DOUBLE STANDARD: Why Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer Gets SLAMMED While Dan Lanning and Oregon Escape

This is the Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Hi, this is Isaac Shade, host of Locked On College Basketball and Locked On Tar Heels. Today's episode is brought to you by ADT. Imagine you're watching the game at a buddy's house when you get a call that someone tried to break into yours. In a second, everything can change. That's why there's ADT. ADT security systems help keep your home safe 24-7, with the most company-operated monitoring centers in the industry. The ADT Plus app keeps you in control the whole time. Don't leave your home wide open during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit adt.com or call 1-800-ADT-ASAP. Can somebody explain to us why DeBoer gets hate while other coaches get a pass? You are Locked On Bama, your daily podcast on the Alabama Crimson Tide, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Luke Robinson. That's Alabama Internet legend, Jimmy Stein. This is Locked On Bama. Thanks for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. There is, you guys are the best. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Jimmy, it dawned on me last night that, you know, well, actually, dawned on me the other day, but it dawned on me again last night, and then again this morning, that why does DeBoer get absolutely ripped to shreds every time Alabama doesn't get a first down? And Dan Lanning is still the golden child of college football. This is not to pick on Dan Lanning, by the way. I think Dan Lanning is an incredible coach. I think he's done a really good job at Oregon. There's no doubt about it, and he's recruited very well. But let me just tell you a couple of things. You know what happened last year? Well, this year, first of all, Oregon loses to a team that hadn't beaten an FBS team in like 20-something games, right? Oregon loses to a team that just lost to Tulsa as a big favorite. And Oregon looked non-competitive. Oregon has the number one pick in the draft according to most services in Dante Moore, a guy who was a Heisman favorite, an Oregon big favorite in this game. And he's outplayed by a guy who didn't look good against Tulsa, right? And Oregon drops from number six to number 18, which I think is pretty fair. But Alabama last year was number eight with a brand-new starter at quarterback, playing against a FSU team. Granted, this FSU team had a hell of a lot better than Oklahoma State was this year, but they had a better record over the last several years than Oklahoma State has. They have more talent than Oklahoma State did. And Alabama loses, and as about the same or maybe even less of a favorite, and Alabama drops from eight to 21. And what's the thing everybody's saying? And by the way, I get that we were upset too. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that nobody's saying, hey Oregon's not what they used to be. Dan Lanning can't get it done. Why is this? We said it right here on the show this spring and summer. It's funny you're bringing up now. So we said it on the show this spring and summer when we talked about why is Alabama being under ranked and underrated by so many of the national analysts. I said, I think it comes back to this. Indiana destroys Alabama in the playoff. And the take from that was, gosh, Alabama is just not very good. One week later, Indiana destroys Oregon in the playoff by just as many points. And the take was, wow, Indiana is something. I think it's back to that. I guess it's a lot of wish casting in terms of Alabama's demise. I think a lot of people out there want Alabama to be dead. And a lot of people assume, a lot of people assume for years, Luke, there was an assumption, a lot of Alabama fans share to this assumption, but there was this assumption, when Saban's gone, that program is going to maintain Saban level expectations, but they're not going to be very good. And the fans are going to just freak out on the new guy, and Alabama is going to be dead. Well, yes, Alabama has taken steps back. We're not the same program we were under Nick. We're not dominant elite dynasty type program. We're not, we're not. We've taken a step back. Now, what I would say is we're just good, along with a bunch of other good teams. But you know what? Most of the fans, most, most of the fans haven't turned on DeBoer. Most of the fans did take the step back and go, hey, you know what? That Saban dynasty, that was special, that era was special. We love it. We'll love it forever. This is a new college football. So we're going to give this guy a fair chance in this new landscape. But we're not going to hold him to, hey, you got to win like Saban did or you're out. I haven't heard any reason why Alabama fans say anything remotely like that. Conversely, Oregon, they're not, they never had, Dan Lanning didn't take over the Saban dynasty. He took over from Mario, right? Who was winning, but not even winning like he's winning at Miami now. I agree that Dan probably gets a little too much love and isn't proven enough. But you know what is people like, Dan's real intense, DeBoer's laid back. Fans have a tendency to think the intense coach is better. I don't know why, because there's so many examples from John Wooden, Bill Belichick, Phil Jackson, Bill Belichick. Lots of great examples of some of the greatest of all time, who don't coach with red hot fire intensity. Bear