Alabama HC Kalen DeBoer FULL INTERVIEW 🗣️ 'We BELIEVE in Alabama!' 🐘 | SC with SVP

What's going through Kalen's head? Saturday night 7 Eastern Alabama welcomes Western Kentucky to Tuscaloosa kayin dbor will lead the tide into action he joins us now on Sports Center and kayn we only spoke once on the show but you impressed me then and from afar as a buttoned up guy but you're a human being man and Saturday night you're coaching Alabama Crimson Tide you come running out of that tunnel what what emotions will you be trying to to navigate and manage yeah I've been asked that question a few times and I think um I'm hoping uh and I feel like I'm at the point where I really had a lot of those emotions during the spring game uh just knowing what we had gone through whether it's January February and and you know that was the middle of April and uh just being so proud of how far the guys had come just in that short amount of time and it was really just kind of still really recent uh I think you know the summer months fall Camp uh it really you know has kind of now become our team and we're all in it together and we understand that The Season's here and so I think it's really honestly sat between now and Saturday it's all about just playing football and coaching a game like I I've always coached but uh I know it's it's going to probably be a different feel walking into a stadium I have been in before but on the wrong sideline and uh looking forward to you know doing our thing together as a football team this might not interest our viewers but it interests me so I'm going to ask you get hired on the 12th of January there's so much to do kayn Has Kalen fully moved to Tuscaloosa? you got to re-recruit the guys that are there you got to recruit the class for next year you got to try to navigate the portal yourself probably bring some people in got to hire a staff have a spring game figure stuff out forgive my ignorance but I want to know do you have a house do you know where your stuff is like is all is all of your stuff in a place where you you can find like some shoes that you like to wear right you know what I'm talking about like just stuff that that belongs to you as a human outside of football where is that part of your life yeah no that that's uh funny you ask I do now uh and it took till about July for that to really happen and fortunately I have a great wife who has been on it uh since we moved in but you know that's that was real what you're talking about uh for the first five to six months so uh it's been a lot of people have helped me you know just through the transition but uh that's certainly a part of a move I think a lot of people don't kind of understand I always think about that I always ask a guy like if if someone joins us after they've been traded a say do you know where your car is and if it's like you know a big time star they might have several but you know you got to get your stuff man that's important uh as for the football stuff this is a What's Alabama's identity? sport where I feel like kayn the word identity is used quite a bit right a team that knows who it is it's important what's what's your identity as the Alabama football team going to look like in your mind yeah I think a team that just uh is tough on the football field you know along with that comes mental and physical toughness uh a team who you know just always is improving uh because you know there's a passion there's a want to and desire to to be the best we can be and just over and over you know just a Relentless uh we call it Relentless pursuit of continuous Improvement and just that's what I hope you see I hope you see guys that enjoy the game uh Play For the Love of the Game you know pursuing the football it's a whole whole defense uh going after for the ball carrier uh when we make big plays I hope you see a team that uh celebrates you know and is excited for that one person uh who made a big play uh but also for our team for the success that it took for everyone to come together and make that play happen so uh the toughness is I think is where it starts uh but that you know there's a lot of things that lead to that what's impressed you most about Alabama facilities people passion from What's impressed Kalen the most? outside the walls I mean it's it's new right you get there you you probably have an idea but you don't know when you got there kayin what's most been like damn yeah I mean the night I landed here was uh something that was impressive kind of got forewarned as the planes coming in but just the embracing even from that very time um you know what felt like thousands and probably was hundreds but just all of that and didn't quickly just getting a sense of the players and how they just believe in Alabama uh how you know they entrusted that as much as they believed in coach Sabin and and everything that had been established here for so many years uh that Alabama still would be able to bring in not just myself but a staff that will continue on the tradition and I just you know that's that's what's been not surprising but what's been just so critical for us uh especially early on to just get the ball rolling and get through those times as you referred to where you know the portals open for our team but really not for us to get anyone else um middle of January you know Spring ball was month and little over a month and a half after that when I got here so putting it all together it required our players to really Embrace Following Nick Saban & Bear Bryant everything I was throwing at them I know you've been asked this a million times a million different ways I'm not clever enough to really put it any other way than Nick couldn't be be but he didn't have to follow him right you can't be Nick but there's plenty about what the man built that I would try to make my own right or at least some version of my own what's been your approach to to just all that comes with those footsteps that you follow yeah I mean there's only one coach Sabin and what he did here uh you know was just outstand I mean unbelievable uh the the the Championships uh the way they were won um just doing it with class uh all of it is just you know top tier stuff um and I think you know for me you just you got to understand how you got to this point and the teams that you put together and what it took and um you know everyone's their own person and no matter who came in here they were GNA have their style and it's going to always be a little different and um you know but I also just can't say enough about how you know a lot of the infrastructure the foundation because of the success uh it's easier to kind of re regenerate you know quickly uh with the uh the success uh at programs like this and I found that and been fortunate to be at a number of places and you know that's what it takes is that Foundation that isn't just a year or two of success it's Decades of success as you alluded to even not just with Coach sa with coach Brian I'll close with this Kaylin uh I was talking to some dog fans last week and I said you realize Georgia fans I mean said you're in the sweet spot right like it's never been this good you got to enjoy it while it's like this I feel like to your point Bama lived in that space for decades right so timelines for fan bases are different down there I Expectations at Alabama mean they you're supposed to win like I how does that jive with your own personal set of expectations of what it is you hope to achieve and when yeah I have the same expectations you know and and what I what I found is is you just pour everything into each and every day and keep surrounding yourself with the right people and that's part of the formula and uh you know those expectations uh you come here for a reason and it's to be a part of that and you know I've experienced and know from you know friends that are in the business that having being in a place where there aren't any expectations I mean you can you can you know you can not love that either you know and so uh you know I think wanting to be at a place like this wanting to help grow the program even when it's at the place where it's at where so much success has happened I think that's still possible and I'm looking forward to doing that here not just this year but in the years to come yeah man you didn't get on that plane cuz you're scared you you got on that plane cuz you know you know what was waiting when you got there a chance to be part of a of a great tradition and build upon it Kaylin good luck Saturday night and Beyond it's a pleasure to visit with you I hope we do it again sometime down the line all right yeah I really appreciate of me on Scott roll tide