January 12th, 2024 at 11:25 AM ^
Apparently he's been cancelling all interviews/appearances this week in Seattle.
Also, Tommy Rees? For real? https://theathletic.com/5197160/2024/01/11/alabama-top-candidates-rees-norvell-deboer/
January 12th, 2024 at 11:30 AM ^
He cancelled a radio show today to meet with the UW AD.
The rumor is that he wants UW to put up the same resources as Bama does for football or he'll leave.
We'll find out soon enough.
January 12th, 2024 at 11:37 AM ^
UW is not a football school, so not sure that's going to happen.
Also, pretty sure land in metro Seattle runs a lot more than Tuscaloosa.
January 12th, 2024 at 11:49 AM ^
FWIW I'm not entirely sure the Green Bay Packers put up as much resources as Alabama to support their football team so that is indeed a tall hill to climb.
January 12th, 2024 at 11:57 AM ^
I'd take living in Seattle over living in Bumblefuck, Alabama, any day.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:01 PM ^
that is always the thing about these SEC jobs
it isn't even like they are nice college towns like your B1G, ACC, and Pac-12 (RIP) schools are in, Tuscaloosa is like a brown expanse that gets a tornado every other week. The money is nice but the QOL has to be complete ass.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:17 PM ^
Knoxville is very nice. Oxford is very nice. Lexington is very nice. Nashville is very nice. I’ve heard Athens is a cool town. Austin is Austin. So there are some, at least.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:09 PM ^
Agree on Knoxville. Lexington is a dump and Nashville sucks unless you're into country music. Athens is great. Austin would be perfect if it wasn't in Texas.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:41 PM ^
How much life do you get to enjoy if you are a head coach though? Can't be that much. Seems it's either in season or recruiting with like two weeks off in the summer. Then you just fly somewhere because you have millions of dollars.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:44 PM ^
As a Michigan fan living in Georgia I can tell you Athens is a great college town.My wife is a fan and we've been to a number of games over the years.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:44 PM ^
As a Michigan fan living in Georgia I can tell you Athens is a great college town.My wife is a fan and we've been to a number of games over the years.
January 12th, 2024 at 5:03 PM ^
Yeah, how about Starkville? And saying Oxford is nice is like saying there are very pretty mountains in Afghanistan. It’s technically true, but the area surrounding Oxford is still in Mississippi.
January 12th, 2024 at 1:18 PM ^
It's not just QOL in Tuscaloosa. You have to follow in the direct footsteps of Nick fucking Saban.
Good luck with that...
January 12th, 2024 at 2:02 PM ^
You could win 5 National Championships . . . and still be a disappointment.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:08 PM ^
Tuscaloosa has a beautiful campus. I used to have family that lived south of Birmingham. I would move there in a heartbeat. High level athletics and a really nice community.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:15 PM ^
Show some respect... I have family in that town.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:29 PM ^
That shit-hole has some good people in it.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:44 PM ^
Sister-Cousin?
January 12th, 2024 at 12:38 PM ^
Well of course a yankee would say that.
January 12th, 2024 at 1:10 PM ^
Hey, PSU might take an offense, if they had one!
January 12th, 2024 at 2:54 PM ^
Fayetteville, AR is a really good college town. Beautiful drive through the mountains, into town.
January 12th, 2024 at 1:23 PM ^
I promise you UW will NOT even consider that
January 12th, 2024 at 1:34 PM ^
There is no room for additional facilities either. Uw football facilities are mixed in with the campus and in the city with no room to expand in any direction.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:09 PM ^
Put them on pontoons and float them on the water.
Do I have to think of everything?
January 12th, 2024 at 2:13 PM ^
I don't know about that, it's mostly parking lots up there and anyway renovating things like weight rooms and practice facilities doesn't really require that much more space.
I think the bigger issue is that UW is probably much less willing to dump a bunch of $$ into its football program compared with an SEC school that has no other basis of relevance.
January 12th, 2024 at 11:39 AM ^
Then I guess he's leaving.
I don't know that UW would even be physically able to put up the same resources to football that Alabama does. I'm not saying that to suggest that UW as an institution doesn't have money. They do, but it just doesn't feel like UW would be the kind of place that devotes itself to football the way that Alabama does.
January 12th, 2024 at 11:40 AM ^
The Michigan of the Great Northwest!
January 12th, 2024 at 12:29 PM ^
Unlike Michigan, UW's AD is a net beneficiary of the university. Washington taxpayers subsidize the program.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:07 PM ^
There's risks to both jobs. Going to Bama, yeah you'll get those resources and facilities, but you'll also be following Nick gotdang Saban, so there will be a very high bar for success, and probably very little patience for "failure" (which would be defined as going 10-2). But you'll be able to recruit better players, not have to worry too much about players going to class, and you'll have more shots at the national championship.
