Jake Haener was set on playing for Jeff Tedford. Haener transferred to Fresno State in 2019, but the transfer rules then didn’t allow him to play immediately.

The following year, 2020, was supposed to be his time, but unexpected health complications forced Tedford to step down in December 2019. Haener, a Washington transfer, was about to have three coaches in three years.

“I was just like, ‘Man, this is unfortunate,’” Haener said. “But (Tedford) said, ‘Don’t worry, I have someone who’s going to be great for you — his name is Kalen DeBoer.’”

DeBoer, who served as Fresno State’s offensive coordinator from 2017 to 2018, was hired as head coach on Dec. 17, 2019. Still, Haener wasn’t convinced. At least initially.

“I didn’t really know him,” Haener said. “I didn’t know his background as much, and he’s got to prove it to the players, right? Like, you can’t just go in there and trust a guy just because your athletic director tells you to trust him. You got to f—ing earn it as a coach. And it goes both ways — coach to players and players to coach.”

A few years later, Haener is in his second training camp with the New Orleans Saints as a 2023 fourth-round NFL Draft pick, largely because of his time with DeBoer.

“Those two years for me were huge in getting me to where I am now. I don’t think I’d be here without him,” Haener said.

Kalen DeBoer will coach his first game as Alabama’s coach Aug. 31 against Western Kentucky. (USA Today)

Haener’s story is a familiar one. In many ways, it encompasses DeBoer’s head-coaching career. From Sioux Falls (2005-2009) to Fresno State (2020-21), Washington (2022-23) and now Alabama, DeBoer unintentionally has made a habit of shortly following established coaches, whether it be Tedford, Bob Young (Sioux Falls), Chris Petersen (Washington) and the most notable of all, Nick Saban.

And wherever DeBoer has gone, wins have followed (he has a 104-12 career record).

“He’s a winner,” said Michael Penix Jr., a DeBoer pupil and a 2024 first-round NFL Draft pick. “Each and every place he’s been at he’s won. Day in and day out, the intent never stopped: He put us in the right position to be successful. That’s what it was always about.”

What makes a winner? Obviously, X’s and O’s play a big part, and schematically DeBoer’s prolific offenses, none more than last season at Washington, have propelled him to the top job in college football. But those who’ve worked with him or played under him speak to his true core value: the value of people.

He carried a notebook on his first day as Alabama’s coach. Many people, inside and outside of the building, were trying their best to find out as much as they could about DeBoer, and he had a similar objective about them. He met with anyone who would sit with him. He took notes of what players thought were important aspects of the program, and he wrote down every player’s hometown, names of immediate family members, hobbies and more.

“There’s a lot of coaches that are in it for personal gain,” Haener said. “(DeBoer)’s in it because he loves the kids and he loves the relationships that he can build with the kids. I’m about four years removed from him, and if I shoot the guy a text, he’ll respond to me within 10 minutes. I think that’s pretty cool. No matter how big he gets, he’s the same Kalen DeBoer. I can appreciate that.”

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Admittedly, that has been a learned trait for DeBoer, but it’s the most consequential one in his career. It brings to mind a simple question: If coaches get the people part right, does the football part usually take care of itself?

Each stop along DeBoer’s journey has led to the same conclusion.

“Absolutely,” DeBoer said. “Just invest in the people. Invest in the staff, invest your time, invest in trying to get the right people hired to be in this building because what they do every day is going to trickle down to our players and how they feel is going to be what makes our culture what it is.”

There was one time in DeBoer’s career that he would have rather been an assistant coach than a head coach. Fresno State was his first taste of Division I football as a head coach, and a few months into his tenure, he was faced with taking over a team during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“By far the hardest year that I’ve gone through,” DeBoer said. “To me, the recipe for a great football team takes time, it takes certain touch points along the way, it takes the teaching. All those things that matter. And we didn’t have that.”

Haener’s interactions with DeBoer through that spring and summer were limited to video calls. Finally, the team came together on a practice field for a three-week camp period before the first game against Hawaii in October. Once there, Haener started to see the DeBoer whom Tedford endorsed.

“I feel like Kalen does a very good job of expressing his desire to get to know you on a personal level,” Haener said. “As a quarterback, I wanted to understand how he wanted to think, who he was and just the ins and outs about him as a person. I feel like he did a really good job early on showing me that and showing me that he had an interest in me and what I liked on the field that would help us produce.”

Fresno State, which had four games canceled, finished 2020 with a 3-3 record — the most losses DeBoer has had in any season as a head coach. The next season allowed for a full offseason and a chance for DeBoer to establish a culture. It’s a multipronged approach: an intentional approach to building team camaraderie, an offseason workout regimen that is both intense but engaging for players, and above all establishing accountability from the top that trickles down throughout all aspects of the organization.

Fresno State’s win total tripled in 2021 en route to a 9-3 finish.

DeBoer is a head coach in title but operates closer to a CEO. He’s an overseer of operations but not a micromanager. He empowers his assistants to operate in full confidence, and that radiates through the players. That’s not much different from what many leaders aspire to do, but it’s not always attainable.

“The best thing about him is there’s no ego,” Haener said. “I think he does a really good job of surrounding himself with a lot of people that are like-minded. The longer I’ve played and the more staff interactions I’ve had, I’ve seen divide on some staffs, or people don’t see things the same way. When you’re on a Kalen DeBoer staff, that’s never the case. When they do disagree on something they debate, and they always try to come to the same, right conclusion. He does a really good job of letting his coaches coach.”

