Kalen DeBoer has won 20 games in two seasons at Alabama. For many fans, it still isn’t enough. A 20-8 record would be celebrated at most programs, but in Tuscaloosa, the mood on sports radio is often grim. Tune in, and you hear the same theme: unless a national title is on the table, the season feels empty. The pressure he faces is unlike anything he has encountered.

“When he was hired, I remember thinking this is going to be an interesting ride to see what is going to be good enough for him. Following Nick Saban is truly one of the most difficult situations you could be thrown into,” Michael Casagrande said on The Paul Finebaum Show. In short, the so-called ‘Saban Curse’ is not about bad luck. It is about a standard so high that even strong seasons can come off as disappointing.

“He’s on the right path, generally speaking. But it was never going to be good enough when you follow Nick Saban and the consistency of excellence they had around here for so long. So there was always going to be this natural backlash,” Casagrande added.

Alabama has not seen a coaching change like this in decades. Before Saban, long stretches without a title were common. Now, after almost 20 years of dominance, fans are used to competing for championships every season. That shift is why the early years under a new coach feel different than they once did.

The pressure is unlike anything DeBoer has faced. He is following a coach who delivered six national titles and made deep playoff runs feel routine. When championships become the baseline, anything less starts to look like failure. That is the core of the ‘Saban Curse’: not a hex, but a standard so high that even strong seasons can feel disappointing.

The bad memories are lasting longer than the good ones. DeBoer has big wins on his résumé, including a 34-24 road comeback against Brent Venables’ Oklahoma in the playoffs. But the 38-3 loss to Indiana in the Rose Bowl quarterfinals casts a long shadow. For many supporters, that night looms larger than any single victory so far. That game, where Alabama managed just 193 total yards, was the program’s largest loss in any game since 1998.

Results like that feed a harsh story: that DeBoer has had high-profile stumbles in ways Saban mostly avoided. Whether that is fair or not, it is the comparison many fans and critics reach for first.

Beyond results, there are multiple disadvantages that feed the ‘never good enough’ narrative. The biggest is money. In the new era of college football, NIL deals are a key recruiting tool, and Alabama is not consistently at the very top of that spending race. Michael Casagrande has noted that the Tide are not among the elites in revenue generation or NIL potential, adding that this would have been an issue with any coach.

Reports have highlighted boosters like Texas Tech’s Cody Campbell, whose deep pockets help programs spend aggressively. By some estimates, Alabama sits near the middle of the SEC in NIL spending. When fans compare DeBoer to Saban, they rarely factor in that the financial landscape has changed.

The next season could define DeBoer’s time at Alabama. By year three, coaches there are expected to fight for SEC titles and playoff spots. If he reaches that level, the “never good enough” story may start to fade. Win a title, and some will say the Saban curse is broken. Others will wonder if the bar has just been raised again.