DeBoer vows ‘100% access’ for Saban in future
-
Alex Scarborough, ESPN Staff Writer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama president Stuart Bell marked a “new chapter in the Crimson Tide football program” Saturday by introducing its 28th head coach: Kalen DeBoer, the Associated Press Coach of the Year who this past season led Washington to a berth in the College Football Playoff National Championship game.
But Bell first had to acknowledge the outgoing coach, Nick Saban, who won the AP award twice — to go along with six national championships — during his 17 seasons at Alabama.
“Your legacy will forever be interwoven with the fabric of the university,” Bell said of Saban, arguably the greatest college football coach of all time with seven national titles (including one with LSU) and a record of 307-88-1.
A full-throated ovation interrupted Bell’s speech for a moment.
Saban’s presence was felt throughout the afternoon’s festivities. The five-time SEC Coach of the Year wore a crimson sports coat and sat in the front row, to athletic director Greg Byrne’s left as he spoke inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. Before listing DeBoer’s credentials and talking through the hiring process, Byrne thanked Saban and alluded to a future celebration for him and his wife, Terry.
Beyond the wall of glass behind the dais, a statue of Saban stood along the walk of champions — a testament to the coach’s greatness as well as the expectations awaiting his successor.
“When I look at places I want to be, it’s about winning championships,” DeBoer said. “That’s the expectation, and [I] accept [that] as a privilege to try to uphold.”
DeBoer credited Saban for laying a strong foundation, calling him “the best in the business to ever do it.”
“100 percent access, OK?” he said of Saban’s involvement moving forward. “I’d be a fool if that wasn’t the case.”
DeBoer, 49, grew up in South Dakota and cut his teeth in the lower rungs of college football in the NAIA before winning back-to-back Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards at Washington. He spoke to Saban for the first time Friday. On Saturday morning, he said he called the coach again.
The last time DeBoer was in Bryant-Denny Stadium was in 2017, when he was offensive coordinator at Fresno State. He joked of the 41-10 loss to Alabama, “It wasn’t one that I want to remember.”
But three years later, DeBoer was the head coach at Fresno State. It was then, compiling a 12-6 record in two seasons, that Byrne said the coach caught his attention.
Byrne said he came to Alabama seven years ago as AD knowing that it was his job to facilitate Saban’s tenure for as long as he wanted to remain the coach, while also preparing for his eventual retirement. Byrne said he kept in close contact with Saban during the season, meeting every Sunday, and wasn’t surprised when he called it quits.
“Over time, I was always preparing, hoping I’d never have to execute the plan,” Byrne said.
Byrne was on a flight in search of Saban’s replacement the same evening the coach announced he was stepping down. Byrne told the team he’d have a new coach named within 72 hours. It wound up taking only 49.
Byrne slept nine hours over three nights, calling on Saban for his guidance multiple times. Not utilizing Saban, Byrne said, would have been “irresponsible.”
“Shame on me if I didn’t want to do that,” he added.
Two of Saban’s former players stood to the side of the podium Saturday as DeBoer was introduced: former linebacker Christian Miller and former defensive back Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.
DeBoer, who has a 104-12 record, has never coached in the SEC. He acknowledged his lack of familiarity with the conference and the region but said he understood “there needs to be some SEC ties [on staff] that can bridge the gap.”
So far, no assistant coaches or staff members have been named.
Given the ability of players to leave via the transfer portal, DeBoer and Byrne said they understood the sense of urgency to win over the current roster.
DeBoer met with the team shortly after arriving in Tuscaloosa on Friday night.
“I want you to put yourself in those guys’ shoes,” DeBoer said. “A legendary coach that they came to play for [is gone], and now what’s next?”
DeBoer said he has had multiple meetings with players, both individually and with the team leaders.
“I know how badly they want to continue the tradition and how they want to do it the right way,” DeBoer said. “And them getting to know me in the last few hours has been a blast.
“I can’t wait for the journey that lies ahead.”
Fearing he’d get emotional, DeBoer said he held off thanking his former players at Washington until the end of his speech. And right on cue, he teared up.
“It’s a special place to me, it really is,” he said. “This was one of the few places, maybe the only place, that I would have ever left for.”
Speaking to reporters after the news conference, Byrne said he understood the narrative that no one would want to follow a legend like Saban. If he was a writer, he said, he’d probably offer the same opinion.
“But as I thought about it over the years, one of the things I thought about was, you better have somebody that’s comfortable in their own skin and that looks at this as a challenge and as an opportunity, not as a detriment,” he said. “And almost immediately, for Coach DeBoer and [his wife] Nicole, too … they saw this as a wonderful opportunity.”
While fans in Edmonton and Dallas are always singing about how they have friends in low places, only one of them has the high ground in the Western Conference finals. And that’s the Oilers after their 6-1 win Sunday in Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
With the series tied heading into Sunday, the objective for Game 3 was to gain a firm grasp of the conference finals, and the Oilers did just that by having five players with multipoint performances. As for the Stars, losing Game 3 left them trailing a series for the second time this postseason, with the only other such occurrence coming after Game 1 against the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.
Now that the Oilers are in control of the series, what does it mean for them going forward? What must the Stars do differently ahead of Game 4 for them to return home tied rather than a game away from elimination? Ryan S. Clark and Greg Wyshynski examine those questions while delving into what lies ahead for two teams that not only faced each other in the conference finals last season but between them have been involved in every conference final since 2020.
Edmonton Oilers
Grade: A
Much could change between now and whenever the playoffs end. But for now, the argument could be made that this was the most important playoff game the Oilers have had this postseason.
The Oilers have had numerous strong performances, such as Game 3 against the Los Angeles Kings in the first round or their final two games against the Vegas Golden Knights in the conference semifinals. But what made the Oilers’ performance in Game 3 against Dallas arguably their most important was that they found a balance between being difficult in the defensive zone while not relying on a shutout to accomplish that objective.