Bryant, I'm sure early in his career was pretty intense. I think later in his career was not, but in terms of his reactions on the sideline. But fans believe the coach that's constantly screaming and cursing and losing his mind is the better way to do it. I don't know exactly why that's the case, but I do think that explains some of why Lanning is thought of as a genius and why DeBoer is thought of as just, you know, biding his time until the Alabama fans chunked him into the ocean. Mea culpa here. When Kane Womack went nuts the other day after Alabama made I think got a turnover or a sack, or they stopped the fake pun or whatever they did. I tweeted immediately, I was like, that's what I want to see. I need to see that. Now, I want to be clear about something. I don't care if it comes from the head coach or not. I just want to see a coach doing that because you need a coach doing that. You don't have to have all of them. If you've got everybody all riled up, I mean, it's going to be tough to maintain that and eventually it's going to wear off. But you need a voice of reason and then you need somebody that's a rah rah dude. And I think Kane Womack did a great job coming in when he needed to the other day, showing the motion, the cameras did a great job of catching it. And Jimmy, we were down on DeBoer to a degree after Florida State. And then I was very down on DeBoer and Grubb at halftime of Kentucky and I wasn't alone and I get it while we were and I think it was justified. My point is, DeBoer, now it ended up where DeBoer ended up with the number 13 pick in the draft at quarterback. But at the time, nobody thought Ty Simpson was going to be a first round pick. Maybe you and I thought he could eventually be there because we're sort of homers. But nobody thought he was really going to be one. Dante Moore, just about universally is a top three pick in the draft. It's a different situation because Dante is a returning starter and would have been a first round pick last year had he come out. And you want to take it even a step further. As somebody pointed out to me, I'm going to give him his name and his props here in just a minute because I forgot it. But he said, hey, something y'all should talk about on the show. Ryan didn't have any drops against Kentucky. And he didn't. And I mean, it's sort of like patting somebody on the back for breathing in the morning. But you know who did have a drop? Decorian Moore, Keelan Russell's old teammate at Duncanville, who is at Oregon, had a big drop. And I don't hear anybody saying, what is wrong with Decorian Moore? I can't believe how bad Decorian Moore is. Why does he get all the love? I can't hear. I don't hear these things. And maybe it's because we're in Alabama and that stuff is being said in Oregon. But I do listen to a lot of national broadcast. I watch a lot of national stuff. And I haven't heard anybody give Dan Lanning the Kalen DeBoer treatment. But you're absolutely right. Fans identify probably more with somebody who's as pissed off as they are when things are going poorly. And Kalen DeBoer, at times when the camera catches him and it's a poor time sometimes, it looks as though he's too pensive. But that's just him. And he's still a great coach. By the way, he has beaten Dan Lanning numerous times with more talent. Yeah. Dan DeBoer has a resting face, I guess you would call it, that is sort of more reflective or positive. Hey, he's a positive guy. Fans and players, particularly players, but fans too, take on the personality of their coach or they can. I think that's why we saw a new brand of Kentucky fan this weekend per Alabama fans that were at the game, who normally go up there and talk about how nice Kentucky fans are. This time they went up there and came back going, whoa, those Kentucky people were mean. They were brash. Well, that's because they were following the orders of their coach. DeBoer is the type of guy. He's a positive guy. That's who he is. Now, this is what happens and this has had to be very effective. If DeBoer is a positive guy, you can bet there is a designated player, a designated coach, not by accident, that's sort of the bad cop, good cop, bad cop. And under Saban, Saban was the bad cop. Saban was, Saban was, you know, he was the guy you didn't want to go face when something went wrong. That meant someone like, for instance, a Scott Cochran was the positive guy, the lift you up guy. Saban tears you down. Scott builds you back up. Well, I think as everything is upside down, post Saban, I think DeBoer is the good cop. Someone on the staff, I don't know, maybe a grub, the bad guy. You know, someone's got to get on the guys and then someone lifts them up. That has worked forever at big time college football. I just think now we're going to have to kind of get used to the fact that this time around the head coach is the good cop. Let's also be clear, we're not excusing Alabama's losses to Florida State, to Vanderbilt, to the two Oklahoma losses, by the way, to blow out the Indians. We're not excusing that. What we're saying is, I mean, if you listen to ESPN, if you listen to Stephen A. Smith, if you listen to any of these folks, and I know some of you are going to say, he's crazy, but they do create the narratives. Then you would think Kalen DeBoer doesn't know his butt from Deep Center Field. He gets over-criticized, he's over-criticized. He's earned criticism, but he gets over-criticized. And other coaches, like you said, like