Kalen DeBoer is still in the process of experiencing his Alabama football firsts: the first practice, the first win, the first road trip. Through those moments, he said, his goal is to simplify it, to know that what is coming next is bigger than what he's just completed.
But none of those firsts have been bigger than the next first DeBoer and the Crimson Tide are about to face.
Starting with No. 1 Georgia on Saturday, Alabama kicks off its first conference schedule under DeBoer, a slate that includes five games against teams in the top-18 for the Week 5 US LBM Coaches Poll, three of which are on the road in Tennessee , LSU and Oklahoma .
"It's 'Welcome to the SEC,' right? But it's going to happen to us, right?" DeBoer said. "There's going to be a lot of great teams that we're going to face."
There is one first that hung over DeBoer's head as he signed on to be Nick Saban's successor at Alabama: a first SEC win.
In DeBoer's coaching career, he was offensive coordinator in six games against SEC opponents, all of which ended in losses: 2011 when Southern Illinois lost to Ole Miss , 2014 when Eastern Michigan lost to Florida , 2015 when Eastern Michigan lost to LSU, 2016 when Eastern Michigan lost to Missouri , 2017 when Fresno State lost to Alabama and 2019 when Indiana lost the Gator Bowl to Tennessee.
Of those games, the Hoosiers' Gator Bowl loss to the Volunteers was the only one decided by less than 18 points, falling 23-22 after Tennessee scored two unanswered touchdowns in the final 4:21 of the game.
As DeBoer prepared for his first SEC game at Alabama against Georgia, he remembered those SEC teams he saw before and the physicality, the speed, the "game breakers" on both sides of the ball.
But it wasn't those "top-tier, top-round draft picks" that were the difference for DeBoer.
"You sometimes had a player here, player there that can line up and compete against that person across from them," DeBoer said. "But the problem is, especially with special teams, the magnitude and the depth of a roster in the SEC. When one guy comes out, another guy comes in and he's almost just as good (if) not as good."
DeBoer is not the only coach in the program who is set to face his first SEC opponent.
The majority of his coaching staff was hired without any experience coaching for or against an SEC opponent including co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard , who followed DeBoer from Washington to Alabama, and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic .
"The opponent matters, but, ultimately, it's about us: how hard we work every day, how hard do we work to improve our technique in all the different schemes we have? How much time do I put into it so I make sure that I know what I'm doing (and) I'm prepared to do it?" Kapilovic said. "And if you're constantly pushing yourself … striving for perfection to play at a high level, then game day will take care of itself."
Kane Wommack knows exactly what SEC teams look like.
The Alabama defensive coordinator was a tight end and fullback at Arkansas and coached two seasons as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss.
Wommack is one of four assistants with SEC playing or coaching experience along with Robert Gillespie , who played at Florida, Freddie Roach , who played at Alabama, Maurice Linguist, who played at Texas A&M and Christian Robinson, who coached at Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Florida and Auburn.
Experience is finite, Wommack said, for a roster filled with players that are in the same position as many of their coaches as they face an SEC schedule for the first time. Knowing the SEC, Wommack said all the players can do is fix mistakes made during nonconference play and sustain as opponents get tougher and tougher.
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"Whatever you put on tape, teams are going to schematically and, from a talent perspective, find ways of matching up personnel to be able to expose things," Wommack said.
Experience is finite for DeBoer. But as he faces another set of firsts across Alabama's SEC schedule, all he can do is what got him to the SEC in the first place.
"It just comes down to just going to work, rolling up your sleeves and enjoying all that comes with these big challenges that are in front of you each and every week," DeBoer said.
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: Kalen DeBoer SEC history: How has Alabama football coach done?
