Kalen DeBoer’s first Alabama football team is ranked No. 5 in the two major national preseason polls, so the expectation is at least that the Crimson Tide will contend for the SEC championship and earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

The second part of that equation is easier this year, now that the playoff has expanded from four teams to 12. But history would tell us that such a high finish for Alabama is no guarantee.

An examination of the debut seasons for Crimson Tide coaches dating back a century reveals some highs and some lows, with a lot of pretty average football. DeBoer inherited a much more-talented team and a far better infrastructure than most of his predecessors, but there still might be some first-year hiccups and/or some growing pains.

Here’s a look back at debut seasons for Alabama head coaches in the last 100 years, in reverse chronological order:

Nick Saban (2007)

Final record: 7-6 (4-4 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Lost 17-10 at Auburn

Postseason: Beat Colorado 30-24 in Independence Bowl

Saban’s first season included a four-game losing streak late in the year — including the infamous loss to Louisiana-Monroe, but still had a few highlights. The Crimson Tide snapped a four-game losing streak to Arkansas with a final-minute touchdown, and throttled Tennessee 41-14. The next year, Alabama would embark upon a streak of 16 straight seasons with double-digit wins.

Mike Shula (2003)

Final record: 4-9 (2-6 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Lost 28-23 at Auburn

Postseason: None

Shula had a lot working against him in his first season — the Crimson Tide had been hit with crippling NCAA sanctions a year prior and the Mike Price fiasco meant he was hired in May without even getting the benefit of spring practice. Alabama also lost its top two quarterbacks to injury at various points, and lost multi-overtime games to Arkansas and Tennessee. The Crimson Tide would reach a bowl game in each of the next three years — including a 10-2 record and Cotton Bowl victory in 2005, but never really got over the hump until Saban came on board.

Dennis Franchione (2001)

Final record: 7-5 (4-4 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Won 31-7 at Auburn

Postseason: Beat Iowa State 14-13 in Independence Bowl

Franchione was probably a better coach than he’s remembered as because of the way he left, but his debut season was truly up and down. The Crimson Tide turned in some wretched defensive performances, including against Tennessee and LSU. However, a four-game winning streak to end the season — highlighted by a 31-7 bludgeoning of Auburn — foreshadowed some good things ahead in 2002. The NCAA hammer fell early that year, however, and took the shine off Franchione’s entire tenure, which ended when he left to take the Texas A&M job shortly after the 2002 season.

Mike DuBose (1997)

Final record: 4-7 (2-6 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Lost 18-17 at Auburn

Postseason: None

Alabama hadn’t had a losing season in 13 years when DuBose took over for Gene Stallings, but four losses by a single score — 17-16 to Arkansas, 40-34 to Kentucky, 26-20 to Louisiana Tech and 18-17 to Auburn — led to the Crimson Tide’s worst record since the 1950s and began a decade-long era of mostly wandering in the wilderness for the program. It must be noted that Stallings’ final two recruiting classes were hamstrung by NCAA sanctions and were relatively poor, leaving DuBose’s first few teams without much depth of talent. DuBose won an SEC title in 1999, but on the whole showed he was not cut out to be a major-college head coach.

Gene Stallings (1990)

Final record: 7-5 (5-2 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Won 16-7 in Birmingham

Postseason: Lost 34-7 to Louisville in Fiesta Bowl

Stallings’ tenure began 0-3, easily the worst start for any Alabama coach in the modern era. A number of injuries at the skill positions left the Crimson Tide one-dimensional, but Alabama won seven of its final eight regular-season games — including a thrilling upset of Tennessee and the first win over Auburn in five years. The Crimson Tide was dominated in its bowl game, but that did little to curb the enthusiasm for a program that would be living the good life for much of the remainder of Stallings’ tenure, which included a national championship in 1992.

Bill Curry (1987)

Final record: 7-5 (4-2 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Lost 10-0 in Birmingham

Postseason: Lost 28-24 to Michigan in Hall of Fame Bowl

Curry had a lot working against him, including the fact that he was a former player and coach at hated Georgia Tech and that Alabama had passed over native son Bobby Bowden of Florida State to hire him. There were some big wins in Year 1 for Curry, including double-digit decisions over Penn State, Tennessee and eventual SEC champion LSU. But the Crimson Tide ended the year on a three-game losing streak, including a 10-0 defeat to Auburn that was the second of four straight Iron Bowl losses (and the first of three for Curry, whose inability to beat the Tigers remains his legacy in Tuscaloosa despite an SEC title in 1989).

Ray Perkins (1983)

Final record: 8-4 (4-2 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Lost 23-20 in Birmingham

Postseason: Beat SMU 28-7 in Sun Bowl

Perhaps the greatest parallel to DeBoer is Perkins, who took over for a legend who had been and remains synonymous with Alabama football. The former Alabama split end — who left the NFL’s New York Giants to return to his alma mater — did his best to distance himself from Paul “Bear” Bryant’s legacy. He tore down Bryant’s famed coaching tower, ditched the wishbone offense for a pro-style set and fired longtime radio announcer John Forney (Bryant had remained on as athletics director after stepping down as coach, but Perkins assumed the dual role when Bryant died less than a month later). Perkins’ four losses in Year 1 — to Penn State, Tennessee, Boston College and Auburn — all came by seven points or less, but it was still the first four-loss season for the Crimson Tide in more than a decade. Perkins had some big moments, but never won the SEC, and was back in the NFL within five years.

