DeBoer talks atmosphere at Bryant-Denny Stadium

While Bryant-Denny Stadium ranks eighth in the nation in capacity, it certainly makes an argument to rank first in gameday atmosphere. In my now three years of watching Alabama home games, I am constantly reminded just what a special place BDS truly is. But why is it that a stadium that has hosted 18 national champions, 30 conference champions, and north of an 80% win rate at home isn't considered the consensus number one environment in all of college football?

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It's because of complacency, plain and simple. For years, Alabama beat teams to a point that fans had no reason to stay for the fourth quarter. Fans wanted to beat the traffic, and students wanted to get to the strip before bar covers hit triple digits. Just think, most students who have graduated since 2009 only had to witness two or three home losses in four years. Once that mixes in with the incoming students who expect to never witness a home loss, complacency can be hard to get away from.

But then, the Roman Empire came crashing down, and Nick Saban announced his retirement from the University of Alabama. Now, don't get me wrong, Kalen DeBoer is one of, if not the best, coaches in college football, and he himself has yet to drop a home game. But once you pair the departure of the greatest coach of all time with a new-age era of college football in which anyone truly can beat anyone, fans have to learn to lower expectations - even if it is just one notch.

The difference between my first and second year attending games in Bryant-Denny has been nothing short of night and day. Yes, the Bryant-Denny decibel record was broken in that 2023 season, but I consider that one a bit of an outlier. What I notice that's different is that fans aren't just cheering anymore, they're choosing to become a part of the game. For years, the 100,000 inside the stadium were able to kick their feet back and enjoy a tail-whooping, only getting raucous on long touchdowns or turnovers forced. But today? That same 100,000 is now hell-bent on making a difference, making life difficult for the opposing team, and even earning their boys in crimson a false start or two from their opponent.

My best example of this comes from last year's matchup with the USF Bulls. For three quarters, the Crimson Tide struggled with a group of five team, taking a 14-14 tie into the fourth quarter. Fans were begging for a reason to explode, but countless self-inflicted wounds prevented them from doing so. But like all dormant volcanoes, eventually they have to erupt, and boy oh boy did Bryant-Denny erupt. Dixieland Delight made the crowd sound like this was a top-five matchup, despite playing against a team that ranks fourth in notoriety in their own state. Two weeks later, I was convinced the walls of Bryant-Denny would crumble to the ground after Ryan Williams put up the highlight of a lifetime on his 75-yard game-winning touchdown. Even the 11 a.m. games over the past two seasons brought ear-splitting noise for the teams dressed in their road whites.

Kalen DeBoer has come to find out just how important these kinds of environments can be to the outcome of games. He saw Neyland Stadium at full force, he's seen what kind of role the crowd can play in Baton Rouge by completely taking them out of it, and of course, he's seen what 100,000 fans whose faces are as red as their crimson gear from yelling on third down. He's not only experienced it, but he's now learning how to stoke the flames of it as well. Before both the Tennessee and LSU games, he took to the Hey Coach Show to ask his fans to bring it for those games. On this week's show, he was asked about the environment and what it can bring to the table. He mentioned the "mystique" of Tuscaloosa on gamedays and referenced the great traditions that have come off the back of "great players making great plays."

But you didn't think he was done there, did you?

On this week's edition of the show, he ended it with the same request, "Our fans, we need them from start to finish, bringing everything they go,t helping us to will ourselves to victory."

If you can't support a coach like that, you're going to struggle finding one that you can.