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Kurtiss Riggs saw the clip, but he didn’t think anything of it. You probably saw it, too, either at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night immediately before kickoff or when the video went viral on social media afterward. It showed Kalen DeBoer as he led Alabama football through the tunnel to go face Tennessee. Thunderstruck played. DeBoer clapped, then he slapped the goalpost and yelled. Let’s go! “I mean, it’s the same person I know,” Riggs told AL.com. “It’s maybe a little bit of a different side of what other people have seen, but it’s not anything different from him.” Riggs knows DeBoer better than most. Back in their playing days at Sioux Falls in the 1990s, Riggs was the quarterback and DeBoer was the receiver. When DeBoer became the coach of Sioux Falls, Riggs coached quarterbacks. They remain close friends to this day. Riggs has been to Tuscaloosa many times since his former roommate replaced Nick Saban. “The biggest misconception is that this energy is something that he’s doing because of what happened,” Riggs said. “It’s him. I mean it’s just him. It’s him competing. If he sees that the guys are buying into that and they’re feeding off it, then of course, he’s smart enough to know that, ‘Yeah we need this. I’ll be the guy that does that.’” ‘Better when we’re emotional’ At halftime of the Tennessee game, DeBoer took part in his usual quick interview with Crimson Tide Sports Network sideline reporter Cory Reamer. Alabama was fresh off a Zabien Brown 99-yard pick six to end the half, electrifying the Crimson Tide sideline. Reamer asked DeBoer what his message would be at halftime to ensure his players didn’t get too caught up in the emotions of how the first half ended. “We’re better when we’re emotional like this,” DeBoer replied. That about sums up why DeBoer is coaching the way he is in 2025. Emotion, specifically controlled, is the key for this team to maintain its edge. Especially at the right times “You have to be very cautious on the sideline,” Riggs said. “What emotions you show and how you show them. And sometimes people may read into that’s you being stone cold or showing no emotion. The emotion’s there.” DeBoer hasn’t tried to turn into something he’s not. It’s more like DeBoer’s using a tool he’s always had in the toolbox because that’s what he thinks the job requires right now. “What happens is, there’s an opportunity where you do it and you see how they respond to it and you see it’s something that was responded to in a positive way and worked,” Riggs said. “And so you continue to do it and you grow from that even.” The Crimson Tide (6-1, 4-0 SEC) is on a six-game winning streak as it prepares to face South Carolina on Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT, ABC) in Columbia, South Carolina. Alabama also enters the matchup having won four consecutive SEC games against ranked opponents: No. 5 Georgia, No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 14 Missouri and No. 11 Tennessee. The Crimson Tide pulled that off without any open week to break those games up, something no other team in SEC history has accomplished. It’s a far cry from where Alabama sat on Aug. 30, fresh off losing 31-17 to Florida State in the season opener. That next week in early September, Riggs made the trip from South Dakota to Tuscaloosa and spent time around DeBoer. The Alabama coach remained steadfast in his belief in the Crimson Tide. We are a really good team. This was not us. “He was very confident of they will be up there on top,” Riggs said. “Even knowing the daunting schedule they had coming forward, he never wavered at all as we were talking.” Riggs thinks that confidence has paid off, that the players picked up on it, that DeBoer has understood what his players have needed from him since the Florida State loss. “He’s an extremely intelligent man and he’s very good with relationships and knowing what’s working and not working,” Riggs said. “And this is something that a little extra energy to help is something they’re responding well to.” Is Kalen DeBoer evolving? One Friday this fall, Alabama players held their weekly players-only meeting. Once the gathering finished, DeBoer came in and spoke. Per captain Deontae Lawson, the coach got the players excited as they saw their “first little taste” of the fired-up version of DeBoer. “He’s definitely understanding us and what motivates us and how to get us going,” Lawson said. “He’s doing an elite job at it.” Lawson even labeled it as “evolving” when he talked about DeBoer’s walk through the tunnel before the Tennessee game. “That’s Coach DeBoer for you,” Lawson said. “If you haven’t seen that emotion from the outside, now you have. That’s the Coach DeBoer we’re getting used to.” The players might see a coach evolving, but Riggs sees the same guy he’s known for 30 years. The players are just maybe witnessing a coach reaching out in different ways and pulling on different levers, made possible by another year of familiarity. Another year for him to gain their trust and for them to gain his. “Now that it’s caught on film, people see it,” Riggs said. “They think, ‘Oh this is the difference’ when in fact, it’s always been there.” It’s not rehearsed or acting. DeBoer’s Tennessee tunnel entrance came from an organic place. “Our guys, they were fired up, so they got me fired up,” DeBoer said. “So I was excited to see them go out there and do their thing.” He clapped. He slapped the goalpost. He yelled. Then Alabama went and beat Tennessee 37-20. “When you’re confident, you got a little more energy,” DeBoer said. “And that’s really what I see with our guys. And so that fires me up.”