The Stars finished with 37 shots, 13 high-danger chances in 5-on-5 play and scored only once. Connor McDavid has repeatedly stressed that the Oilers can play defense, and that has been made clear over their past five games. But Sunday proved they didn’t need Stuart Skinner or their defensive structure to blank an opponent to win. — Ryan S. Clark
Dallas Stars
Grade: C+
The final score doesn’t reflect the majority of this game, which Dallas coach Pete DeBoer can mine for positives among the many (many) negatives and some mitigating circumstances. Having Roope Hintz warm up but not be able to go because of the foot injury he suffered from a Darnell Nurse slash in Game 2? That’s deflating. Having the on-ice officials miss a delay of game call on Brett Kulak in the first period only to have Evan Bouchard open the scoring 10 seconds later? Also deflating.
So it’s to the Stars’ credit that they got to their game at 5-on-5 in Game 3 better than they have in any game of the series, at least before Edmonton ran up the score in the third. The results weren’t there and a loss is a loss — and a loss by this margin is difficult to stomach — but their second period and the performances from some of their slumbering depth players give the Stars at least a glimmer.
However, there’s no question Edmonton has this thing in well in-hand and the Stars have to find a way to solve Skinner, which is not something I thought I’d be writing at this stage of the postseason. — Greg Wyshynski
Three Stars of Game 3
Two goals and an assist for his seventh career multigoal playoff game. Hyman’s second goal was the Oilers’ fourth off the rush, the most in one game by any team this postseason. Hyman also was plus-5 Sunday.
Bouchard scored his sixth goal of the postseason and these two were on the ice for the first two Edmonton goals. At 5-on-5 this postseason, the Oilers are outscoring their opponents 7-1, and 5-0 in this series, when Bouchard and Kulak are on the ice.
0:48
Connor McDavid restores Oilers’ 2-goal lead
Connor McDavid finds the back of the net to restore the Oilers’ two-goal lead vs. the Stars.
3. Connor McDavid
C, Oilers
For all the talk about the lack of goals from the best hockey player in the world (which was odd because he had 20 points in 13 games and was a plus-7 entering Game 3 despite having only three goals), McDavid punched out a pair of tucks for his sixth career multigoal playoff game. Also, seeing McDavid with the puck barreling toward the net on a 3-on-1 is nightmare fuel for opponents. — Arda Ćcal
Players to watch in Game 4
Zach Hyman
LW, Oilers
To go from 16 goals last postseason to just three goals entering Game 3 of the conference finals is one way to assess Hyman. Another is to realize that he’s been the most physical player on a team that is among the tallest and heaviest in the NHL.
Hyman came into Game 3 leading the NHL with 99 hits. He remained physical Sunday by leading the way with six hits in a game that saw the Oilers continue their punishing style with 47. But to then see Hyman score two goals and finish with three points in addition to that physicality? It once again adds to the narrative that the Oilers might not only have more dimensions than last year’s team, they could be better than the team that finished Stanley Cup runner-up in 2024. — Clark
0:53
Zach Hyman’s 2nd goal puts Oilers up 4
Zach Hyman taps home his second goal of the game to put the Oilers up 5-1 vs. the Stars.
This is the first two-game losing streak for the Dallas goaltender in the playoffs. A lot of what happened in Game 3 wasn’t necessarily on him — a Connor McDavid beauty and a Zach Hyman breakaway were among the Edmonton tallies — but outside of the third period of Game 1, he’s not been a difference-maker in this series. Oettinger came into the game leading the playoffs with 5.58 goals saved above expected, according to Stathletes. The Stars have been able to depend on him as a slump-breaker. But this is his third game with a save percentage south of .900 in the series. As the Stars try to build on some positives from this game, they need Otter to provide the foundation for it — and in the process, silence those “U.S. backup!” chants from the Oilers fans. — Wyshynski
Big questions for Game 4
Are the Oilers about to do to the Stars what they did to the Golden Knights?
Simply put, the Oilers are where hope goes to die. Teams in a championship window that have yet to win a title are always being judged on their evolution. What the Oilers did to the Stars a year ago in the conference finals by winning the last three games showed that they could close out a series after trailing. This postseason Edmonton has shown a calculated and methodical coldness when it comes to putting away opponents.
The Golden Knights won Game 3 on a last-second goal to create the belief they may have found an opening. They didn’t score again for the rest of the playoffs after being in the top five of goals per game throughout the regular season. Breaking out for six goals to open the series seemed to be a sign the Stars may have found an opening. Since then? They’ve scored only once in the last six periods while facing questions about what’s happened to another team that went from being in the top five in goals per game in the regular season. — Clark
Can Dallas make Edmonton uncomfortable at all?
Our colleague Mark Messier made this point between periods of Game 3: The Stars have yet to do anything to get McDavid or Leon Draisaitl off their games. That extends to the rest of the Oilers. Outside of an anomalous run of three power-play goals in the third period of Game 1, there have been precious few instances of the Stars carrying play for long stretches or putting a scare into Edmonton at 5-on-5.
They had that for a bit in Game 3 with a dominant second period: plus-14 in shot attempts, plus-11 in scoring chances and a 10-1 advantage in high-danger shot attempts. But they were digging out of a 2-0 hole, only managed to get one goal of their own on the board and then McDavid stuck a dagger in them with 19 seconds left in the second.
The Stars need a lead. They need zone time. They need to get their rush game going: Skinner had a .897 save percentage on shots off the rush entering the game. Edmonton is playing with a champion’s confidence. Dallas has to find a way to inject a little doubt into its opponent or this series is going to end quickly. — Wyshynski
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway