DeBoer’s ‘fingerprints are on everything’ in Year 2
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Chris Low
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — More than a year after Kalen DeBoer replaced perhaps the greatest coach in college football history, his Alabama players don’t necessarily sense that he’s a different person.
But they sense a subtle difference as the second spring practice under DeBoer winds down this week.
“Coach DeBoer had his battles last year, replacing a legend like Coach [Nick] Saban in the middle of the transfer portal, and it was hard to implement everything the way he wanted,” said linebacker Deontae Lawson, a returning captain.
“It was kind of hard for him to come in and be the bad cop or whatever last year. He’s still laid back and still wants the players to lead, but his fingerprints are on everything now — and he’s made it known that you better be locked in.”
DeBoer flashed an easy smile when told of Lawson’s “bad cop” analogy.
“It was more that we were in retention mode,” DeBoer told ESPN on Monday. “I wouldn’t say we slacked off on any of the things that would be the standard of what we need to do and how you need to operate.
“But I do think there’s another level of an edge, a harder edge.”
The Crimson Tide missed the College Football Playoff in DeBoer’s first season. They finished 9-4 and were plagued with the type of inconsistency that isn’t uncommon when a coach takes over such a high-profile program. Alabama lost to Vanderbilt for the first time in 40 years, lost to rival Tennessee and lost to Michigan in a bowl game, but beat Georgia and LSU.
The most crushing blow for Alabama came in the next-to-last week of the regular season when the Crimson Tide were still in position to make the playoff. They went on the road and were blown out 24-3 by an Oklahoma team that was 5-5 and 1-5 in the conference.
“That’s not the standard here, and we all know it,” Lawson said. “But you go back and look at the way Coach DeBoer handled it. He wasn’t pointing the finger at anybody else. He took it all on himself, and I think what you see now is everybody has bought in. We’re one.”
DeBoer said this season, and the way he has evolved, aren’t unlike his second season at other coaching stops such as Washington and Fresno State.
“Your relationships are deeper,” DeBoer said. “You establish that harder edge because of the understanding of what we need to do to accomplish it, and now we have the experiences for the most part together, the staff and players.
“We’re more comfortable now calling each other out because our relationships are stronger, and we know that we all want the same thing. I feel like now we’re closer to having the alignment between staff and players and having the right people here. Everyone has an appreciation for what each other brings to the table.”
One of the things DeBoer did this offseason was bring back one of his most trusted colleagues, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, who was with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks last season. They first coached together in 2007 at Sioux Falls. Grubb was DeBoer’s OC on the 2023 Washington team that lost in the national championship game.
As it happens, Saban, prior to his final season in 2023, tried to hire Grubb as his OC, but the coordinator elected to stay at Washington.
Two of the qualities Grubb hopes to bring to Alabama’s program are consistency and strength.
“You don’t play into the good too much and force yourself through the tough parts,” Grubb said. “Kalen is the same way, keeping it calm when it needs to be calm and being really, really strong when you’ve got to be strong.”
Receiver Germie Bernard, who played under DeBoer and Grubb when they were together at Washington before transferring to Alabama, said they always had answers for everything, no matter what the opposing defense threw at the Huskies.
“And really it’s the belief they instilled in you as a player and the way they played off each other, adding things, tweaking things, playing to what we did best,” Bernard said.
One of the big decisions that still needs to be made on offense won’t be finalized until later this summer. Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell are competing for the starting quarterback job.
“I think we’ve got three really, really good quarterbacks, and I mean that,” Grubb said. “I don’t think anybody has separated. They’re all playing good, but they’re not playing great yet. You’re looking for the guy that’s going to be consistent, that can show up the same and make the same plays all the time.”
In an ideal world, Grubb would like to know who his quarterback is heading into the summer.
“But I wasn’t expecting that either. I wasn’t going into this thinking, ‘Oh, I bet by practice 11 this will be done,'” Grubb said. “I didn’t think that at all, and I didn’t think that because I thought all three of them were good players.”
Grubb said that the staff has charted every throw this spring and that Mack (162 reps) and Simpson (158 reps) have received most of the work in team drills.
At Washington, the coaching staff didn’t name a starter until Week 2 of preseason camp when Michael Penix Jr., a transfer from Indiana, beat out incumbent Dylan Morris.
“That was a little bit different than our situation here,” Grubb said. “Mike had started a lot of games. Dylan had started games. We had two guys that had Power 5 starting experience. So, yes, you would have loved for this guy to have grabbed it and run with it, but we’re just not there yet.”
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Dan Wetzel
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Dan Wetzel
ESPN
- Dan Wetzel is a senior writer focused on investigative reporting, news analysis and feature storytelling.
The University of Michigan has commissioned a full investigation into the practices and culture of its athletic department, centering on how numerous scandals have both occurred and been handled in recent years, a source told ESPN.
The firing of football coach Sherrone Moore this week will be a particular focus.
The investigation will be handled by Jenner & Block, a Chicago-based law firm that has done business with the school in recent years, including conducting the investigation into whether Moore had an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.
The Detroit News first reported the authorization of the investigation.
