Kalen DeBoer talks moving into Sabanâs office: âA special placeâ
Alabama football head coach Kalen DeBoer has obviously big shoes to fill after taking over for the retired Nick Saban. During an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show Thursday, DeBoer spoke about moving into Saban’s old office.
Patrick asked him if the former head coach had left him anything after clearing out the room in Mal Moore Athletic Facility.
“I haven’t found it yet,” DeBoer said. “There’s probably a few things that we’ll talk about, articles and things like that.”
Saban has another office just down the street from Mal Moore, inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. He’s staying on in an advisor role for the Crimson Tide.
DeBoer reiterated that Saban will have as much access to the program as he wants, and noted how helpful the man who won six national titles in Tuscaloosa has been during the transitional period. He also spoke of what it was like to sit down at the desk in Saban’s old office.
“It’s certainly a special place,” DeBoer said. “And coach Saban’s made it that way. And I think that piece of it was intriguing and exciting to me when going through this process of looking to be the head coach and he’s made it an amazing job as have others who have come before him too. The legacy he leaves, you can’t help but notice it and carrying on that tradition, that’s my goal.”
Since landing in Tuscaloosa on Jan. 12, DeBoer has been hard at work. First orders of business included bringing a staff in and trying to keep Alabama’s roster together as much as possible.
The Crimson Tide’s first game of the DeBoer era is scheduled for Aug. 31 against Western Kentucky.