Lanning, seem to get a pass. I don't know that he's going to get a pass. Like Kramer famously said, starting now, starting now. I don't think he gets a pass. But he shouldn't because here's what's funny. I mean, Oregon has all, I mean, Oregon's, everybody's picked to win the national championship. Or my pick to win the national championship. I'm not going to dodge that. I picked them to win the national title. And I'm also not going to give up on it until they have a third loss. Well, they have so much more talent. And they lost to a team that essentially is North Texas. The North Texas coaches brought the North. So we always talk about that when you bring your team over, you are what that team was. I mean, you all bring to South Florida this year. Indiana was James Madison a couple of years ago. And that worked out all right. And the state is Iowa State. Yeah, yeah. And looking pretty good. Well, people don't realize this. Iowa State is probably a pretty decent team in the Big 10, because they'd beat all the bad mid-Big 10 teams. Let me also tell you this. If you want to make money every year, when they play the Iowa-Iowa State game, and if the line is three, in which it probably will be, what you need to do is buy the half both ways and middle it. That game always ends in a three-point game. Every time, undoubtedly, it's unbelievable. That's just a little loop tip for you guys. Omaha Steaks, Jimmy. Delicious. Protein seems to be everywhere these days, in popcorn, cereal, coffee, bars, powders, snacks, all that stuff. 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That's omahasteaks.com. Terms apply because they apply to everything. See site for details at omahasteaks.com. This message is a paid partnership with Apple Card. One of my favorite parts of game day is everything leading up to it, getting the house ready for a watch party, putting on my favorite team's hoodie and making one last run to the store before kickoff, you know, the routine. And with my Apple Card, I can earn up to 3% unlimited daily cashback on every purchase I make with Apple Card using Apple Pay. Not a month from now, but every day. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch terms and more at applecard.com. Well, actually, I want to tell everybody to go check out our Every Day Club. I always kind of forget that. I don't want to because I want you there, lockedonbama.supercast.com. $5 a day. I don't know if the $50 a year thing is going on. I still think that's over, but $5 a day. $5 a month. $5 a month. $5 a month. I mean a day. $5 a day. Just to talk to me. Wish it was $5 a day. Yeah, we'd be. I'd switch from Miller Lite to one of those craft beers. We'd be making so much. $5 a month. I'm so sorry, y'all. No, $5 a month. There are going to be some people who go, thank God, who are worried about getting their credit card bill next month. But yeah, so $5 a month. It's awesome. Go check it out. But go to the Every Day Club. It's the Every Month Club, $5 a day. No, I'm kidding. It's $5 a day. $5 a month, every day, your club. So go check it out. We'd love to have you. Jimmy, after the Kentucky game, there are a lot of dudes that give me a lot of hope. I want to say one more time that while I was uber pissed at halftime of the Kentucky game, I'm also now uber excited. And I'm so thankful that it's not the other way around, that we didn't have a great first half and blow it in the second half and still win by the skin of our teeth because I would feel awful. I feel a ton better after that second half. I feel a lot better in everything. Ryan Grubb still is worrying me. I'm not going to lie. But everything else, I feel very, very good about the kicking game, even the quarterback, the receivers, the blocking, the running backs, the whole deal. I feel better about all of it. But I want to know who you feel like has the most potential. It's easy to say Daniel Hill, because he had maybe the game of his career. You say, okay, but we know about Daniel Hill. I'm talking, is it Jireh Edwards because of the one play where he just seemed to, it was one on 11 and he won? Or was it Ivan Taylor who made a name for it? Was it Dre Kay Jr. who looked really good? Is it Rico Scott who made some nice catches including a touchdown? I think all those guys are interesting. I would say in terms of the unit I'm most excited about right now is obviously the defense. I mean, I think they have a chance to be as good. You know, some people say best defense since 2017. How about this? Maybe as good a defense as any of the best of the Saban era. I mean, 2016 or 2017? Well, some people are saying it's the best defense since 2017. What I'm saying is it might be better than that. I mean, it might be. It's too early. But what I love the most about the defense is one of the things to admit, not saying I was wrong the last couple of years. In fact, I think I was right, I would criticize Kane for playing too many players, especially early in the game. Just keep your best 11 on the field until the game is secure. Because I kind of learned that under the Saban era. But Kane played a lot of guys. Now year three, now that they've done three years of recruiting to Kane's system and what Kane wants on the field. What I'm excited about when you say players I'm excited about, it's defenders that aren't even in the starting line up. For instance, Luke Metz and Caleb Woodson need to be the starters of the two best inside linebackers on the team. They're