Paul “Bear” Bryant (1958)

Final record: 5-4-1 (3-4-1 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Lost 14-8 in Birmingham

Postseason: None

As with Saban, Bryant took some lumps early on before embarking on a generation’s worth of dominance in the SEC and on the national stage. Other than a Week 1 loss to eventual national champion LSU, the Crimson Tide played everyone else close in 1958. A 14-8 loss to Auburn at season’s end was Alabama’s last in the Iron Bowl for another five years, while the freshmen Bryant signed prior to his debut season were national champions as seniors in 1961. Bryant beat Auburn and tied Tennessee in Year 2, and later had double-digit win streaks against both of those programs and LSU in a 25-year tenure that included 13 SEC championships and six national titles. Bryant became the winningest coach in major-college football history up to that point with victory No. 315 vs. Auburn in 1981.

J.B. “Ears” Whitworth (1955)

Final record: 0-10 (0-7 SEC)

Iron Bowl: Lost 26-0 in Birmingham

Postseason: None

The less said about Whitworth’s tenure the better, but it did slightly improve after his first year. Nevertheless, it’s incomprehensible to think about Alabama football begin as bad as it was in the mid-to-late 1950s. The 1955 Crimson Tide scored only 48 points all season and gave up at least 20 in every game. The “closest” game all year for Alabama was a 21-6 loss at Vanderbilt in Week 2. The Crimson Tide posted records of 2-7-1 in both 1956 and 1957 before Whitworth — an Alabama alum who also coached at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) — was put out of his misery and Bryant was hired. His teams were outscored 100-7 in the Iron Bowl. To his credit, Whitworth did go on to be a well-regarded line coach at Georgia following his Alabama days, contributing to a 10-1 SEC championship team in 1959.

Harold “Red” Drew (1947)

Final record: 8-3 (5-2 SEC)

Iron Bowl: None

Postseason: Lost 27-7 to Texas in Sugar Bowl

Drew was hired after one season at Ole Miss following Frank Thomas’ health-related resignation, and put decent teams on the field early in his tenure. His first Alabama team ended the regular season with seven straight victories — including a 10-0 blanking of Tennessee and a 14-7 defeat of previously unbeaten Georgia Tech in Birmingham in mid-November. Drew’s first season was also the last in which Alabama and Auburn did not play, as the Crimson Tide won the first modern Iron Bowl 55-0 in 1948. Drew’s 1952 team was arguably his best, going 10-2 and crushing Syracuse 61-6 in the Orange Bowl. He was fired after posting a 4-5-2 record in 1954, when the Crimson Tide went 0-4-2 in its final six games and lost 28-0 to Auburn.

Frank Thomas (1931)

Final record: 9-1 (7-1 SoCon)

Iron Bowl: None

Postseason: None

Thomas took over an Alabama team that had gone 10-0 and won the Rose Bowl in 1930, and maintained that standard for much of his 16-year tenure. His first Crimson Tide team outscored its opponents 370-57 and lost only to powerhouse Tennessee, but was not invited to a bowl game. There’s a good reason for this, as the Rose Bowl was the only postseason bowl game in existence at the time. Southern Conference champion Tulane got the bid to Pasadena and lost 21-12 to USC. Thomas’ best team was his 1934 squad, which went 10-0 and capped its season with a 29-13 victory over Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Key members of that squad included All-Americans Dixie Howell and Don Hutson, as well as Hutson’s fellow end, Paul “Bear” Bryant. Thomas went 115-24-7 at Alabama, including another undefeated season in 1945 and a dubious national championship in 1941. He stepped down at the end of 1946 due to heart problems, though he lived until 1954.

Wallace Wade (1923)

Final record: 7-2-1 (5-1-1 SoCon)

Iron Bowl: None

Postseason: None

The first great coach in Alabama football history, Wade won three national championships and four Southern Conference titles in just eight years on the job in Tuscaloosa. His first team missed out on the conference championship by losing 16-6 to Florida in Birmingham in the final game of the season (the Crimson Tide had also tied Georgia Tech 0-0 earlier in the year). However, the next three seasons would help secure Alabama’s place as a national power in college football, as the 1924-26 Crimson Tide teams went a combined 27-1-1 with three SoCon championships. The 1925 squad went a perfect 10-0, including the watershed 20-19 victory over previously unbeaten Washington in the Rose Bowl. The Crimson Tide went back to Pasadena the following year, but tied unbeaten Stanford 7-7. Both those teams won national championships, as did Wade’s 1930 squad, which went 10-0 and crushed Washington State 24-0 in the Rose Bowl. That would be it for Wade at Alabama, as he resigned following a power struggle with school president George Denny. Wade landed the next season at Duke, where he coached for two decades and eventually had the Blue Devils’ Stadium named for him.

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So there’s a journey through 100 years’ worth of Alabama football coaches, most of whom struggled somewhat in their debut seasons. A 10-win finish for the Crimson Tide in 2024 would make DeBoer the winningest first-year coach in program history, though it seems the standard has become a little higher than that.

Creg Stephenson has worked for AL.com since 2010 and has covered college football for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter/X at @CregStephenson.