Paul Finebaum compares Kalen DeBoer Alabama outrage to Mike DuBose, Mike Shula: 'It's not different'

Paul Finebaum began his illustrious four-decade career covering college football — and Alabama specifically — around the tail end of Paul “Bear” Bryant‘s legendary career in Tuscaloosa in the early 1980s. That means he’s witnessed everything that’s followed, including the Crimson Tide highs of winning national championships under Gene Stallings and Nick Saban, as well as the lowest of the lows under Mike DuBose and Mike Shula.

Because of the wealth of experience that Finebaum has seen, he can understand what Alabama fans are currently experiencing through a rollercoaster first two seasons under second-year Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer. He was hired to succeed Saban following his January 2024 retirement but things are rocky.

After a listless performance in Saturday’s season-opening 31-17 loss at Florida State, which was unranked following a two-win 2024, Alabama fans are in a frenzy. Many are already calling for DeBoer’s ouster despite a hefty $60-plus million buyout.

For his part, Finebaum — who has hosted his own sports call-in radio show since 2001 — compared the Crimson Tide fanbase’s visceral reaction to Saturday’s loss at FSU to their outrage during the infamous DuBose and Shula tenures. The latter of those led directly into Alabama hiring Saban as head coach in early 2007.

Paul Finebaum describes the Alabama fanbase’s reaction to FSU loss as ‘DEFCON-1’

“It’s not different,” Finebaum said flatly during a Wednesday appearance on AL.com’s Alabama Football Podcast. “This is DEFCON-1. I cannot remember a time when, after one game, I heard this type of meltdown other than maybe 2000 (DuBose’s final season) when Alabama started the season No. 3 in the country and went to the Rose Bowl and lost to UCLA. And that was different because that was coming off a SEC championship and a (coach) that just got a contract extension that he shouldn’t have, and after he was outted for having an affair with his secretary, but let’s not go back 25 years.

“This is completely different. This is a guy we believed in. This isn’t a guy that got the job because they pushed the other guy out and brought in Mike DuBose to save recruiting,” Finebaum continued. “(DeBoer) was a highly sought after guy, and this is what we’re getting as fans. So if you said to me: give me a roadmap back. It probably comes down to having to beat Georgia. Because you have to make this game up somewhere. … The SEC games are going to define whether he can get this turned around.”

Following Saturday’s loss at Florida State, DeBoer is 9-5 through his first 14 games as Alabama’s head coach, including an even 5-5 split over the past 10 games with a 1-5 mark away from Tuscaloosa. By comparison, DuBose went 24-23 in four seasons (1997-200) with one SEC Championship in 1999, while Shula was officially 10-23 in four seasons (2003-06) after the NCAA vacated 16 of his wins over his final two years due to the school’s infamous “textbook scandal.”