Inside the Haunting Legacy: How Alabama’s Legendary Coaches Shadow Kalen DeBoer’s Every Move

There’s a certain irony in Kalen DeBoer sprucing up his office at Alabama’s Mal Moore Athletic Complex — a fresh coat of paint, new desk, maybe some potted plants — while the soul of the Crimson Tide football program seems stuck in a murky fog. You’d expect the spirit of teamwork and mutual respect to be as formidable as the team’s legacy, yet here we are: players barely acknowledging each other’s triumphs, a defensive unit under Kane Wommack falling short of the towering “Bama Standard.” The sting of that 31-17 defeat by Florida State still lingers, dragging Alabama into ESPN’s Bottom 10 shortly after Week 1. But it’s not just about a bad loss. It’s about shadows that stretch long across Tuscaloosa — ghosts of legends past like Wade, Bryant, Stallings, and, of course, Saban, who might already be wrestling with regrets over his retirement. Some voices, like USA Today’s Matt Hayes, capture the anguish perfectly — how this once unyielding titan of coaching may now be haunted not just by a faltering team, but by the heavy burden it places on those close to him. Alabama fans are left in that uneasy place too, waiting, wondering — is DeBoer the real heir to the throne, or are we staring down another coaching carousel before this saga even begins? LEARN MORE

Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Kalen DeBoer modernized the head coach’s office in the Mal Moore Athletic Complex, but he certainly hasn’t made the program his own. Players don’t respect each other and won’t even celebrate each other’s on-field success.

DeBoer and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack’s defense has failed the “Bama Standard.”

Ipso facto, ESPN’s Ryan McGee put the Crimson Tide in his Bottom 10 after Week 1, following a 31-17 loss to the Florida State Seminoles, and painted the picture of DeBoer having to face the ghosts of Alabama’s past:

Wallace Wade, Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings, and Nick Saban.

“The Coveted Fifth Spot is Bottom 10 holy ground,” McGee wrote. “When you walk into this room, you do so by strolling past papier-mâché busts of Randy Edsall and Jeremy Pruitt. If you’ve ever been to the Alabama football facility, then you know that when Kalen DeBoer goes to work, he walks past the giant bronze heads of Wallace Wade, Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings and Nick Saban. I wonder, after you lose to Florida State 31-17: Do those busts make scary faces and sing spooky songs like the ones on the Haunted Mansion ride?”

DeBoer may be haunted by the fact that there are insinuations Saban already has regrets about retiring and may want to return to his throne in Tuscaloosa to restore the program to its former glory.

‘Watching the now listless Alabama program, this group of furloughed players from the unrelenting taskmaster of years past, is too much for one rare, megalomaniacal legend of a coach to bear,” USA Today’s Matt Hayes wrote.

“And that means the lovely Ms. Terry has to bear it, too. By proxy.

“The women who willingly choose to marry into the untenable profession with their husbands, who live and breathe it on a daily basis, are the last line of sanity. When everything else is up to a million, they modulate the turmoil down to one.

“Because right now Nick is looking at Terry and asking if they did the right thing. He feels guilty, he could’ve done more. He let down the players and the university.”

No one is more haunted by Alabama fans, hoping to get some clarity soon about whether they have Saban’s genuine successor or if there’s a second coaching change in as many calendar years coming soon.