Commentary: Did Kalen DeBoer make a mistake in leaving Washington Huskies for Alabama?

Did Kalen DeBoer make a mistake?

On Dec. 1, 2023, DeBoer wore a growing grin as reality set in. UW running back Dillon Johnson had just taken a toss and galloped for 18 yards on third-and-9, enough to simultaneously cement a Pac-12 championship and a College Football Playoff berth. DeBoer rested both hands on his black Husky hat, before wrapping co-defensive coordinator William Inge in the kind of hug reserved for summits.

When Inge bolted, senior center Matteo Mele doused DeBoer with five gallons of celebratory ice water. The 49-year-old coach raised his hands and hopped happily, while quarterback and Heisman Trophy contender Michael Penix Jr. took a knee for the final time.

“They gave me everything,” DeBoer told ESPN reporter Holly Rowe after UW’s 34-31 win over Oregon. “They do it for each other. The brotherhood is so strong here. It’s all they talked about before the game, at halftime. They just wanted to showcase what we’ve built and how hard we play for each other.”

During two seasons in Seattle, DeBoer built something special — producing a 25-3 record, a Pac-12 title, a Sugar Bowl win, a 5-0 record against rivals Oregon and Washington State, a 14-0 mark inside Husky Stadium and a CFP National Championship Game berth.

He built a house, then left it to be looted.

Now, reality may soon set in again.

The reality is this: DeBoer has already lost as many games in less than three months at Alabama as he did in two seasons (and postseasons) at Washington. That included a 40-35 stunner at the hands of Vanderbilt, which hadn’t defeated Alabama in four decades. The Commodores were 0-60 against Associated Press top-five teams before toppling the Crimson Tide.

There was also a 24-17 loss to No. 8 Tennessee in October, though last weekend delivered a larger indignity. In a 24-3 flop against 6-5 Oklahoma, the Tide surrendered 257 rushing yards, 5.1 yards per carry and two touchdowns. Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe completed just 11 of 26 passes (42.3%), threw three interceptions and rushed 15 times for seven total yards.

With the Crimson Tide’s expanded 12-team playoff hopes essentially extinguished, DeBoer was asked in the aftermath what’s still worth playing for.

“That’s the commitment we make to each other when we come in here. When you sign up to play for Alabama you make that commitment to each other and the brotherhood,” said DeBoer, referencing a different brotherhood than the December before. “It’s win and lose as a team. We made that commitment, also, not just for each other, but that we’re going to finish. We’re going to finish everything we do.”

Now, a UW fan can be forgiven for inferring some irony, considering DeBoer bolted for Alabama four days after finishing his second season in Seattle. Still, I understand the competitive spirit that likely coaxed that decision, the pull to climb one of college football’s most coveted mountains. In Tuscaloosa, Ala., DeBoer was afforded the assistant salary pool, facilities, NIL budget and recruiting infrastructure to fill a trophy case that disappears into the clouds.

He won’t be afforded time. Or understanding, either.

Let’s say, somehow, No. 13 Alabama (8-3) loses in the Iron Bowl to rival Auburn (5-6) on Saturday. For some programs, an eight-win season is considered an unqualified success. For Alabama — which last lost four or more games in 2007, Nick Saban’s debut season — it creeps closer to a fireable offense.

This is, after all, the behemoth Bear Bryant built — amassing 14 SEC championships and six national titles across 25 seasons in Tuscaloosa. It’s the sleeping giant Saban resuscitated, to the tune of six national titles in 17 dynastic seasons. It’s the blue blood that expects everything and vaporizes everything else.

So, did DeBoer make a mistake? It’s too early to tell.

But as losses mount, it’s easy to consider what could have been.

After all, imagine a team without a transfer exodus, with a core that could include: quarterbacks Will Rogers and Austin Mack; wide receivers Denzel Boston, Germie Bernard, Jeremiah Hunter and Giles Jackson; tight ends Josh Cuevas and Tre Watson; offensive linemen Parker Brailsford, Nate Kalepo and Julius Buelow; defensive lineman Sebastian Valdez; linebackers Carson Bruener, Alphonzo Tuputala and Ethan Barr; defensive backs Jabbar Muhammad and Mishael Powell, etc. Make more space for additional transfers who might have helped such a team.

In a Big Ten with four contenders — Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana — followed by a marathon of mediocrity, that might have been a nine- or 10-win team. But the big picture is blurrier.

Would DeBoer — whose key pieces were primarily transfers and inherited players — have recruited at an elite level, after middling early returns? Would a limited share of media-rights money have doomed UW to the Big Ten’s second tier? Without a Heisman runner-up at quarterback, where would the Huskies go from here?

Though the answers are unclear, DeBoer had earned both time and faith — which can’t be bought at Alabama.

“It’s kind of surreal,” ESPN color commentator Kirk Herbstreit said on that day last December, before DeBoer accepted the Pac-12 championship trophy on a hastily assembled stage. “I’m looking at Washington going up there on the stage. This is a swan song. At one moment you’re celebrating. It’s great. Washington, they’re undefeated. They’re Pac-12 champs. They’re going to the playoff. On the other hand, I’m looking at the monitor like, ‘This is the end.’ ”

He was referring to an era of Pac-12 football.

But it was also the end of something else.

On Saturday, Washington (6-5) and Oregon (11-0 and ranked No. 1 in the CFP rankings) will meet for the first time since, though the Huskies are suddenly the program playing spoiler. It’s Jedd Fisch’s job to renovate the house DeBoer left behind.

DeBoer, meanwhile, might be wondering which brotherhood is really better.