The Big Picture: Kalen DeBoer Leading Alabama's Comeback Highlights Michigan's Intrigue

Memorial Stadium (Norman, Oklahoma) — In the post-game maelstrom on the ripped and sand-laden Oklahoma midfield logo at Memorial Stadium, the feeling of euphoria ebbed from the No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide after a dramatic and defining 34-24 win over the No. 8 Sooners in the College Football Playoff first-round game. I could easily see why Michigan is chasing Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer to be their next man. 

He wears victory well. So did his team, especially his team captain.

"Job's not done yet," Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson told a group of reporters just beneath the stands.

Simpson walked past Alabama fans who’d made the journey to Norman with a right fist raised high, flanked by Alabama state troopers. Michigan fans might envision what it might look like to watch Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood do the same.

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Pressure mounted early on DeBoer and his team. A week’s worth of pressure was on him to say he wanted to remain the head coach at Alabama and not jump to Michigan, to win a CFP game at Alabama, to beat a team that had come into Bryant-Denny Stadium and defeated his Tide just a month prior to Friday's rematch. But as Alabama struggled badly at first, DeBoer didn’t lose his cool. He continued to simply coach his team as he had since spring practice. He remained consistent.

DeBoer's Crimson Tide met that pressure, watched its release and celebrated their wherewithal in the opponent’s face. 

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Some Oklahoma players watched, dumbstruck by what had just transpired over the previous three hours to the Sooners. How had DeBoer willed his team to a monster 17-point comeback win at Memorial Stadium? 

He pointed back to the game his Crimson Tide played in Norman last season in a 24-3 loss.

There were moments sprinkled throughout the aftermath — and in the facts of what DeBoer’s Tide had done — that could lead a fan of the maize and blue to think that they want that guy to be their guy. He didn't shout or become unglued with emotion. He reminded everyone in his press conference that, not only had his team been down double-digits in the ballgame, but also that they learned from a past failure.

"A year ago, when we were in this very place, that's what we had said," DeBoer told reporters at his post-game press conference. "We were down, I think, 21 points at one point. And you know, we just said, ‘Hey, if we get seven points on the board by the end of the third quarter' — and we had an opportunity there right at the beginning of the fourth, a play that wasn't called a touchdown. 

"But we just knew that we just needed to get one [touchdown]. And those are things in the offseason we've talked about: 'What do you do when you're in that spot?' Just chip away. Just put pressure on them."

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The stadium, once so loud that DeBoer called timeout because his quarterback could not hear the play call, contained just a fraction of its 85,000-seat capacity mere minutes after Alabama dispatched Oklahoma, 34-24, on Saturday night. Those same Oklahoma players, who begged the home crowd to continue to annoy and distract Alabama, were not all flabbergasted, though.

Some were angry.

For a moment, long enough to cause unease, Alabama and Sooners players jostled at midfield immediately after the game ended. They pushed and shoved each other enough that coaches from both sidelines were forced to walk their players off to their separate tunnels.

"I embarrassed you, bro!" one Alabama player yelled. "I embarrassed you in front of your people."

Could be said for the whole Oklahoma team. They will not forget this game, and neither will its fans.

Alabama scored 24 unanswered amid its comeback victory against Oklahoma in the first round of the CFP. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)

The Crimson Tide came back from down 17 on the road in the CFP and won the game comfortably by double-digits in the end. Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb believes one of the reasons the Tide made their comeback is because they didn’t win the SEC championship game.

"I felt like there was a belief that the defense was going to make a play, we were going to make a play, and nobody was giving up," Grubb said at the podium in the post-game press conference. 

"And ultimately something happens and springs it loose. And that's what it really takes, is to keep that momentum and that mindset. Somebody has to make a play eventually, and when you do, and you have a big play, it brings it all to life."

At the southwest tunnel, the visitor’s entrance and exit, other players and coaches snagged their roses and walked back out onto Owen Field to pose for pictures with the stems clenched between their teeth. That’s what you do when you win a trip to play in the Rose Bowl: You accept the rose, and you look forward to playing No. 1 Indiana on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California.

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Given that this Alabama team is the only one to defeat No. 3 Georgia in Athens, Georgia — and that this team is the first to ever win on the road in the CFP — it’s now more than a notion that Alabama can upset the Hoosiers in the "granddaddy of them all."

But what if they don’t?

If Alabama loses to Indiana — like, say, the way Oklahoma lost to Alabama — is DeBoer still welcome in Tuscaloosa? Would he still want to stay? Is he still the man Michigan wants to be its next head coach?

I think so. I think he’ll see a raise in salary. And Alabama will continue to provide him with all the resources and money he wants to do the same job he’s doing. 

At Michigan? It’s not the job it was before ex-Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was fired for cause. There’s an internal investigation and a controversial past circling the program. There are NCAA fines that must be settled. There is a culture that needs cleansing. 

Does DeBoer really want all of that? Will Alabama give him that choice by letting him go with a potentially poor showing in the quarterfinals after an epic win in the first round?

Those are fair questions because the answer on Friday night was as obvious to them as it has been to me for two weeks.

It’s the same answer it’s been: Somebody will want — really, really want — to be head coach at Michigan. 

But it ain’t Kalen DeBoer.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.

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