Alabama fans will get a look behind the curtain from Kalen DeBoer’s first season, as the Crimson Tide’s 2024 campaign is the subject of a new documentary from Fox Nation titled, ‘The Tides That Bind: Inside Alabama Football. The six-part series released its second episode on Wednesday and will air weekly.

For those who aren’t subscribed to Fox Nation, don’t worry. Tide Illustrated will be providing takeaways from all six episodes moving forward. Here’s a look at some of the highlights from Week 2 of the series.

The episode began with a clip of DeBoer writing letters to recruits inside his office. The head coach explained his busy schedule, stating that every day he sends out various text messages and phone calls as well as written letters.

“Then you make mistakes on some of them,” Deboer said, smiling while putting a letter in the trash can. “You’ve got to start over.”

The episode also shows behind-the-scenes footage of DeBoer riding to his weekly “Hey Coach” radio show and talking with fans. In the process, the head coach speaks about the unique culture at Alabama.

“This place is different than any other place,” DeBoer said. “It really is. That’s how it’s always been. You come in where there’s been success and there’s been championships that have been won. There’s a culture, and I feel equipped to balance things I want to do with what has been done here.”

One of the first segments of the episode involved a reunion with DeBoer and some of his former players at the University of Sioux Falls. During his five seasons as USF’s head coach from 2005-09, DeBoer led the Cougars to a 67-3 record, winning three NAIA titles.

“The passion he had and the care he had for his guys are things that I’ll always remember about him,” said Trevor Holleman, who played defensive back at USF under DeBoer. “

During the episode, DeBoer is shown meeting with his former players, who presented him with a signed football.

The star of this week’s episode was starting left tackle Kadyn Proctor, who missed the first two games of the season after sustaining a shoulder injury during pregame warmups for the season-opener against Western Kentucky. The episode showed clips of Proctor leaving for the locker room in pain while also providing an inside look at his recovery process as well as his growth as a player.

“After I got hurt, I was like, ‘Man, I need to get back playing games,” Proctor said. “I can’t have none of this hinder me because if I just let it overrun my mind, then I’m not going to be successful at all.”

Perhaps the biggest storyline in this week’s episode was Proctor’s back-and-forth offseason that saw the five-star tackle transfer back home to Iowa only to make a U-turn for Alabama a few months later. Proctor detailed his decision-making process, stating that he originally left Alabama due to uncertainties following Nick Saban’s retirement before changing his mind once he realized he didn’t fit in at Iowa.

“A month and a half into being there, it just didn’t feel right,” Proctor said. “I didn’t have no close relationships with none of the guys. I couldn’t relate to none of them. I never heard the words ‘national championship’ come out of their mouths. It just wasn’t the place for me. Three months later, I left.”

After providing a behind-the-scenes look inside Alabama’s wide receivers room in Episode 1, the series showed an inside look into one of the offensive line meetings this week. In the clip, offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic was shown breaking down the importance of details at the position.

“All the little details, everything we talked about, you’re out there running a screen drill, and you’re just running to run,” Kapilovic said. “Everything’s fine, right? And all of a sudden on the game day, you don’t release on time, you don’t take the right track, and then it gets exposed.”

“Playing offensive line is like air conditioning. People only notice it when it doesn’t work.” That’s the comparison Alabama offensive lineman Wilkin Formby made before detailing the abuse he received following his forgettable performance against South Florida in Week 2.

Formby was whistled for four holding penalties as Alabama struggled against USF before pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 42-16 win. According to Pro Football Focus, Formby registered a dismal 15.1 pass-blocking grade against the Bulls, allowing a team-high five pressures over 36 pass-blocking snaps. That led to quite the backlash on social media, something the Tuscaloosa native detailed during the episode.

“I went on social media,” Formby said. “The first thing that popped up was like ‘Kill Wilkin Formby.’ It’s a lot of hate that they’re spreading. It didn’t really get to me that bad. I just hate that my family had to see all that stuff. My little sister is going to school and people are asking her about it. That was the part that made me frustrated.”

Proctor expressed sympathy for his friend, stating that he too has dealt with plenty of hateful comments throughout his career.

“I don’t know how y’all can say this stuff,” Proctor said. “They don’t understand that we’ve got to go … we might laugh about it right now, but when we’re by ourselves, that really takes a toll. I’ve had countless times where I cried for sure. I bet he probably has too when nobody’s around. They don’t understand how much that affects you. You’re in front of millions of people, not trying to mess up.”

The episode takes a break from the football field to show footage of DeBoer and his family at Westminster Farm, an equestrian barn located in Northport, Alabama. DeBoer and his family brought their horses down to Alabama, and his youngest daughter, Avery, is an avid rider.

The clip shown in this week’s episode was shot last December and shows DeBoer, his wife Nicole and Avery at the barn.

Nicole speaks about how the family is pretty good at eliminating outside noise caused by her husband’s job. However, she does state that, “Being here in Alabama, people are just a little more into it and passionate — opinionated, if you will.” She also says that her and her daughters are actually Kalen’s biggest critics.

The clip shows Nicole questioning Kalen for being late before laughing with him over the moment being caught on camera.

“The dog gets better treatment than I do, just so you know, amongst the women in the house” Kalen joked to the camera. “And you can put that in the documentary.”

One of the most interesting segments of the episode was a look inside Alabama’s locker room during halftime of its Week 6 loss to Vanderbilt. With Alabama trailing 23-14, several Tide assistants were shown rallying players. Here’s a few highlights of what was said.

Wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard: “The resume is your resume, period. You can’t take nothing off of it.”

Safeties coach Colin Hitschler: “We’re killing the motions. We’re misfitting the f*** out of the other s***

Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack: “He has given us opportunities that no one has taken advantage of.”

Outside of the football footage, this was a tough watch. There were some staged moments during the debut episode, but Fox Nation took things to another level this week.

The first instance of this occurred roughly four minutes in when the viewer is subjected to a supposedly candid conversation inside Alabama’s parking service offices. Here’s a transcript of the dialogue as the employees discuss Saban’s retirement.

Speaker 1: So, Sharon.

Speaker 2: Yes, David.

Speaker 1: Saban’s retiring, I mean it actually happened.

Speaker 2: Yes

Speaker 1: I mean, we knew it was going to happen, one day.

Speaker 2: But I was like, David, who is this guy?

Woof.

A bit later in the episode, there’s what can only be assumed to be a paid ad from the Tuscaloosa boutique “swag.” In the clip, the store worker Alaina Avery is shown speaking to a customer over the phone. Apparently, the caller asked for Avery to list everything the store sells… as one does when they call a place of business.

There are a few more cringeworthy scenes, but unlike Fox Nation, we won’t submit you to all of them.

It’s becoming clear that Alabama likely had heavy editorial control of this documentary. While that’s not surprising, don’t expect to see anything in the series that Crimson Tide Productions wouldn’t have released itself.

While it’s somewhat interesting to get a rare listen inside the coaches’ headsets, we’ve only heard quick, cursory statements such as, “All right, here we go. Stay aggressive. One play at a time. Next-play mindset.”

The episode also showed the loss to Vanderbilt while glossing over Malachi Moore’s on-field tantrum at the end of the game. Perhaps that gets mentioned next week, but don’t hold your breath.