The Alabama Crimson Tide, having negotiated with Kalen DeBoer earlier in the day, reportedly struck a deal on Friday to make DeBoer their new head coach. DeBoer will leave the Washington Huskies to take over at Alabama. This creates a vacancy at a Big Ten program which will join USC in the new and expanded conference in 2024.
DeBoer led Washington to 25 wins in the past two seasons, including a Pac-12 championship and a 14-1 record this past season. He’s an elite coach. Questions remain about his ability to win the SEC — and without Michael Penix — but it’s hard to ignore that Alabama got a very credentialed replacement for Nick Saban.
This temporarily improves USC’s outlook in the Big Ten in 2024. USC plays at Washington in the 2024 Big Ten football schedule. However, we need to see how Washington will fill this vacancy before feeling especially confident about USC.
In the meantime, let’s see how people are reacting on social media to this huge news story: