Less than a week after losing to Michigan in the College Football Playoff National Championship, Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer accepted the job to replace Nick Saban at Alabama. Before accepting the job, it appears Washington made valiant efforts to keep him in Seattle.
According to Mike Vorel, Washington offered DeBoer a “Big Ten package” that would have made him one of college football’s top-10 highest-paid coaches. In an event where Washington’s athletic director Troy Dannen was speaking, he detailed his efforts to hold onto DeBoer.
“We put numbers in front of him that were, quite frankly, unprecedented for this university… We put a Big Ten package in front of Kalen [DeBoer], not a Pac-12 package,” said Dannen. It appears that Washington believed early on that they had found their long-term coach, as Washington’s AD added that contract negotiations had begun in October, only ten days after his arrival.
Vorel continues that a second contract offer was given to DeBoer on Jan. 11, the day before he left to replace Nick Saban. Vorel states that this contract started at $9 million in 2024, increasing by $100,000 each year until 2030.
Unfortunately for Washington, DeBoer chose to take the job in Tuscaloosa. While his contract details with Alabama have not yet been released to the public, you have to assume that it was an offer he could not resist.