Kalen DeBoer reacts to coach firings at top schools around the country

The college football landscape this season has been unforgiving, if there was a word to describe it. With five weeks remaining in the season, powerhouse programs such as LSU, Florida and Penn State have parted ways with their coaches. Arkansas, Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech have also made changes in leadership.

In today’s day and age of social media, where noise around a head coach can get LOUD if his team is underperforming, coaches can go from being in the final four of the College Football Playoff to getting canned just one season later in the case of James Franklin.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about the firings around the sport during an appearance on the latest edition of ‘The Triple Option‘ podcast. DeBoer didn’t touch on any of the individuals, but revealed that he does feel sympathy for those affected.

DeBoer reveals he has ‘much respect’ for fired coaches

“Yeah, I’ve got so much respect for these coaches and what they’re going through and what they do,” DeBoer said. “You’re talking about careers that have spanned decades and gained so much success. Obviously they all probably started as coordinators at some point and they just did a great job. I know they poured everything into it and the college football world has certainly changed. You’re just trying to evolve and change with it.”

“I feel for the players that are in those programs that have to go through that in the middle of their seasons. Time comes and goes for them and someone could be in their last year. Some of them just got there and their world is flipped upside down because of what they were preparing for and who they wanted to play for has changed. I feel for those bad guys. But for the most part, I’m focused on what I can do to make sure we’re learning and growing and continuing to move forward at our program.”

DeBoer received a fair share of criticism from many across the country calling for his head after Alabama dropped its season opener to Florida State. Since then however, the Crimson Tide have won seven consecutive games and sit at No. 4 in the country. It was an extremely hard challenge to succeed the legendary Nick Saban at Alabama, but it seems like Kalen DeBoer has finally righted the ship as the Tide look on their way to their first CFP appearance under DeBoer this season.