Why Alabama football ‘already feels’ different to Kalen DeBoer ahead of 2025 season

Standing outside of Hancock Whitney Stadium for the 2025 Senior Bowl, the Alabama football coach harkened back to his expectation for the Crimson Tide when he first took the job: to perform at a championship level.

“And we certainly fell short of that,” DeBoer said Tuesday.

Alabama finished the 2024 season with a 9-4 record, recording less than 10 wins for the first time in since 2007. The Crimson Tide lost two of its final three games in 2024, including its ReliaQuest Bowl appearance against Michigan.

But as 2025 prep ramps up, DeBoer said he’s sensing something different, something he is excited about.

“Whether you are 0-12 or 12-0 in a regular season, you are always going to critique and be really detailed on how you got to improve,” DeBoer said. “I appreciate what our staff is doing, what our players are doing to really look inward, work together and continue to move forward. There’s a lot of good things already happening. It already feels just a lot different internally as we turn the page into 2025.”

And it starts with linebacker Deontae Lawson, who DeBoer said was planning on 2024 being his final season until his season-ending injury against Oklahoma.

Life threw Lawson a curveball, DeBoer said. But it’s a curveball DeBoer views as a home run. “That, of course, is exciting for us,” DeBoer said. “Getting a team captain, a guy who is so well respected in the locker room, and well respected by the fanbase, that type of leader at the linebacker position, a guy who makes the calls, the familiarity wit everything whether it’s us with him or him with his teammates it’s another one of those things that allows us to hit the ground running.”

DeBoer said he wants more uniformity when it comes to the NCAA transfer portal window.

At the American Football Coaches Association convention, coaches voted to support a single 10-day portal window, starting in 2025-26, one that DeBoer said he also supports.

“I think a smaller window, and one window would certainly be ideal,” DeBoer said. “That’s just more understanding what your roster’s going to be at this time of year is what we all want. Just taking the gray out of it, the confusion out of it for us, for our players as to what’s ahead, let’s get the development process of your team of these guys and the work that we can put in, let’s get it all aligned.”

Why Alabama football ‘already feels’ different to Kalen DeBoer ahead of 2025 season

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