Kalen DeBoer knows what he signed up for when he became the Alabama football coach.
It was one of the first things he mentioned the Monday after Alabama's loss to Tennessee , the second in seven games as Nick Saban's successor . And through the struggles against the Volunteers, through the struggles against Vanderbilt, through the struggles against Georgia and South Carolina the Crimson Tide overcame, DeBoer's message has remained the same.
"There's never going to be excuses," DeBoer said. "That's the one thing that only softens character. It only lowers the standard and that will never happen."
That's the DeBoer Germie Bernard has known longer than most on the Crimson Tide roster.
Bernard committed to and signed with DeBoer at Washington in the 2022 class. Bernard was granted a release from his letter of intent less than a month later and signed with Michigan State , but returned to Washington and to DeBoer in 2023 before following the Huskies coach to Tuscaloosa in 2024.
"The recipe that (coach DeBoer) has (is) winning," Bernard said during Alabama preseason practices. "If you look at his track record at every school that he's been to, he's winning."
That recipe produced 104 wins and 12 losses across nine seasons at Sioux Falls , Fresno State and Washington, one in which DeBoer saw more undefeated seasons than stretches of back-to-back losses.
And DeBoer's two Alabama losses have looked like many of the other 12, six of which have come by a single score.
Through the adversity, Bernard doesn't see a different coach. He sees resiliency. He sees a leader. He sees what DeBoer has always been.
"Throughout any struggles, he's always going to have his players' back," Bernard said. "He's always going to encourage us. He knows that we have to do better, and he's just going to continue to instill in us the things that we need to to be better."
It's what Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack loves about DeBoer, who he said does a "tremendous job with the culture of our program and the buy-in from our players."
It's what drew cornerback Domani Jackson into Alabama. It's DeBoer's even-keeled mindset, one that hasn't wavered.
"He's stayed the same," Jackson said.
To DeBoer, that's a part of his job description, making sure the coaching staff is aligned in play calling and in recruiting, making sure that his players are prepared, confident and ready to execute.
"I feel full confidence in who we have, and my job is to continue to guide them, give them, you know, my perspective, be there in the moment in the games to continue to make sure we're sticking to the plan that we worked on, the plan that was created, the ones that the guy have practiced," DeBoer said.
It's about staying the course, DeBoer said, in the moment and in the future, developing players across a single season and in the seasons to come.
It's what Bernard expected from DeBoer at Alabama. It's not something Bernard expects to change.
"Coach DeBoer, he doesn't really change who he is," Bernard said. "He's always the same person. That's what you got to love about a coach like that."
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Where Kalen DeBoer has Alabama football culture midway through first season