The firm opened an inquiry earlier this fall about the conduct of Moore and a staff member after the university received an anonymous tip, multiple sources told ESPN. Both Moore and the staff member denied the relationship and not enough evidence emerged to confirm it.
That changed Wednesday when, according to prosecutors in Washtenaw County, Michigan, the staff member told investigators it did occur and presented corroborating evidence. The staff member had, on Monday, broken off the multiyear relationship, according to prosecutors, but became concerned when Moore sent a flurry of texts and calls that were unreturned.
The university promptly fired Moore on Wednesday for the relationship. Soon after, Moore went to the staff member’s apartment just outside Ann Arbor and, according to prosecutors, barged in, grabbed kitchen scissors and some butter knives. He then threatened to kill himself.
“I’m going to kill myself,” Moore said, according to first assistant prosecutor Kati Rezmierski. “I’m going to make you watch. My blood is on your hands. You ruined my life.”
Moore, a married father of three, was charged Friday on three counts, including felony home invasion and misdemeanor charges of stalking in a domestic relationship and breaking and entering. Moore pleaded not guilty, and a probable cause hearing was set for Jan. 22, 2026.
Friday evening, after spending two nights in jail, Moore was released on a $25,000 bond with a GPS monitoring system and an order to receive counseling.
This is the latest in a series of scandals that have hit both the athletic department and the university as a whole. It includes a federal indictment in March of former offensive coordinator Matt Weiss, who is facing 24 charges of unauthorized access to computers and aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors from the Eastern District of Michigan allege that Weiss ran a vast, multiyear effort to access the personal accounts of thousands of NCAA student-athletes across the country. He is charged with targeting specific female athletes to access personal and intimate photographs and videos.
Some of the alleged crimes, the feds say, occurred while Weiss was working inside the school’s football facility, Schembechler Hall from 2021 to 2022, and during a previous stint with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.
There have been additional run-ins with the NCAA rules, including the high-profile 2023 advanced scouting operation centered around former football staffer Connor Stalions. The NCAA hit the program with four years of probation and a fine that could reach over $30 million.
Former football coach Jim Harbaugh was sanctioned with numerous suspensions in his final years at the school for both the advanced scouting situation and recruiting violation. Harbaugh left to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers in January 2024. Moore, who was promoted from offensive coordinator to succeed Harbaugh, has also twice been suspended by the NCAA. He still owes a one-game penalty, which was to be served in 2026, for deleting a thread of text messages sent to Stalions.
The series of scandals have put a spotlight on athletic department as a whole, including on director Warde Manuel, an alum and former player for the Bo Schembechler-led Wolverines of the late 1980s. Manuel has been on the job since 2016.
A high-level meeting of university officials was held Thursday evening, sources told ESPN, leading to intense speculation about Manuel’s future, but he remains on the job. The university would owe Manuel, 57, who signed a new five-year contract in December 2024, about $6.75 million if it dismissed him without cause.
On Thursday, interim university president Domenico Grasso, in a letter to the campus community, asked anyone with knowledge of the Moore situation to provide it via a confidential reporting system.
“Together, we will move forward with integrity and excellence, and reaffirm our dedication to serving the public good,” Grasso wrote.
Despite all of the tumult, the Wolverines’ athletic department is mostly thriving in competition, including the football program winning the 2023 national title. Currently both the men’s and women’s basketball teams are ranked in the top six nationally. Hockey is No. 1.
Meanwhile, the university has consistently set institutional records for the undergraduate application numbers in recent years, hitting 98,310 for the incoming freshman class this year, per federal filings from the university. That is up from 79,743 for 2022, an 18.9% jump in just three years.
Jenner & Block has a long-standing relationship with the university, including, in 2022, investigating an inappropriate relationship between then school president Mark Schlissel and a university employee that led to Schlissel’s removal from office.
CHICAGO — The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled high-scoring forward Nick Lardis from the minors a day after Connor Bedard got hurt in the final seconds of a loss at St. Louis.
Lardis, 20, could make his NHL debut as soon as Saturday night against Detroit. He had 13 goals and 13 assists in 24 games with Rockford of the American Hockey League.
“He’s a guy who’s scored a lot of goals throughout his young career, going back to junior,” coach Jeff Blashill said, “and he’s had a pretty good start to his American league. I know for sure Connor’s not playing tonight, so we just felt like it gives us another potential offensive guy that can come in and provide some scoring punch.”
Blashill had no update on Bedard, who leads the team with 19 goals and 25 assists in 31 games.
With 0.8 seconds left in Friday night’s 3-2 loss at St. Louis, Bedard attempted to win a draw to give Chicago one last chance, but he was knocked down by Blues center Brayden Schenn. He grasped at his right shoulder and immediately headed to the locker room, accompanied by a trainer.
Any significant injury for Bedard would be a major blow for Chicago. It also could take the 20-year-old center out of the running for Canada’s roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“We’ll know more in the next couple days,” Blashill said. “I just don’t want to say stuff that’s not super accurate, so I don’t see any reason to guess.”
Lardis was selected by Chicago in the third round of the 2023 draft. He had 71 goals and 46 assists in 65 games last season with Brantford in the Ontario Hockey League.
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