re: Iron Bowl = Pink Slip? DeBoer’s Job Might Be on the Line

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Welcome to being mortal

There is absolutely nothing god-given or ordained in college football.

There is nothing special about any college football program in the country. It’s only a confluence of coaching, players, and money.

Alabama hired a once in 100 years coach with Saban. Chances of that happening again are damn near zero.

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The expectations Saban set for himself is that he'd be gunning for playing the game at the very end. At least for me, the expectations have been down throttled to "make the playoffs and see what happens."

I do not think that is unreasonable expectations because Alabama is not a modern pay-for-play pauper. They have one of the more well compensated rosters in college football. It isn't the top but it is in the top echelon. So if they aren't making the playoffs for two straight years, you begin to ask questions if the money is being spent correctly on the players and coaches. If it happens three straight years, you essentially have a huge red flag that the roster build and/or coaching is not adding up to the investment.

I do not think it is unfair for DeBoer to receive criticism if this season has another late season meltdown. He's got a massive, mostly/fully guaranteed contract. He was given a generous salary pool to hire the best coordinators and assistants possible. He's got ~30m roster. He's got an existing player development and support structure cultivated by the previous regime that is damn near peerless.

Criticism is far short of calls for termination though. That massive, mostly/fully guaranteed contract was built to give him a 3-4 years runway to build his version of Alabama football without the fans and boosters mobilizing the AD against him if it is a choppy transition. Those sort of golden handcuffs have an expiry though. My guess is if he hasn't made a playoff by 2027 then he's gone.

He looks like a pretty good coach to me that may need to replace a few assistants. I think the days of firing decent coaches in the middle of the season, with a 50+ million buyout are mostly over since you have to pay 20+ million for players every year, plus hiring a new staff. OU has been patient with Venables. Makes sense to me.

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dont think we lose half the game we lost last year if he was coach.

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I dont think we lose half the game we lost last year if Milroe wasn’t the quarterback. He gift wrapped OU and Michigan.

Oklahoma had to cheat to win against Auburn. The SEC condemned your play.

Yall are poster boys for cheating in the SEC

Only morons would be thinking about firing one of the best coaches in the game after a close loss to a good team.

Unfortunately our fan base like everyone else has a fair number of them and they tend to be extremely loud about any loss and extent of their football knowledge is “did we win?”

You can test that rather easily in this case with the pick six Ty through this week. The know nothings blame Ty, the coaches, etc. They aren’t remotely interested in learning anything either, so there’s 3 options.

Ignore them (best)
Educate them (maybe 1% will get it)
Make fun of their stupidity (the fun option)

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He looks like a pretty good coach to me that may need to replace a few assistants. I think the days of firing decent coaches in the middle of the season, with a 50+ million buyout are mostly over since you have to pay 20+ million for players every year, plus hiring a new staff. OU has been patient with Venables. Makes sense to me.

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You say that but we have notable examples of just the opposite in the SEC. Personally, I agree with you. If you spend the money like Alabama spent on DeBoer, you’ve got to give the coach time because if you don’t then it is even more costly than before since roster payroll is a major expenditure on the books now.

I think we may be seeing the end of the era of massively compensated head coaches though. Or at least an alternative model will emerged. I could see GMs becoming the center of a program and the head coach becomes someone you plug and play into your program based on philosophical and schematic fit. A more NFL style model.

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I don’t really watch Bama games unless it is a big game. I usually have multiple games on, unless it’s UGA then it’s just that one. I watched all the OU game. When did Bama start running gimmick plays on offense? I don’t mean onside kicks, fake punts or reverses. I mean gadget fake acting plays. QBs fake walking to the sideline direct snaps, falling down fake trios by running backs, fake ball being thrown over your head. It all screams you don’t believe in your scheme and preparation.

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They worked... that is why they ran them. The fake falling down play got them about a 30 yard gain.

And it isn't like when they are running those plays... they weren't moving the ball with their regular offense.

I mean, NFL teams regularly have a gadget play or two in their plans each week. I don’t fault it when the margins are tight. The ability for top teams to line up and run standard offense 99.9% of the season is over in my opinion. Nobody has quite the talent advantages to just beat teams by just rotating depth.

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Oklahoma was gifted 10 points off turnovers

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That's one way of saying the Sooner defense took the ball away.