obviously both playing great, not criticizing the choice to make them the starters. They absolutely should be the starters. But how about when you take them out and put in QB Reese and Xavier Griffin? Boy, now you're making plays. What happens at safety when you take the deserved starters Hubbard and Sab out and put in Drake or Patrick and Jireh Edwards? Holy moly. What about on the defensive line? When you start out with Devin Tompkins at Bandit where he got a sack this past weekend playing Bandit? Did he not get two? He did. But what I'm about to say is, Devin Tompkins got a sack playing Bandit. Didn't they move him inside? And then he makes another sack playing inside. So he got a sack each playing two positions. And we move him inside. Know you can put it Bandit. You can put Desmond Umazulu. You can put Yonze Pierre. Or even late in the game, they've been playing Fatu Tua Henry, who had a sack last week. Look pretty good again in garbage time. I'm going to say that the depth of playmakers, it's not just, hey, we got depth. No, they're bringing guys off the bench who are making plays, game-changing plays with the ones. So when I think of players I'm most excited about, it's like, hey, when we go to the bench on defense, it's kind of like if you're sixth man in basketball is one of your best scorers. You fall behind by five and put in your sixth guy and he hits three threes. That's what it kind of feels like the defenders are doing right now when we're substituting, which again, not going to walk back what I said, year one and year two, playing too many guys. This year, I don't know that you can play too many guys because some of the best playmakers are bringing off the sidelines. Off topic, why do I think of any microwave Johnson every time somebody says six man? Because I never. Is he the best six man of all time to me? I'm very Alabama centric when it comes to that. When I think of best six man of all time, I think of Keith Askins. That's a good one. Or that brief period of time we were bringing Jireh Wallace off the bench at one point, and who was the most athletic kid in every gym he's ever been in. And we were bringing him in as a six guy. But Keith Askins is who I think of as the best six guy ever. And I realize that's such a myopic view. I mean, Luke's talking about all time basketball history. I don't really know. I don't know. I think that's fair. The NBA has a six man award. I wonder, I wonder who won that the most. You wouldn't think it would be someone winning it all the time, because if someone was winning it all the time, they'd be in the starting line up. Well, it does make me wonder, what if you have it in your contract, like if you win the six man award, you get a million dollar bonus. And would you rather be the fifth starter or the six man? I think I'd rather be the six man. Of course, if you're making a million dollars in the NBA, you're broke. That's nothing, that's nothing, literally nothing. One other question, Steve Boonway, where is he at? He played some snaps this past weekend, but he's not a front line guy right now. He's not playing with the ones. And we talked about one of the things we said this summer, is Boonway is going to be one of two things. He's either ready, and when he's ready, he's going to be out there as much as any other one, or he's flashy but not ready. I think that's where he's at in his game, flashy but not ready. I'm getting kicked off because I'm ready to use this, and I haven't been able to. That's why you brought him up today? That's the only reason I brought it up, because it's still a little picture in these little pictured things I have over here on the right that you have access to and nobody else does. Yeah, the people on the audio, that was Luke flashing a picture of BoomWah dressed as Steve Urkel and saying that I signed that. But it's coming. Look, he slash you, but no, I've asked and look, I think his issue is down to down playing within the framework of the defense and doing his job as a defender, as opposed to playing hero ball. If everybody out there is just all playing hero ball, just, hey, go make a play. Hey, line up and they look to the sidelines are like, what do we do? The defensive coordinator who never does this, but says something like, I don't know, y'all just go make a play. I think that's where he's comfortable. He would, by the way, every now and then, but there has to be a frame. It's just consistency down to down within the framework of the defense, which makes all the sense in the world, considering his lack of experience. I will say this, next year would be make or break for him. Next year, you have to move beyond the flash and be an every down player. I have every confidence he will be that guy, every confidence because the athleticism, the power, the speed to power, the power to speed, he's got all of it. It's just learning to play consistently. Still a pretty good guy to have, by the way, off the bench. When I say we're bringing playmakers off the bench, there's another guy. You can bring him off the bench in the third quarter when everybody's wiped. He'll be up there running down, freaking Camario Taylor. I'm going to talk a little FanDuel now. I'm going to find the FanDuel thing. Here it is right here. You've waited all season for this. Now it's time to make every NFL week count because FanDuel is making this your most rewarding season ever. 