Two reasons.

First, as mentioned earlier, Deboer has won everywhere he has been. This was not the case with Perkins, Curry, Shula, Dubose, Francione or even Stallings.

Perkins had four head coaching jobs. Alabama was the only one he had an overall winning record at going 32-15-1 in four seasons. Outside of Alabama, he only had one winning season out of his other nine as a head coach..

Bill Curry also had four head coaching jobs. Again, Alabama was the only school he had an overall winning record at. He arrived from Georgia Tech with a losing record of 31-43-4. At Alabama he went 26-10. Afterwards at Kentucky he went 26-52 and at Georgia State 10-23.

Mike Shula’s only head coaching job was Alabama. While wins were later vacated, he went 26-23. No one has given him another head coaching opportunity.

Dubose was a good coordinator. But Alabama was his only FBS head coaching job. He went 24-23. After being fired at Alabama he coached at the Division III and high school level.

Stallings had two head coaching jobs. Coming from Texas A&M his record was 27-45-1. At Alabama he went 70-16-1.

Five of the six coaches that Alabama had between Bryant and Saban that coached a game never even had an overall winning record anywhere but Alabama.

Francione was a little better. He went 33-36 at New Mexico, 25-10 at TCU, 17-8 at Alabama, 32-28 at Texas A&M, and 39-43 at Texas State. He was a middle of the road coach and no one can make the argument that Francione was a great coach.

Alabama used to think they could plug anyone with Alabama ties; one of Bear’s boys or a former player/assistant; into the job and they would win. And for the most part they did. But not at an elite level. The reason is they just weren’t good coaches. Yet they still managed to win at Alabama.

Deboer seems to be a really good coach. So, if shitty coaches that can’t even manage to get jobs after Alabama can win 10 games and the SEC, Alabama fans are very hopeful that a good coach with a winning resume will have even more success.

Second, Alabama fans look at how LSU has managed to sustain their success post Saban. As LSU fans love to remind us, they even won national championships with Miles and Orgeron. None of that would have happened if Saban hadn’t first laid the foundation.

So, those two reasons are why Alabama fans feel very optimistic.