Former Washington head football coach Kalen DeBoer was named as the successor to Nick Saban at Alabama on Friday afternoon. The Huskies were completely blindsided.
It is the unfortunate harsh reality of business.
News first broke about DeBoer’s future shortly after 11am on the west coast when Pete Thamel stated that he was negotiating with the Crimson Tide brass. There had been rumors about mutual interest between the two parties throughout the week but nothing was finished at the time of the first report.
The ink dried about an hour later and the news was official. Kalen DeBoer was off to Tuscaloosa.
According to defensive back Elijah Jackson, who blossomed into a star in 2023 after signing with Washington as a three-star recruit in the college football recruiting Class of 2020, both of those reports were breaking news to the players. They did not receive any indication that their coach was leaving.
Jackson expanded further on the process during a livestream on Instagram with a few of his teammates. One of them chimed in to say that DeBoer “didn’t say nothing to nobody.”
The rising fifth-year junior said that he “just left” and quipped that it is a “cold world.” A group of Washington players were getting treatment in the training room when ESPN first broke the news to them along with the entire world.
How UW players learned of Kalen DeBoer's departure for Alabama:
— Emerald City Sporting News (@ECSN206) January 13, 2024
"We in the training room … ESPN kicks on … they talking bout DeBoer finalizing contracts …" #PurpleReign pic.twitter.com/sMdAbEjiSw
DeBoer later met with his team in Seattle and informed them of his decision. However, at that point, his departure was already old information. They already knew.
The players on the Instagram stream also said that the meeting felt obligatory, and that it seemed like DeBoer only spoke to them because he “had to.” Jackson claimed that the coach wasn’t clear with his explanation for why he was leaving and did not communicate his intention.