Kalen DeBoer is juggling fires from every direction, but his locker room isn’t one of them. Even after the Indiana Hoosiers ran the Alabama Crimson Tide out of the Rose Bowl 38-3, captain Deontae Lawson stood firm, locking arms around his coach and shutting out the noise. In Lawson’s mind, there’s no Alabama tomorrow that doesn’t include DeBoer.

“Coach DeBoer is an excellent coach,” said Lawson during the post-game speech on January 1. “He’s a true player-coach. His future here will be remembered. That’s all I can say. He cares for us. He cares for us.”

That’s how Alabama’s faith in DeBoer stands strong even in harsh times. The top-seeded Hoosiers exploded onto the Rose Bowl stage, earning their first-ever CFP win and first bowl victory since the 1991 Copper Bowl.

They delivered a stunning performance, decisively beating a team accustomed to the pressures of important games. It was Alabama’s first 35+ point shellacking since 1998 against Arkansas, and the first time they had ever lost by 30+ points in a bowl since the 1998 Music City Bowl versus Virginia Tech Hokies.

The Crimson Tide’s bowl résumé has taken a hit. Alabama has now dropped three straight postseason games, including back-to-back losses to Michigan, a 19–13 ReliaQuest Bowl defeat, and a 27–20 overtime CFP Rose Bowl semifinal loss.

But maybe there is much more to it beyond the scoreboard. That’s where DeBoer won his players’ trust. In the transfer portal era, player-coach bonds are optional. Still, DeBoer held the ship together better than most would in Alabama’s shoes. 

The Tide lost 31 players in the 2024 portal, but by 2025, that number dipped to a manageable 24, right in line with the norm for programs in flux.

“We’re very intentional with how we spend that time together in building our culture, having the expectations,” DeBoer said in an interview in May. “But most importantly, just growing the relationships that have that, again, trust, that we all want the same thing.”

Lawson’s Alabama journey closed under the bright lights of the Rose Bowl, but sadly, it wasn’t the fairy-tale ending he hoped for. Yet even in the heartbreak, he talked highly of DeBoer, the second-year coach who’s already guided Alabama to 20 wins in 27 games and delivered the Tide’s first CFP victory since 2021.

Even before the CFP victory, Lawson knew DeBoer was the one for Alabama. 

“We’ve had some guys leave and wish them well, but that doesn’t change the standard at Alabama or our belief that Coach DeBoer is going to lead us where we want to be, winning championships,” said the player back in January 2024. 

Even after taking a hard hit, DeBoer does not want his squad to pester over the loss. Rather, he has advised them to move on. 

Kalen DeBoer looks forward to a fresh start

Turns out Alabama’s hands are now tied, and they cannot let go of DeBoer. The reason?

“This isn’t a simple situation,” ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum said. “The reason I say that is DeBoer, like him or not, has a price tag on his head that makes him virtually impossible to fire. There’s a $70 million buyout. You can’t just make a rash decision.”

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No matter how things stand at the moment for DeBoer, the head coach now looks forward to a fresh start. He advises his team to do the same. 

“Our program’s going to be upset when these types of situations happen,” the head coach said in the post-game presser. “We’ve got to use it to fuel us moving forward. It doesn’t sit well with us, but after today, all we can do is move on.”

Well, we know where DeBoer comes from. The Rose Bowl is a bad chapter that he wants to erase from his memory. It was a night full of tough calls and harder hits. 

In the first half, Ty Simpson took a monster shot and coughed up the ball. And every throw after had him grimacing. That’s when DeBoer had to make the call every coach dreads: pull Simpson and let him rest.

On 4th-and-1 at their own 34, after both teams burned back-to-back timeouts, DeBoer tried a slick end-around pass with Daniel Hill to Germie Bernard. Indiana’s defense, though, blew it up in the backfield, turning Alabama’s gamble into a turnover on downs.

Rough night behind him, DeBoer wants a fresh start. Can the Tide trust the guy their players still believe in turning the page?