Alabama moved quickly to find the replacement for Nick Saban.

Washington coach Kalen DeBoer has been named the next head coach of the Crimson Tide football team, the school announced Friday night.

‘Coach DeBoer has proven he is a winner and has done an incredible job as a head coach at each of his stops,’ Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said in a statement. ‘One of the things I told our team the other day is we are going to get someone who is not only a great coach with the Xs and Os, but also someone who cares about his players and someone I’d want my sons to play for, just like I would have wanted them to play for Coach Saban. We got that in Coach DeBoer.

‘He is ready to get to work, and we look forward to him leading the Alabama Crimson Tide football program for years to come.’

Other projected candidates such as Texas coach Steve Sarkisian and Florida State coach Mike Norvell received raises and contract extensions in recent days, paving the way for DeBoer to become Saban’s replacement.

‘Following Coach Saban is an honor. He has been the standard for college football, and his success is unprecedented,’ DeBoer said in the school’s statement, adding: ‘I would not have left Washington for just any school. The chance to lead the football program at The University of Alabama is the opportunity of a lifetime.’

In DeBoer, Alabama lands one of the fastest-rising coaches in recent Bowl Subdivision history and a coach with a proven track record of success in the metrics the program values most: against ranked teams, in conference championship games and against fellow elite teams in the College Football Playoff.

DeBoer was a perfect 10-0 against ranked teams in his two seasons at Washington before losing Monday night’s national championship game to Michigan, 34-13. After coming up just shy of the Pac-12 title game last season, this year’s team beat Oregon for the second time during the regular season to advance to 13-0 and finish No. 2 in the final playoff rankings.

And in the playoff semifinals at the Sugar Bowl, Washington beat Texas 37-31 behind a near-perfect offensive scheme that saw quarterback Michael Penix Jr. throw for 430 yards and two touchdowns without getting sacked.

TOUGH TASK: Other schools struggled replacing legendary college football coach

DeBoer went 25-3 in his two years with the Huskies, a remarkable record given the state of the program upon his arrival. Washington went 4-8 in 2021 and was particularly inept on the offensive side of the ball.

But that was his first taste of Power Five football as a head coach after more than 20 years working his way up the coaching ladder. A former wide receiver at the University of Sioux Falls, a member of the NAIA, DeBoer became the offensive coordinator at his alma mater in 2000 and was promoted to head coach in 2005, kicking off a historic five-year run.

From 2005-09, DeBoer posted a record of 67-3 with three NAIA national championships and one additional appearance in the NAIA title game.

That success earned him the job as offensive coordinator at Southern Illinois, a position he held from 2010-13. He then held the same position at Eastern Michigan from 2014-16, Fresno State from 2017-18 and at Indiana in 2019.

DeBoer was rehired by Fresno State as head coach in 2020. He went 12-6 across two seasons, posting three wins during the 2020 COVID season and then finishing 9-3 and 6-2 in conference play in 2021.

That run earned him the chance at Washington, where he turned in one of the great two-year runs in Pac-12 history and put the Huskies back on the national map. A win against the Wolverines would’ve given Washington the first unshared national title in program history.

DeBoer was making $4.2 million in compensation with Washington in the 2023 season. Alabama will owe a $12 million buyout to the Huskies.

And while his offensive background should mesh well with Alabama’s roster and be attractive to recruits, DeBoer will be judged against the greatest coach of this generation and spend his tenure with the Crimson Tide under intense scrutiny.

Saban won almost 300 games in his college coaching career and seven national championships, with his first coming at LSU in 2003.

‘I want nothing more than to see Alabama football continue to be successful, and Coach DeBoer is an outstanding choice to lead this program. He has a proven track record of success and is one of the brightest minds,’ Saban said in a statement. ‘Coach DeBoer has an excellent understanding of what it takes to be a successful head coach, whether it’s coaching, recruiting, developing players or building a culture.

‘He has done a fantastic job at every stop of his coaching career, and I am excited to see what he will be able to accomplish in Tuscaloosa.’

Simone Biles trades in her Packers parka for a glamorous photo shoot in the latest issue of Vanity Fair and talks about Green Bay in the cover story.

The most decorated gymnast in history sat down with contributing editor Leah Faye Cooper in Houston for a wide-ranging interview about the highs and lows of her career, her husband, Packers safety Jonathan Owens, fame, family, mental health care and her nonprofit foster care work.

On being part of the Packers organization

After she and Owens celebrated their wedding in May, he flew to Green Bay to sign with the Packers. “I cried a lot,” Biles said about having to be apart so much due to their respective careers. But it’s also not something the couple can’t navigate, she said. They’re building a home in the Houston suburb of Spring and also have a residence in Green Bay.

