Kalen DeBoer has been on a meteoric rise up the coaching ranks of college football. The 49-year-old was named the successor to Nick Saban at Alabama just four years after getting his first opportunity as a head coach on the FBS level.
That isn’t to say that DeBoer hasn’t earned every opportunity. He went 67-3 as the head coach of Sioux Falls from 2005 to 2009, which propelled him to lead four strong offenses at Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and Indiana. He went 12-6 in his return to Fresno as head coach before taking Washington to a College Football Playoff national championship in year two.
By all accounts, DeBoer is a fantastic coach. Things have just moved very quickly.
That includes his transition from Seattle to Tuscaloosa.
Washington athletic director Troy Dannen — who only got the job in October — did not expect DeBoer to leave after the 2023/24 college football season. Especially with what was cooking behind-the-scenes.
Dannen spoke at the Bellevue Chamber luncheon earlier this week and offered some insight on what DeBoer turned down to take the job with the Crimson Tide. He did not give a specific number at first, but alluded to a large financial offer after contract negotiations began during his first month on campus.
We put numbers in front of [DeBoer] that were, quite frankly, unprecedented for this university. We put a Big Ten package in front of Kalen, not a Pac-12 package.
— Troy Dannen, via The Seattle Times
And then, as the luncheon conversation continued, Dannen spilled the tea.
We had an $8.7 million annual contract in front of Kalen at Thanksgiving. After the Sugar Bowl, we had a $9.4 [million annual contract] on the table, which would have put him in the top eight in the country.
— Troy Dannen, via The Seattle Times
He also said that DeBoer and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, did not even counter Washington’s offer. They left the $9.4 million contract extension behind and took the job at Alabama.
Although DeBoer said all of the right things about his future prior to his departure, Dannen was not comfortable without a signature. As a result, he started to move in silence and prepared for the possibility of a coaching search.
The newly-appointed athletic director even reached out to former head coach Chris Peterson for advice. They talked through some of the possibilities to replace DeBoer before (and after) it became a necessity.
When Alabama called me last Thursday [to interview DeBoer], I had Chris in my office the day before, running through a list of people — my list. Who did he like? Who did he not like? Who were the people that were not on my list? Then I took Chris out of it. I still used him, but I didn’t have him in my daily meetings. I didn’t have him in the interviews. But I talked to him every day.
— Troy Dannen, via The Seattle Times
The Huskies ultimately hired Jedd Fisch. Meanwhile, Kalen DeBoer is working to rebuild the Crimson Tide roster while assembling an impressive staff around him.