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DeBoer has worked through every aspect of operating a college program. He was named the offensive coordinator at Sioux Falls, his alma mater and an NAIA program at the time (now Division II) in 2000. His first responsibility was building lockers for the players. Other responsibilities for assistants included washing uniforms or working other jobs for the university like the admissions office or teaching on campus. He was elevated to head coach in 2005, succeeding his college coach and mentor Young, but still worked various odd jobs to make the program go.

He won three NAIA national titles at Sioux Falls, his last in 2009, then spent the next decade as an assistant coach at the FCS, Group of 5 and Power 5 levels before his second head-coaching job at Fresno State in 2019. Those experiences aren’t far from DeBoer as he leads arguably the sport’s most storied program at Alabama.

“I think you have an appreciation for what everyone’s job is in the program,” DeBoer said. “The things that have helped me is just let them work, hire the right people and give them some direction. Allow them to have some ownership, and when that happens, the investment is there, and it leads to great returns.

“Ten years as an assistant after (Sioux Falls) helped me understand the importance of every person in the program because you can quickly lose touch when you get to be a head coach. You’re not around the players every minute and have opportunities to connect in every meeting. I tried to really be conscious and make an intentional effort on staying in touch having great communication both with our staff and our team.”

Transition isn’t new for DeBoer, but his current situation is unlike anything seen in modern history from the coach-to-coach change to the changes in philosophies. Practices have been moved to mornings and now have music. Assistant coaches regularly are made available to media, DeBoer actively uses social media accounts, and the No. 0 will be worn for the first time this fall. The changes might seem minor, but it’s a stark contrast from the Saban era.

Within the program, the energy is described as different — not better or worse, just different. Though the changes are highlighted, certain old elements remain, including the famed Fourth Quarter offseason conditioning program and several coveted off-field staffers from administration to recruiting to coaches, who were highlighted by the Alabama players in their early meetings with DeBoer.

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Above all, what hasn’t changed are the extremely high expectations for the program. DeBoer and Alabama are similar in the way that losses are few and far between. The looming question is, can both continue to win at their usual clips in an expanded, post-Saban SEC? As preseason camp opens Wednesday, there’s no shortage of confidence.

“We had a great offseason,” Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe said. “That adversity (in the month after Saban’s retirement), that made us better. I’m glad we went through it because it made us stronger as a group. I’ll say we have the right support system to be successful this year, so I’m excited about that.”

Jalen Milroe is entering his second season as Alabama’s starting quarterback after leading the Crimson Tide to the SEC title last season. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

DeBoer’s desk in his newly renovated office features a handwritten letter, and it’s a source of inspiration. It’s a recruiting letter from Young when he recruited DeBoer to play at Sioux Falls. DeBoer finds himself gravitating toward it often as a reminder of what it takes to build a program.

“It’s a symbol of just the attention to detail and how important it is as a coach,” DeBoer said. “Conversation is important to everyone that you touch. So when you’re in those moments, and it just doesn’t have to be a recruit, it can be anyone you cross paths with — you’re trying to pour into that moment and that person.”

To know DeBoer is to know that he values intention in everything. That has been evident to Alabama’s players in the limited, on-field instruction periods this summer. After a workout in June, several players were asked a simple question: How many reps did you have today?

The players provided a simple answer, but the right answer was much deeper.

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“The players said 10, but the coaches said, ‘That’s wrong, you had them all because you can take both mental and physical reps,’” Milroe said. “In a block, I can have four plays, and the backup goes in, and they run four plays, but I had each and every rep that he had when he went in. That’s the thing that we have within the team right now is to maximize the opportunities that we have right now. We’re just truly pushing each other every day so that when game one finally arrives, we’ll be ready.”

With a month to go until the opening kickoff against Western Kentucky, DeBoer’s life is starting to reach normalcy. The DeBoer family finally settled into its home a few weeks ago, which includes DeBoer’s spending some late nights moving furniture and building bed sets. He spent most of the summer in makeshift offices while his was being renovated, but now it’s complete.

With his affairs in order, he feels better about beginning the process of leading Alabama back to the College Football Playoff; starting with preseason camp. That’s the next benchmark moment for the 2024 Alabama team, one of the most highly anticipated Crimson Tide teams (if not the most) this century. The results on Saturdays will be the ultimate decider, but DeBoer is pleased with where the team is entering this part of the calendar.

And the next month or so of close contact and team building will be in his focus as much as training the on-field product.

“It’s just been really good conversations where (the players) feel we’re going in the right direction,” DeBoer said. “I don’t think there is an endpoint, so you can’t say that we’re where we want to be. But I think we can say we are in a good spot when it comes to the foundation of our chemistry.

“And the most important thing is the work is the work. The guys are grinding extremely hard, and the numbers show it from a strength conditioning standpoint: individually and collectively.”

Haener has been there before, right where Alabama’s players are now. He has seen DeBoer’s work and ability to connect with players and assistant coaches get them where they need to be.

It’s early in the process, but DeBoer’s history and resume show it can pay off.

“Sometimes in this profession guys don’t let you know when you’re doing things right,” Haener said. “I think it’s important, especially kids that are 18-22 years old, to let them know that. ‘This isn’t easy, not everyone can do it, but I appreciate the effort you’re putting in.’ I think for kids to see that, hear that, it makes them want to do that much more. And once you start getting kids 10-15 at a time to start doing that and bringing kids along — it starts running through the team and passing through the team. And that s— is powerful.”

(Top photo: Gary Cosby Jr. / Tuscaloosa News / USA Today)