With the utmost respect to you, I’d suggest that you don’t have a keen enough memory of the Shula and Dubose eras. I cut my Bama football teeth during their tenures and remember them vividly.
DeBoer may yet prove to be a complete bust, but let’s consider the following:
Shula and Dubose both posted losing seasons (4-9 and 4-7 respectively) in their first year after inheriting teams that had each won 10 games the previous year. I said this last year - the fact that DeBoer didn’t immediately run us into the ditch was an achievement in and of itself. A low bar to clear, but still pertinent. Sark and Cristobal were 5-7 in their first seasons at UT and Miami, and Sark had a similarly loaded roster.
Dubose changed his offensive philosophy probably 7-8 times during his tenure, with several changes coming mid-season. He could never put together a cogent vision of what style of team we wanted to be. DeBoer at least knows that.
Shula had no prior HC experience and at his highest previous post, OC in Tampa Bay, he was an abject failure. Completely unqualified and it showed over time. Didn’t have the schematic uncertainty of Dubose or the level of off-field scandal, but we handed the keys to a sports car to a kid with a permit. DeBoer at least has a very solid track record.
As far as I’m concerned, DeBoer is still leaps and bounds better that those two. Those really were the dark ages and we haven’t sniffed that yet. We may prove to under DeBoer; given his track record and recruiting prowess I think it’s unlikely. He may not be a championship level coach and if that’s the case we will have to make a business decision at some point, but it’s way too reactionary to treat him as though we hired someone completely unqualified with no track record like the previous Mikes.
Dubose is still the worst we’ve had in my lifetime. Shula was bad, but not for the same reasons. I still think DeBoer looked like the best available candidate at the time we made the hire, assuming you couldn’t get Sark or Kirby (which we couldn’t). He may still not pan out, but we definitely didn’t hire an unqualified noob like those two previous coaches.
There are two other issues here regarding DeBoer's hiring here, too, that once the emotion of "he needs to go" dies down have to be considered:
1) Who else was available to take the job when Saban retired?
Seriously, who else out there THAT WE ACTUALLY HAD A CHANCE TO GET was going to come to Alabama, a guy who didn't need OJT, a guy who did have something of a proven track record of winning.
This was not us hiring Bill Curry over Bobby Bowden by any stretch.
Ryan Day was not coming to Alabama (and was considered on a hot seat last November).
Sark was not coming to Alabama, either.
Kirby Smart was not coming to Alabama.
My understanding - which may be incorrect - is Oregon's Dan Lanning wasn't coming, either.
That MAYBE leaves us Dabo, Lame Kitten, and maybe Norvell, the same Norvell who followed up an unbeaten season with a 60-point blowout loss in a bowl game and a 2-10 season. Dabo and Kitten come with various sorts of baggage.
History may well show DeBoer was out of his league coming here, but that doesn't mean we get to revise it and say, "We could have hired X but we got stuck on DeBoer," either.
2) Who is the upgrade replacement?
Let's not act like the Panic Posse over in Lee County, either, who were so trembling in their boots of "Arkansas is gonna beat us with Gus" that they forked over $49 million apparently just laying around in the streets.
It's like a war - it's EASY to start down the path, it's tough to finish.
