Kalen DeBoer isn’t one to look back. The Alabama football coach consistently looks ahead, looks to what is next.
A-Day Saturday is no different, one where the primary focus for fans, players and coaches alike is on what’s next, on what could be in 140 days when the Crimson Tide officially kicks off its 2025 season on the road against Florida State
But before DeBoer could look forward, he was forced to look back.
DeBoer stood at Denny Chimes in the middle of the University of Alabama’s campus next to his four permanent team captains, players who would be enshrined as members of Alabama’s Walk of Fame: quarterback Jalen Milroe, safety Malachi Moore, offensive lineman Tyler Booker and linebacker Deontae Lawson. All four have experienced at least one SEC championship and at least one College Football Playoff. Two, Milroe and Moore, have already been through this enshrinement ceremony once before. One, Moore, has an Alabama national championship ring.
All four have experienced what Alabama football was supposed to be.
“I cherished every moment that I had to follow in the footsteps of the ones that have gone before me,” Milroe said.
On Saturday, Milroe, Booker, Moore and Lawson were immortalized in the middle of Alabama’s campus as conference champions, yes. But more so as DeBoer’s first ambassadors, the players who stayed, who defined his transition from Washington to Tuscaloosa and the passing of the baton from a legend to a relative wunderkind, one who has won everywhere he’s been.
As Milroe, Booker, Moore and Lawson pressed their cleat and hand into the Quad next to Alabama on the North side near Heisman Trophy winners like Bryce Young, Derrick Henry and DeVonta Smith, near first-round NFL draft picks like Will Anderson Jr., Tua Tagovailoa and Dallas Turner, they cemented a new era of Alabama football, one that proved to start underwhelmingly.
Milroe, Booker, Moore and Lawson were the four captains that led Alabama to its first season with fewer than 10 wins since 2007, a team that finished its season with its first non-CFP bowl loss since 2013.
A look at Alabama football’s Walk of Champions at Bryant-Denny Stadium
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But when DeBoer took the microphone to speak about his first four captains, three of which had already finished their Alabama stories.
“This moment, and I had a chance to see up close and personal – it was a new experience for me – what this is all about,” DeBoer said. “This is a special moment right here on a special day to put these guys and the legacy that they are leaving. I guess we got Deontae back. … We’re excited about that. But the legacy that these guys are continuing to leave, let’s put it that way, and what they have done here and what they will continue to do representing us, not ponly just in football in the future, but life after football because success is going to follow these guys, I can promise you, wherever they go.”
Then DeBoer was off. Off to lead Alabama football’s 2025 roster down the Walk of Champions and into Bryant-Denny Stadium, off to introduce the Crimson Tide faithful to what is ahead, to what is next.
For DeBoer, this was nothing new. It’s where the program’s been heading each day since its Dec. 31 loss to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
And that’s the path that Moore sees. Not that 2024 season, but something greater.
“This year, like I said, it didn’t go how we planned,” Moore said. But going through adversity together builds you closer, builds a bond stronger when you go through something that’s hard and difficult. Shoutout to coach DeBoer for just coming in… having the courage enough to come behind coach Saban. Now he’s leaving his legacy and the program is definitely going in the right direction.”
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
