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The Tuscaloosa News
Inside Alabama football's coaching search to hire Kalen DeBoer
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- Inside Alabama football's coaching search to hire Kalen DeBoer
Nick Saban was looking at the clock, sitting in his chair. He had 5 minutes until the meeting with the Alabama football team. In the meantime, he was on the phone with his wife, Terry.
Saban was deciding which speech he was about to give the team, he later told ESPN. Then he walked into the Crimson Tide's team meeting room and gave the one about retirement. Saban informed his team he was stepping down after 17 seasons at Alabama and a half century in coaching.
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That was 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10. Fast forward 72 hours, and Alabama had already introduced its new coach, Kalen DeBoer , at a press conference inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.
In a span of about two days, a legend retired and the Crimson Tide – and its athletics director, Greg Byrne – convinced DeBoer, who coached in the national championship game Monday, to replace Saban.
How did it all go down? Here are the events of that 52-hour period that brought DeBoer to Tuscaloosa.
MORE: Relive Nick Saban's epic Alabama football coaching career with our special book!
EPIC NICK SABAN STORIES: Epic Nick Saban stories, as told by Alabama football players who'd know as he retires
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Greg Byrne's actions around Nick Saban's retirement on Wednesday
Byrne and Saban met every Sunday during the season at about 3 p.m. Byrne would share updates from the previous week. Saban would ask questions and give updates of his own. Whenever the subject of Saban's future came up, he was transparent, Byrne said.
"I couldn't have asked for better communication as the retirement came," Byrne said. "I wasn't taken by surprise, no."
When Byrne found out Saban was retiring, he asked the coach if he could speak to the team right after him. Then Byrne did. He told the team to give him 72 hours.
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Next, Byrne met with the football team's leadership group. He explained a time frame and what the priorities would be looking for in the next coach.
Byrne knew he needed to be prepared to replace Saban one day. Heck, he knew the day he took the job in 2017. Byrne wanted to support Saban as long as the legend who won six national championships wanted to keep coaching. But Byrne knew he also couldn't be caught without a plan if or when Saban called it a career.
"Over time I was always preparing, hoping that I'd never have to execute the plan," Byrne said. "When the time came, I felt we had a good solid plan."
Once Byrne finished meeting with the leadership team, he met with the football staff "because that's the right thing to do," Byrne said. Once that was done, Byrne went up to the conference room next to his office. There he held a meeting with about eight people from his department. It was time to divide up who would handle communicating with which part of the football roster.
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One staff member was assigned per portion of the roster to stay in constant contact with those players, not waiting for the players to come to them. Byrne instructed staffers to be proactive in communication and go to the players.
"The messaging that I had to our leadership team, the messaging that I had to our team was that, here's the people you need to contact," Byrne said. "Any questions you have, I talked to a number of the guys on our team through the process too, talked to our former players too when time allowed, and all that was just saying we've got to stay together through this thing."
Soon after that wrapped up Wednesday night, Byrne was on a plane out of Tuscaloosa.
Thursday of the search
DeBoer ended up being the one Byrne selected, but Byrne did interview more than one candidate.
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Byrne hasn't specified publicly who else received interviews, but intel The Tuscaloosa News reported later Thursday was that DeBoer and Florida State's Mike Norvell had emerged as the top two candidates , and that Alabama offensive coordinator Tommy Rees was also part of the discussion.
Byrne confirmed he interviewed DeBoer on Thursday. He and his wife, Regina Byrne, flew to Seattle. The interview took place downtown.
Byrne and DeBoer had never met before, but as soon as they did, DeBoer impressed.
Regina Byrne also took part in the process. She and Greg Byrne met with DeBoer and his wife, Nicole DeBoer.
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"I include Regina in the process because if you're going to be all in on it, your spouse, your wife, better be all in on it," Byrne said. "I think that's important. You've seen the partnership coach (Saban) and (wife) Miss Terry have had. With coach DeBoer and Nicole, that was really obvious right off the bat. I was able to get (Regina's) feedback."
Throughout the interview process, Byrne was communicating with UA president Stuart Bell, Saban and Mike Brock, the athletics committee chair of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees.
Meanwhile, DeBoer said he was thinking through everything Thursday night.
"When you've done some things in a special way, I've been embraced by so many special people in Seattle," DeBoer said. "I knew this was the right move. I knew this was a thing, not that I had to do, but I really wanted to do, but it wasn't easy. That's not a knock on Alabama and everything it stands for. That's highlighting everything I feel so strong (about) back in Seattle at UW."
What happened Friday
Alabama secured its next football coach on Jan. 12.
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Everything came together Friday morning. They worked through the deal, DeBoer agreed and he officially signed the memorandum of understanding later in the day, around 5 p.m. CT.
Then Byrne took to X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter, to signal a deal was done.
"The plane has left Seattle," Byrne posted with a picture of white smoke emerging from Archibald's barbeque restaurant in Northport.
The Byrnes returned to Tuscaloosa on Friday afternoon. He pulled up to Tuscaloosa National Airport shortly after 8 p.m. CT with Regina. Then, at about 8:35 p.m., the plane carrying DeBoer and his family touched down in Tuscaloosa.
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Soon, DeBoer would drive off to the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility to meet with the team, but first he had some fans waiting to welcome him. Stepping off the plane, he walked onto the tarmac and over to the chain link fence where hundreds of Alabama fans pressed to greet him.
Alabama's new football coach had officially arrived.
Jan 12, 2024; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama fans greet new head football coach Kalen DeBoer as he and his family arrive at the airport in Tuscaloosa Friday.
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: Inside Alabama football's coaching search