OTOH, at Washington you'll have the facilities and resource disadvantage compared to conference peers (especially now that those include Michigan and OSU), plus the fact that your players have to actually go to class. And getting past those said conference peers will be tough to do on an annual basis. BUT, you'll have a patient administration and fanbase who will be a lot slower with the hook if you have a rebuilding year.
Personally, if I was him I'd stick with UW. He'll have a job for life, and while UW isn't necessarily at the top tier of facilities and resources, they're also not New Mexico State or something. UW is a place where a good developmental program could legitimately have a shot at the B1G/Natty every 3rd or 4th year. They're not likely to become an annual steamroller, but it's also not a place where there's a hard ceiling on success.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:59 PM ^
I think he should turn down the Bama job and when another big time job opens up, go after it. The Bama boosters are f'n nuts and following Saban is only going to end in disaster. That is a fan base that will have no patience for not contending for an SEC and National Title next year. Not to say they will but depending on how some big name programs do the next year or two you are looking at jobs like Florida, LSU, Penn State and maybe even USC and Ohio St. opening up, and I think if some of those schools get a sense that DeBoer has interest in coaching them, might jump at that opportunity. Again, I don't think any of those schools, aside from Florida, will potentially be in the market for a new head coach in a year, but that isn't to say that other, possibly "better" options than replacing Saban could present itself in only a year or two.
January 12th, 2024 at 1:14 PM ^
Can you imagine that coach with those players? Could go either direction, he seems to work culture into a program, not take a program full of players and build a culture, and no one can be Saban. But Alabama has, hard to imagine, underperformed the last few years relative to their talent and expectations. DeBoer has vastly outperformed in multiple situations. He must be salivating at this opportunity.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:10 PM ^
Deboer has never coached in the South. Look at the failure of Harsin, by all accounts a good coach, at Auburn. DeBoer is a very good coach, but he may find things are very different at Bama, and the expectations will be insane. If I was DeBoer, I would pull a Frames with Washington- parlay the interest into a big money extension.
January 12th, 2024 at 11:56 AM ^
I believe the Washington athletic department has a lot of debt and is lucky to break even nowadays. It’s one of the reasons they felt they *had* to take the Big Ten’s lowish offer - still better than what the PAC was offering - and leave. I don’t see how they have the resources to approach Bama. Now maybe DeBoer is just using this as a negotiation tactic to get more for his program. It suggests he doesn’t really want to leave but wants a commitment for increased spending. Still I wonder where that money would come from. They don’t have a rich Nike alum who is willing to commit funds.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:12 PM ^
They don't have boosters such as Phil Knight, although there are no shortage of billionaires in Seattle.
January 12th, 2024 at 1:24 PM ^
With Paul Allen's passing, I'm not sure there's a football fanatic billionaire in Seattle. Steve Ballmer lives in the area but owns the Clippers.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:04 PM ^
Ballmer is what UW needs
January 12th, 2024 at 12:13 PM ^
Are there any world-wide, iconic footwear companies in his area that could make that happen?
January 12th, 2024 at 12:31 PM ^
I doubt Nike is going to fund Washington to compete with their baby Oregon!
January 12th, 2024 at 9:02 PM ^
Sorry, I meant any OTHER that don't have a swoosh logo.
January 12th, 2024 at 11:31 AM ^
Ooof. I feel for those Husky fans.
I can't say I blame him. I have no idea if he could sustain success at UW and the pay bump to go to Tuscaloosa would be a whopper.
January 12th, 2024 at 11:35 AM ^
DeBoer right now
January 12th, 2024 at 11:44 AM ^
That's the reality of being a fan of a school like Washington though. You find a Kalen Deboer and hope that he gets you to a place like where they are now, and then you find the "next guy" who can keep the engine running. Isn't that basically how Oregon became relevant the past 20 years?
January 12th, 2024 at 11:52 AM ^
eh both Oregon before the past half decade and Washington in their initial success phase in the early 90s had lots of coaching continuity. Particularly UW with Don James.
I think coaches are way more mercenary now. It was borderline impossible to imagine a coach like Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame for LSU even 10 years ago
January 12th, 2024 at 11:58 AM ^
It was far different era back in the Don James days. Not comparable.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:52 PM ^
...and I think we've lost something because of it being "way more mercenary now."
I appreciate Dan Lanning's announcement that he's staying at Oregon. The grass isn't always greener.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:13 PM ^
You don't want to be the guy to have to fill Saban's shoes. You do want to be the guy that has to fill the guy's shoes who filled Saban's shoes.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:15 PM ^
Although...the guy who filled Tressel's shoes did quite well, but the guy who filled the guy's shoes who filled Tressel's shoes - not so much.
January 12th, 2024 at 1:08 PM ^
Not if you count the year of Fickell and it seems like you have to count that year because it did exist.
January 12th, 2024 at 9:01 PM ^
Ha! Forgot all about him.
January 12th, 2024 at 12:19 PM ^
This seems correct. If I were DeBoer I wouldn't want to follow Saban. (If I were most coaches I wouldn't want to follow Saban.)