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One of my favorite things to do every year this time of year is talk about Bama and the NFL because it's just so much fun and there's so many dudes. And I was fortunate enough this year to get Derrick Henry on my fantasy team and everybody laughed at me like, oh, he's going to be washed. Nah, he's the goat. Not washed, narrator, not washed. Confirmed, narrator, not washed. He is awesome. He's so much fun. He's still such a badass. Jimmy, you and I beg for people to do this all the time. Why do people not bring him up in the litany of best running backs of all time? They should, and I think they will. I think hindsight will help him more than anything. Because when people start looking back and realizing, oh, he's had more 100-yard games with two touchdowns in the same game than anybody else in the history of NFL football. Oh, he's the all-time leading rusher in high school football, in the nation. Oh, he's Alabama's all-time leading rusher and he really only started about a year. One of the Heisman, one of the national championship, all-time all-time high school rusher, one of the Heisman in college and is now one of the most productive backs in the history of the NFL. I don't know that anybody, I mean, Herschel and Bowe don't have the NFL like Derrick Henry has the NFL. I mean, Herschel and Bowe are probably the two best SEC running backs I've ever seen, because I'm old. Most of y'all are as old as me and y'all didn't see me. Do you put Derrick in that same category? I do. That's the strange thing. You have to. You have to. If you don't, you just simply have to. Because Herschel and Bowe are good high school careers, not like Derrick's. Sure, good college careers. All three of them, one, a Heisman. But in the NFL, Derrick's got the NFL, too. Now Bowe split time with Major League Baseball and ultimately got hurt and Herschel had the USFL issue and he kept him out. But that's the thing. You've got to put Derrick with Herschel and Bowe and all the other great running back freaks of all time. I mean, it's like to me when people... It's like Tua, you and I love Tua Tagovailoa. I think he's... Look, if you told me you get one quarterback for one game and he's guaranteed to stay healthy in that game, I may choose Tua over any quarterback. But that's the thing is you can't guarantee he's going to stay healthy. That was the thing with Bowe. You couldn't guarantee he was going to stay healthy. He was fantastic. Nobody's doubting his greatness. I'm just saying Derrick Henry's taken as many... Actually a lot more hits than Bowe and has just plowed right on through. He's a cyborg. I mean, it's not like there's other backs like him. And watch, now every jumbo size back is going to be compared to Derrick Henry. Good luck. They're not Derrick. It's like when you got some shifty little 5'8 wide receiver and they're like, oh, he's David Palmer. No, he's not. No, he's not. And when they compare some jumbo back down to Derrick Henry, no, he's not. He's one of one. And so he is now third in the NFL all time rushing touchdowns, 124. And he's only he's got just a few more to go to Tyler Damian Tomlinson. And it looks like he'll probably pass that this year. Now, Emmett Smith's like 160 or something. So, I mean, it, you know, Derrick may have to play a few more years to get that. But he might get it. He might get it. He had three touchdowns yesterday. Jameer Gibbs, just dudes just putting on a show against the Saints, I know. And the Lions kind of didn't look so good against the Saints, but I think they'll be fine. Will Anderson had a half sack and three tackles. Let's see a few other. The Browns, man, I'm so sorry for Jerry Judy. He had two recesses, 26 yards, but it's going to be a rough, rough year for him. Bryce Young, maybe his best game in the NFL, 361 yards, three touchdowns and a rushing touchdown. The problem was their defense. And this is why Bryce may have a fantastic year statistically. Their defense is so bad that they're going to have to use him. I gave up 10,000 yards. Angela Waddle, if you're listening to the show, have a big game tonight. Please, for selfish reasons. But Waddle, have a big night, man. Jonathan Allen was part of a nice bingles defense that ended up with a win. Devontae Smith. Bingles might be good. I'd look for the bingles to be pretty good. Devontae Smith and Jalen Hertz. Hertz had three touchdowns and rushed 46 yards. Devontae only had three catches for 53. But they just didn't throw it to him enough. They gotta throw it to him more. I was looking forward to him being wide receiver one with AJ Brown out. Now AJ Brown literally out. How about, yeah, that was good. Former Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner, seven pressures and forced an interception on one of them. Will Reichardt was good on both his bingles. Of course he was. I mean, Will Reichardt was a man. Will Reichardt, how about this, the ultimate compliment to end the show. Will Reichardt is the Connor Talty of the NFL. Oh, I like it. Love it. All right. That's going to do it for today's podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with more until then. Roll tight, everybody. Roll tight. Hey, it's Isaac Shade, your host of Amazon Fire TV's College Football Kickoff. Join Kenyon Barner, Jesse Holly, myself, and the local hosts of the Locked On Podcast Network each week on Fire TV throughout the season to preview the biggest matchups across college football. Search College Football Kickoff on the Fire TV app.