“We’re both so busy, so it’s not like I’m sitting (around) waiting for him to come home, but it’s just hard,” she told Vanity Fair. “We love being with the Packers organization (and) Lambeau. The fans are … I wouldn’t even call them crazy; they’re dedicated. They love their players as if those are their children.’

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

On being at Lambeau Field the same night Taylor Swift was

She also talked about being at Lambeau for the December game against the Kansas City Chiefs on “Sunday Night Football.’ There was much anticipation that if Taylor Swift showed up to cheer for her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, the world might get a selfie of the two women together at the game. Swift was there, but the photo meet-up never happened.

The two were sitting in different sections, Biles said in the interview, ‘and I’m not sure they were exactly happy that the Packers were beating them.”

The NBC cameras caught Biles, dressed in Packers cold weather gear, down on on the sidelines before the game giving Owens a hug and a kiss. Swift arrived at Lambeau wearing a red Stella McCartney coat and could be seen watching from a stadium suite.

On how she and Jonathan Owens met

The two met during the pandemic in 2020 on the private dating app Raya. Owens, who was also interviewed for the article, said Biles had a laugh that was contagious and the two could talk all day and night without ever an awkward moment. He didn’t have a clue she was the greatest gymnast of all time, until he found her on Instagram.

“I was like, man, she got a lot of followers, she must be pretty good,” Owens told Vanity Fair.

Biles’ initial attraction to Owens might have had something to do with his looks, she admits in the interview, calling him “very fine.” But he was also “so sweet and kind, and I think what I liked about him was his confidence. He truly believes he’s the best at everything,” she said.

He proposed on Valentine’s Day of 2022. They married in a small civil ceremony at the courthouse in Houston last April, followed by a celebration in May in Mexico.

Vanity Fair also released a 9-minute video this week in which Biles reflects on her life-changing moments. She talks more about her relationship with Owens, knowing she was going to marry him when she met him and how she’s the only person who calls him ‘Jonathan.’ Everyone else calls him ‘J.O.’

Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.

In 2017, while working at ESPN, Jemele Hill was criticized for telling the truth about Donald Trump. As with so many things, Hill was ahead of her time. She called Trump a white supremacist. Which was accurate. He was then and is now. But then, not as many people were saying it publicly, and this made Hill a target for the right wing. She received numerous threats (some of them frightening) and was called racial slurs hundreds of times.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Hill should be fired. Trump demanded she apologize. She was later suspended for two weeks after the network said she violated the company’s social media policy a second time. Hill said fans should boycott the Dallas Cowboys’ sponsors because of Jerry Jones’ stance on players kneeling for the national anthem.

Why is this important now? Because at the time, ESPN had its ear to the ground, listening carefully to right-wing news sources, ran scared, and failed Hill. Now, seven years later, ESPN hosts the ‘Pat McAfee Show’ and on it, Rodgers essentially called one of ABC’s biggest stars in Jimmy Kimmel a pedophile.

ESPN’s hypocrisy seems clear. Black woman tells the truth and she’s punished. Two white men either provide the platform for lies, as McAfee does, or lie themselves like Rodgers does, and the punishment is almost non-existent. There was an apology from McAfee and an ESPN executive, and doubling down by Rodgers, but no one, as far as we know, was disciplined for the entire sordid mess.

Hill has watched all of this and as she always does, offers an intelligent, nuanced and powerful response.

If Pat McAfee is really Aaron Rodgers’ friend, he’ll drop him from his show

‘I can see why people look at what happened to me as an example of ESPN’s hypocrisy, but it proves how much context of the moment matters,’ Hill said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. ‘When I called Donald Trump a white supremacist, the political climate was different. If I said that today, I don’t know if it would garner the same reaction because people these days call Donald Trump a white supremacist like it’s his first name.

‘At the same time, there’s also a thriving culture war in this country and I do wonder if ESPN’s tepid response to Aaron Rodgers’ reckless opinions is influenced by criticisms that they aren’t as receptive to the viewpoints that are embraced in conservative circles, like the anti-vaccination movement. For sure when I was suspended, ESPN was very sensitive to the criticisms they were too liberal and left-leaning. This feels sort of similar.’

In other words, ESPN catered to the right by suspending Hill, and are catering to the right again by not more forcefully rebuking Rodgers. I’d argue that if Hill was suspended for saying something that’s accurate, why doesn’t more happen to McAfee for trafficking those lies?

Hill again had a cogent response.

‘ESPN made a conscious decision to be in business with Pat McAfee because they want access to his audience,’ Hill said. ‘As a talent, McAfee is very unique and very different than what most people are accustomed to seeing on ESPN. Aaron Rodgers is cost of doing business with McAfee. And while I’m sure they knew that there would be some controversies that naturally came about with this show, I’m sure they never anticipated that Rodgers would insinuate that one of ABC’s biggest stars is a pedophile. Based off how ESPN and Disney have both responded, it’s fair to say they do believe the juice is worth the squeeze.’

