Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer’s ‘Bama Standard’ deemed lower than Kirby Smart’s Georgia standard

Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer has become the subject of some mild praise and a lot of major criticism. Going 9-4 in year one while taking unfathomable losses to Vanderbilt and a heavily depleted Michigan in the ReliaQuest has many thinking the Crimson Tide are now a step behind.

One team that has earned the right to be seen as ahead of Alabama is Georgia. Kirby Smart navigated NIL better than Nick Saban with two championships in the pay-to-play era’s first two seasons and made the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff after an SEC Championship win and a regular season win over semifinals team Texas.

Joel Klatt declared the Dawgs ahead of the Crimson Tide on the latest episode of his weekly podcast.

He also called out DeBoer for a lack of a clear QB1 for the 2025 season and the lowering of the “Bama Standard.”

“I don’t know what to do with Alabama right now,” Klatt said, per Saturday Down South. “Who’s their quarterback? What’s the standard going to be under Kalen DeBoer?

“I felt like it was just a down year for Georgia and yet they navigated the hardest schedule in the country, won the SEC, and they were sitting there in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals with a backup quarterback. So, like, if we think Georgia is going anywhere or this is some sort of trend in the wrong direction, I think we’d all be sorely mistaken. Kirby Smart is far too driven.

“Let’s face it, Bama is on a worse trajectory than Georgia at this point because there's more questions surrounding Alabama and their culture, the new staff, who’s going to be their quarterback — than there is questions about Georgia. I don’t have a lot of questions for a team whose last 4 recruiting classes were second, first, second, and third in the country. I know they’re loaded with talent.”

Alabama analysts appear confident Ty Simpson will be the starter under center, and if he’s not, it’d be 5-star wunderkind Keelon Russell. Klatt is overblowing the QB question, especially since there were questions about who’d be the starter in 2023 with Jalen Milroe failing to establish himself against Simpson.

Milroe went on to lead his team to an SEC Championship win and came closest to beating undefeated national champion Michigan of any team in 2023 during the Rose Bowl. The issue was certainly overblown then.

With that said, everything else Klatt said is fair game. That’s what causes unprecedented worry in Tuscaloosa these days.