Back when Nick Saban stepped away from Alabama after a staggering 201-29 record, six national titles, and two undefeated seasons, he was determined to leave the program in steady hands. Several big names floated around in the early conversations before Alabama ultimately landed on Kalen DeBoer, fresh off a national title game run at Washington. It was a logical hire at the time, but it still invites the question of whether Dabo Swinney, an Alabama alum with multiple championships of his own at Clemson, might have been the more natural heir Saban had quietly hoped for.

But appearing on the Beat Everybody podcast, On3’s Chris Low peeled back the curtain on how the conversations actually went down and why they never gained traction. “Nick called Dabo the next morning, those guys are close, to let him know what was going through his mind. And I think, just to talk to him, where Dabo was in his career. Greg Byrne made this call and I don’t think Dabo was ever really seriously in consideration as far as Greg Byrne was concerned.”

Alabama AD’s ultimate hiring call may raise some eyebrows, but as Low points out, bringing Swinney back home was never going to be easy. Beyond the obvious nostalgia of bringing home a former player, there were hard numbers and legal hurdles baked into his deal at Clemson. Swinney’s 10-year, $115 million contract, signed in 2022, includes a special $9 million buyout specifically for Alabama, three million more than for any other school, designed to discourage exactly this kind of move. Add to that the personal factor of Swinney not wanting to walk away from the program he built, and the path to Tuscaloosa becomes even narrower. Hear it from Low himself:

“Now, I don’t know from Dabo’s perspective if, at that point in his career, he was ready to leave Clemson. He’s got a great thing going. He’s been there for a long time. That’s sort of in his blood, and as much as he loves Alabama, and always will, that would have been (if he had an offer) a tough decision for him. But no, I don’t think he was the guy at the top of the list.” Well, Low is right. Because at that time of choosing, there were these prospects, too:

• Steve Sarkisian (Texas HC)– He’d been Saban’s Offensive Coordinator during Alabama’s 2020 title run and was now steering Texas back into the national conversation, punctuated by that upset win in Tuscaloosa. With the Longhorns heading to the SEC and Quinn Ewers returning, poaching Sarkisian would’ve meant prying him from a powerhouse he’d just rebuilt. 
• Mike Vrabel (Former Titans HC)– The ex-Patriots linebacker had six NFL seasons under his belt as Tennessee’s head coach, including an AFC title game run in 2019. He’d coached plenty of former Tide stars like Derrick Henry and Rashaan Evans, and while he hadn’t been in college since his Ohio State days, the idea of importing an NFL-style intrigued Alabama’s brass. 
• Deion Sanders (Colorado HC)– Coach Prime went 27-6 at Jackson State and jolted Colorado to national headlines in 2023 with a roster overhaul. Despite finishing 4-8, he showed he could attract elite recruits and attention overnight, making him the ultimate wild-card name for a tradition-bound program like Alabama.

Given the choices, do you think Greg may have had a hard time choosing one? Low thinks otherwise. “I think from the get-go, it was the two men that Greg interviewed, Kaleb DeBoer and Mike Norvell.” And as for why the other prospects weren’t as strongly considered, Low said: “I think Dan Lanning certainly would have been a possibility. He had a pretty major buyout at that time. I don’t think Dan was really ready. He’d just gotten to Oregon, ready to leave a place that had all the resources. I don’t think Sark was ever going to leave Texas because of it being Texas and, again, resources.”

So yes, DeBoer it is. In his first season, Alabama went 9–4 and sits at 1–1 heading into Week 3 in this one. Whether the Tide can rediscover some of the dominance they enjoyed under Saban remains to be seen.

And yet, as Low emphasized, even with Swinney’s national titles and NFL pipeline, “I didn’t have any reason to believe that it wasn’t those two men from the outset, as far as Greg Byrne was concerned.” Saban made his call, but the final decision belonged to Byrne, and with all the factors on the table, Alabama’s future now rides on DeBoer to carry the dynasty forward.