Paul Finebaum blasts 'clueless' Kalen DeBoer, questions future at Alabama

The Alabama Crimson Tide came into the 2025 season with massive expectations after missing out on the College Football Playoff last year. Then, they stubbed their toe in the opener against the Florida State Seminoles, and now the pressure has been turned up on head coach Kalen DeBoer.

One person intimately familiar with how Alabama fans feel about DeBoer is ESPN’s Paul Finebaum. After the game, he shared the phone number for his radio show. Then, he appeared on Get Up on Monday morning, where he joked about sending out his number because he knows that the hot seat is now burning for DeBoer.

“It’ll be the easiest four hours of my life,” Paul Finebaum said. “They will be calling for his firing. That is not going to be a surprise. I’ve already heard from longtime Alabama people who say, ‘I want him out.’ A local columnist is already calling for his head. This is unprecedented.”

Kalen DeBoer replaced Nick Saban, who had won six national championships at Alabama. He was coming in from Washington at the time, a team he had just led to the College Football Playoff. However, the team took a step back in his first season there, going 9-3 in the regular season, missing the CFP, and losing their bowl.

This season was supposed to be a little different. Alabama and DeBoer won the offseason. The Crimson Tide didn’t lose anyone in the Spring transfer window. They’ve been recruiting well on top of that. So, unsurprisingly, expectations have been through the roof. Then, Alabama lost by multiple scores to open the season.

“Let’s not forget, this was a national championship contender. They have enormous talent. Probably the second most talented team roster wise in the country,” Finebaum said. “But they looked soft. DeBoer looks clueless at times. It feels like a house of cards.”

That loss was enough for ESPN’s Heather Dinich to suggest Alabama is now on the outside looking in at the CFP picture. If that holds, and Alabama misses the 12-team Playoff for a second season in a row, then the pressure is only going to increase on Kalen DeBoer.

“I mean, look, it wasn’t just about the loss, it was how they lost,” Dinich said on Get Up. “Out-physicaled, outplayed up front, pushed around at the line of scrimmage. This wasn’t even the SEC schedule. They’ve got one of the top 11 toughest schedules in the country. I have them out of my top 12 right now.”

The frustration is real from fans. However, as Paul Finebaum also noted, there are some good reasons why Kalen DeBoer is going to be around for a while in Tuscaloosa. That, notably, includes his buyout, which sits at $70 million. That money isn’t impossible to put together historically, but it is very difficult to do, especially in a changing financial landscape for college athletics.

In the meantime, Alabama and Kalen DeBoer know they need to make a statement as they’re trying to bounce back from the loss. That starts next week against ULM.