Michigan Coaching Search: Josh Pate shoots down belief that Kalen DeBoer is unhappy at Alabama

Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer has had his name come up in this coaching cycle once already with rumors connecting him to Penn State, and more since yesterday connecting him to the now-open job at Michigan. But Josh Pate doesn’t fully see why that could be the case for the head coach of the Crimson Tide.

During an appearance on ‘Get Up’ on Thursday morning, Pate discussed the fallout of the Wolverines’ firing of Sherrone Moore on Wednesday, including the emerging candidacy of DeBoer. He didn’t deny that, as far as their coaching search, the Wolverines should call him to see if he’d be interested in coming to Ann Arbor.

“The next guy I would have gone after (after Matt Campbell) is at the University of Alabama. I would make Kalen DeBoer tell me no,” Pate said. “I would make him tell me no because he comes from my part of the country. I think he understands the gravity of the kind of job that Michigan is, because he understands the kind of gravity of the job that Alabama is. Now, what you don’t know, that is widely speculated in the market, is will he even listen to me? But, I’m Michigan, so I’ve got that Block M on my chest, so I’ve got the audacity to think anyone would listen to me and that would be the first one.”

All things considered, DeBoer would be a coach that plenty of programs would want, which is why, two years ago, he was hired as the next coach of the Crimson Tide. He is 19-7 (.731) at Alabama, which brings him to a record as a head coach of 123-19 (.866), including his stops at Washington, Fresno State, and Sioux Falls. He also, along with three national titles in NAIA, has two appearances now in the College Football Playoff, as he has the Tide back in the CFP after leading a runner-up finish two years ago for the Huskies.

Still, despite his successes in Tuscaloosa, rumors have arisen about how happy DeBoer may or may not be at ‘Bama. Pate again discounted that thought, though, based on where he thinks he stands so far in his tenure with the Tide.

“I will say there is this thing that’s floated around because it hasn’t been tamped down, and it started with the Penn State search and it will probably continue in the Michigan search, and it’s about Kalen DeBoer, and it’s about him secretly being miserable at Alabama. So, I don’t know who the sourcing is on that,” Pate said. “I can tell you I have sat in Kalen DeBoer’s office, both on record with him on camera and off record, just looking him in the eye. I have asked him about that point blank. This is a guy who’s a pretty straight shooter, and he has been effusive in his praise of what it’s been like to move there. So, I’m not saying that’s definitive. I’m just saying I kind of trust my source on that, because my source is the guy himself. I don’t know what the folks on talk radio and message boards know that I don’t about that.”

Even Pate doesn’t yet exactly know where things stand this early in the search for Michigan. Among those factors is how realistic of an option DeBoer, let alone anyone else, is right now for the Wolverines.

“Really foggy. I’m in Nashville right now. I’m looking out my window and it’s foggy,” Pate said of the state of the program right now. “That’s kind of the Michigan situation. As far as the coaching search angle, Adam Schefter put it very, very succinctly there when he said there are layers to this and it’s very complicated and there are a lot of grey areas.”