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This feels like one of those games that looks good in week one - road win vs a top 5 team. Then it turns out the loser just isn't very good. Both teams looked bad the first half. LSU's first half went: punt, fumble, punt, field goal, fumble. To their credit, they played much better the second half while Clemson continued to suck. Still, LSU was primed and ready to give the game away. My takeaway wasn't that LSU dominated, it's that they are capable of playing well for stretches while Clemson was significantly over-rated. Again.

There are some interesting cross currents impacting Bama / DeBoer and navigating them will be difficult for Bama fans to digest. In the bigger picture, NIL is changing the college football landscape and hierarchy. More than anything, it’s changing the motivations and decision-making of the players themselves. Gone are the days of Saban being able to stack a 3-deep roster of elite talent based on the hope of winning championships and being developed over time for the NFL. Why? Because money is now a consideration for those players, which causes the players (and their advisors) to think to themselves “gee, I can now get paid a million dollars to play at another school, get on the field earlier, and still get to the ultimate goal of reaching the NFL”. Bama / Saban can no longer uniquely sell “come to Bama to get developed over time, win championships, and you’ll get to the NFL”. Instead, other schools can now sell “come to my school, get to the field immediately, make a million dollars in college, and still be in the NFL after 3 years”. It’s a different world now with NIL (and Portal). There’s a reason Saban quit abruptly when he did. He saw this coming. Shifting gears, more specific to DeBoer and 2025 Bama, there is certainly a cultural issue that DeBoer has to deal with that Saban never had to. As background, all the elite talent at Bama started to quickly hit the Portal in the immediate aftermath of Saban retiring (Julian Sayin, Caleb Downs, etc). The talent flight got so dicey for Bama, that their boosters had to step in and pay lots of money to stop the players from hitting the Portal. Then, DeBoer gets hired. So, culturally, you have a situation where the remaining talent originally chose Bama to play for Saban, but then chose booster money to remain at Bama once Saban retired. None of these players chose to play for DeBoer. And it showed last year. Milroe in particular was said to be resistant to DeBoer, and even chose not to show-up to practice occasionally…and he’s your supposed team leader! This offseason, it has been reported / opined that DeBoer cleaned out some of the malignant players and now the “culture is his”. But, many of the remaining talent is still there due to booster NIL paychecks post-Saban (not necessarily due to DeBoer being the coach, per se). This is going to be a difficult cultural landscape for DeBoer to navigate. His upperclassman never really chose to play for DeBoer as much as they chose Saban and then NIL to be at Bama. Additionally, Bama fans are not going to just accept that NIL and the Portal have forever changed what their expectations of Bama football should be going forward. It’s not that Bama can’t win championships any longer, it’s that Bama can’t dominate all other peer schools as they did for a decade and a half under Saban (or even under BeaR Bryant decades earlier). While Bama still has a top 5 talented roster in 2025, they need to adapt their mentality toward an NFL mindset. The KC Chiefs will likely lose 3-5 games each season and yet still be in the Super Bowl. Bama may lose 2-4 games each season, and yet still make the future expanded CFP Playoffs. You don’t have to win every Saturday, and it’s now okay to lose a few games. Adapt or die. My advice: allow DeBoer some time to let his Bama program adapt to the changing currents of college football generally, and to implement / own his culture at Bama specifically. The last thing Bama needs to do is fire DeBoer, burn $60m in buyout dollars, and then rinse-and-repeat the cycle of paying players to remain when the hire the next up and coming HC.

It would be a really dumb move to fire him this year. He HAS won everywhere he has been and these are not his guys. Who are you going to replace him with? He is about as sure of a bet as you can get in college football. I give him some time to get it set up his way with HIS QB. Following Saban is not easy first of all, but lets not forget one of the reasons Saban said in an interview on why he retired. He was doing exit interviews and players kept talking about how much more money they needed rather than what they could do to be better. Sounds like Saban himself had a culture problem brewing and DeBoer walked into it.

