If you have followed college football for at least the past two seasons, then you know Kalen DeBoer hasn’t had it easy. Then again, taking over a program that was led by the legendary Nick Saban was never going to be an easy task. So, in came the critics who had previously been relatively quiet, suddenly questioning why a coach some believed should be on the hot seat was being rewarded with a massive contract extension. However, DeBoer at least has the support of former Alabama quarterback and ESPN analyst Greg McElroy.

“Kalen DeBoer finished the season as a consensus top-five coach in the country,” McElroy said on ESPN College Football. “And the ridiculous hot seat conversations are going to be dead, because year three is the year that Kalen DeBoer stops being evaluated against the ghost of Nick Saban, and starts being evaluated as himself. I mean, he’s 20 and 8, playoff win under his belt, made it to the top eight last year with a roster that frankly wasn’t really outrageously good.

“He gets a nice seven-year extension, and the roster is starting to resemble the roster that he had put together at Washington in what was a remarkable run. So, I think the narrative will flip this fall.”

If Kalen DeBoer had achieved a 20-8 record at almost any other college football program, he would have already attained legendary status. However, he is at Alabama, a program that reached magnificent heights under Nick Saban. While the improvement has been evident and a College Football Playoff appearance, now the yardstick of success in college football, was achieved last season, it still does not seem to be enough.

Nevertheless, prominent voices within Alabama have supported his extension. Athletic director Greg Byrne and Nick Saban, who still serves in an advisory role at Alabama, have both backed the decision.

Then there’s the 2009 BCS National Championship-winning quarterback, Greg McElroy, who has been particularly supportive of DeBoer. Even before DeBoer’s appointment in Tuscaloosa, McElroy had been singing his praises for the job he did with the Washington Huskies.

The 51-year-old enjoyed an impressive 25-3 stint with the Huskies, a program he inherited after it finished 4-8 in 2021. Ultimately, he led Washington to the 2023 National Championship Game, where it fell 34-13 to Michigan. Those accomplishments led to his hiring, and he does not seem far from replicating that success at Alabama, especially now that he is finally getting the chance to build his own team.

As of mid-June, Alabama has signed back-to-back top-five classes, and while that certainly says something about its recruiting prowess, the Crimson Tide is still ranked 68th nationally in the 2027 cycle. As of now, the program has just eight commitments, and head coach Kalen DeBoer made it clear at the SEC Spring Meetings that Alabama will not sign a large class this cycle. The Crimson Tide finished with the No. 2 class in the 2026 cycle (27 commitments) and the No. 3 class in the 2025 cycle (21 commitments).

Moreover, just two months ago, DeBoer signed a new seven-year, $87.5 million contract, with an average annual salary of $12.5 million, ranking him among college football’s highest-paid coaches. Sure, that’s a raise, but it has also drawn several vocal critics of DeBoer.

Paul Finebaum, for one, emphasized that the contract extension would only place more pressure on the team in the coming season while criticizing athletic director Greg Byrne for making such a move despite Alabama’s historic 38-3 loss to Indiana in the Rose Bowl. Finebaum argued that such a performance did not deserve a reward.

On the other hand, McElroy believes DeBoer did more with less last season. And now he not only has the resources with him, but he also has history behind him. Alabama’s legendary coach Nick Saban did not win his first national championship until his third season. After two winning seasons, like Saban, DeBoer may be on his way to following in the legendary coach’s footsteps and proving to his naysayers that he was worth every penny of his new deal.

Kalen DeBoer urges Alabama to grow spending

The Alabama head coach understands the pressure on him and how handicapped he would be without the needed resources. With the evolving demands of NIL deals in college football, the coach has urged the program to keep doing better with funds.

“We got to continue to grow,” DeBoer said in an interview on Tuesday with Gary Harris of Tider Insider TV. “There is no question. We got to continue to adjust to the times. We have to continue to push the envelope. We need the support of anyone who wants to be a part of it. I think more and more people do understand that you can have an awesome staff, but you have to have the NIL support to be able to get the players because they’re the ones that make the plays on Saturdays.”

Alabama is currently outside the top five NIL spenders in 2026. However, DeBoer praised the program for its competitive spending while pointing to the efforts of the staff and the program as factors that will help make up for its relatively limited resources. Now, only the upcoming season will show whether those efforts produce results.