is the right man for the job remains to be seen; After seven games with a team he had no part in building apart from a handful of transfers, it's impossible to fully judge him. I still believe DeBoer was the right candidate for the future of the program and will ultimately succeed. But the sample size is large enough to show me that he wasn't the right fit for this one single season. But you don't just hire an employee for a single season; You are hiring an employee for the future.

DeBoer is an offensive-minded coach, but the players Alabama has on offense don't fit his style. As much as I love and have defended Jalen Milroe, he is not a DeBoer quarterback. At this point in his career, he is not at the level of a passer yet for the offense to function the way DeBoer and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan want it to.

Benching Milroe is not a realistic option. Maybe Ty Simpson would be a better fit for what DeBoer wants to do, maybe not. It's no coincidence that two coaching staffs agreed that Milroe was the right man. But that could have as much to do with staying in the locker room as it does with performance on the field. There was near uproar in the locker room in Tampa last season when Tyler Buchner started in place of Milroe against USF.

I think Milroe is the better player and gives Alabama the best chance to win. But he's not a Kalen DeBoer quarterback. I have no idea if Ty Simpson is. I know DeBoer and the staff really like Austin Mack, who they recruited to Washington and brought with them to Alabama. He's obviously not ready at the moment. They also have a high priority on incoming freshman Keelan Russell, the former SMU commit who transferred to Alabama and enjoyed a meteoric rise in the recruiting rankings with a stunning senior season at the highest level of Texas high school football.

What Alabama will look like under DeBoer when he has his team here will tell the story. We won't see that next year, but 2026 will be the money year for him and Byrne to see if this works or not.

And I make no apologies for DeBoer; He deserves to take responsibility for an undisciplined football team that can't get out of its own way. But the reality is that this is not a new thing; Alabama has been one of the most penalized teams in the country in recent seasons. This lack of discipline was evident on recent Saban teams, even if it's not something we want to remember today.

There was no real succession plan for a post-Saban Alabama. No coordinators who have been with him for a long time to take the torch and keep the roster completely together, which could perhaps prevent people like Caleb Downs from transferring. But in Saban's final season, he had two first-year coordinators running the show. His most successful guys, Kirby Smart and Steve Sarkisian, coach top programs themselves and had no interest in moving to Tuscaloosa.

Maybe Jeremy Pruitt could have been that guy if he hadn't taken an unhappy job at Tennessee after the 2017 season. Although Pruitt seemed overwhelmed as head coach in Knoxville, perhaps seven more years of learning would have made the difference.

None of that matters now. We are where we are. DeBoer is the head coach. And he's proven to be a good man, if a little more inexperienced than anyone wanted to admit when he was hired. This is just his third season coaching Power Four football, having spent time at Fresno State and then in lower divisions before getting the Washington job.

He's still learning on the job, trying to adapt his style to a squad that was recruited for something different. He's learning how hard it is to win in this league and he's not going to rest on his laurels and be happy with what he saw in year one.

His biggest task going forward will be keeping a squad happy when none of them have lost at this level. No Alabama team had lost a second game in the last 17 years before the calendar changed to November. How will the team react to this? Can he keep them busy and fighting? Or will we see more players retire from the team like Jeheim Oatis did after the Vanderbilt loss?

In this era of college football, nothing is ever truly certain. But it is clear that this transition will not be as smooth as most of us had hoped.