His buyout is structured so that they would have to pay him in equal monthly installments through 2031. That isn't as burdensome as the buyouts where coaches are due a lump sum right away or within 30 days. The ability to spread out the payments could make it more realistic that he is let go. I do think if they miss the playoffs this year, he will likely be shown the door. Whether fair or not.

To be fair you also said you would’ve dropped Texas below Clemson in the rankings. When one played in a “talent neutralized” situation on the road and the other at home. And one out gained the opponent on the road by 140 yards and the other got dominated at home.

Where actually is the Surly Horns tailgate? Know a few of those guys and never thought to stop by.

He'll get his 3 years. However, if he stays at the 8-win range, year 4 is a maybe. DeBoer is a good coach, but the culture fit at Bama was always questionable. Sark was their #1 choice.

Love Hays City store

Sounds like a good weekend. Coaching the kiddo's football team this year so I'll be missing my first home game in a while. Y'all throw one back for me!

Hays City Store is a good place. They have good food and also have a big outdoor space. If you haven't been there in a while you will notice that new food and bar places have opened up around the traffic circle. The restaurant, Whiskey Ridge, specializes in seafood and local food and has a really nice covered outdoor area. The new bar there, Mean Eyed Cat, resembles an old beer joint or honky tonk in a way. I have been there for a beer once, but much prefer Hays City Store and Whiskey Ridge if in that area.

I thought RG3 had good comments as well. Chase RG3 and Cam Newtons thoughts were the most positive I seen

@Bobby Burton will this be the tailgate for the whole season?

Just an FYI for those so inclined. We've got a big weekend planned in Austin. * Gerry and I will be broadcasting Coffee & Football tomorrow morning (Friday) live from Hays City Store. Afterwards, I'm going to stick around for an early lunch if you want to join. I figure this might be a good Longhorn getaway for folks who want to take an early Friday break and just talk Longhorn football with us. * On Friday afternoon, we'll be at the Co-Op courtesy of 40 Acres Collection from 3-4. Stop by, say hello, and get geared up for the first home game of the season. * On Saturday, we will be at our tailgate. Adult beverages will be provided by Garage Beer and Flight by Yuengling. There is a fee for the tailgate given that there is limited space. Our partners at Surly Horns are providing the space, food, and more. You can also get a season-long tailgate pass. Each gameday, we will also be giving away a $200 gift card to our friends from Duck Camp. Hope you can catch up with us at any of these places. Or inside DKR on Saturday! Hook'Em! https://do512.com/events/2025/9/6/this-certainly-isn-t-sparta-tickets https://tailgate.surlyhorns.com/event/2/2025-home-season-pass

There is a special breaking news video that Bobby, Gerry, and CJ posted a little while ago about the imminent return of Jonah Williams and it includes a discussion of the Wardell Mack situation.

He probably saw that his QB could not hit wide open receivers and decided he needed to scrap his game plan

Good candidate for a Bail-bondsman NIL deal? ............Too soon?

Gerry just dominated OP

How is it that every team plays something different than they see on film? If that’s the case then why hasn’t he adjusted. It just seems like he doesn’t know how to coach against it and they it’s an excuse at this point. Especially if it happens as much as he says it does.

It was a conservative game plan IMO. The reason for it can be debated.

The talent that DeBoer has called into was absolutely elite and a top 3 roster in the sport. The situations that he walked into and others like Sark walked into are very different. You can’t go 5-5 in your last 10 and losses to more unranked teams in the last 12 months than the program had in the last 15 years with that roster. If he goes 8-4 this year Bama will fire him.

Not necessarily alcohol related. Bad teammate at minimum. Middle of game week? Inexcusible.

Correct

We agree to disagree. I believe LSU dominated Clemson in the second half of the game because of the who and where the game was. In talent neutralized situations, being dominant is different for me.

I believe Sark was intentionally conservative with his play-calling against Ohio State. He has mentioned that opposing defenses often play differently than what is seen on tape when they face Texas. It seems he is cautious about revealing his strategies too early, which allows opposing coaches to better prepare against Texas. I’m not implying that Sark didn't call plays with the intention to win; Texas had several opportunities to secure a victory but failed to capitalize on them.