This has long been true: Hill is one of the smartest people in my industry. When she speaks, you should listen. Of all the things said over the past few days, and even months, about McAfee, Rodgers and the bedlam Rodgers has created, what Hill says about it all is so dead on it should be required reading for every executive inside the network. Hell, every network. Hell, every person who is trying to manage in these 21st century media streets full of misinformation, intenseracism, and a divided nation that seems on the doorstep of autocracy. Hill is qualified to speak about it all.

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel absolutely obliterates Aaron Rodgers in new monologue

But what she says about ESPN is important now because of, well, recent events.

McAfee may not have technically violated any of ESPN’s policies but his enabling of Rodgers has humiliated the network. Normally, this type of thing leads to massive changes and has huge repercussions. Someone usually loses a job. But I think ESPN isn’t taking more drastic action because it’s afraid of the reaction of right-wing media and politicians.

If ESPN banned Rodgers, Trump would go on his social site and talk about Rodgers being canceled and how the libs are somethin’ something’ DEI somethin’ somethin’. This is truly what ESPN fears.

Rodgers doesn’t have to stick to sports. LeBron James must. Jemele Hill was essentially required to do the same.

‘ESPN is never going to be able to have a one-size fits all response to these controversies,’ Hill said. ‘Everybody’s leverage is different and the reality is, the more money you make at ESPN, the more liberties you’ll have. It’s the way in every business, in every industry. But this does illustrate just how disingenuous those ‘stick to sports’ narratives are.

‘How people respond to hearing athletes’ opinions about non-sports topics is greatly influenced by whether they agree on disagree with the topic. When it comes to racism, structural racism, and inequality, those are topics that sadly aren’t going to get the same level of consideration as spouting baseless conspiracy theories about a vaccine.’

Hill is a great truth teller but she’s also a cautionary tale for ESPN. The culture wars are real and the network is part of it whether they want to believe that or not. And ESPN has spent more time bending to the will of the extreme right. Rodgers is proof of that.

So act accordingly, ESPN.

Colin Kaepernick was asked a simple question: What did he think of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh possibly returning to the NFL? His answer was to the point.

“Harbaugh is the one coach you call,” Kaepernick told USA TODAY Sports in a direct message on X, formerly Twitter, “when you want to compete for a championship. Period.”

Period.

That was it. Nice and short and sweet. But to Kaepernick, and anyone who remembers Harbaugh’s time in the NFL, you really do not need to say much more. Also, Kaepernick is right.

For people who don’t remember, in the 2012 season, Kaepernick and Harbaugh had one of the more magical runs in modern NFL playoff history. That season was also controversial because of how things with Kaepernick unfolded. Alex Smith, the 49ers’ highly popular starter, missed two games with a concussion, and Kaepernick filled in.

When Smith returned, Harbaugh decided to keep Kaepernick as the starter. This was a staggeringly bold move by Harbaugh at the time. Smith was one of the game’s most-accurate passers and was 19-5-1 as a starter under Harbaugh. By the time Smith returned, the 49ers were 8-2-1. It would have been easy for Harbaugh to simply re-insert Smith as the starter.

But Harbaugh saw something in Kaepernick that pushed him to make the switch. It was the fact that Kaepernick provided explosiveness to the offense that Smith couldn’t. The decision worked. The 49ers made it to Super Bowl XLVII, where they lost to Baltimore. Later, Smith was traded. The following season, as the starter from the beginning of the year, Kaepernick helped lead the team to the NFC title game.

In many ways, Kaepernick would become a bridge from quarterbacks like Mike Vick to the current generation, like Jalen Hurts. Kaepernick would elevate it and for a good two to three years was one of the most devastating weapons in the sport. Maybe in the history of the sport. None of that would have happened if Harbaugh hadn’t made the switch.

There were excellent running quarterbacks before him, and after him, but few had his combination of speed, power and smarts. Against the Green Bay Packers, in his first postseason start, he’d rush for 181 yards.

Could the 49ers have made the Super Bowl with Smith as the starter? Sure, it’s possible, but we’ll never know. What we do know is that Harbaugh re-engineered the offense to fit Kaepernick’s unique abilities. This sounds obvious but many coaches, because of their egos, or because of a lack of skill, often don’t do that.

Harbaugh allowed Kaepernick to be Kaepernick, and a locker room that could have potentially fractured was kept together by Harbaugh.

Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh has a title, seat at the ‘big person’s table.’ So is this goodbye?

That season, and for much of his NFL head-coaching tenure, Harbaugh was good with players, adaptive and smart. This is the Harbaugh the NFL remembers and why teams may want him back in the professional football fold.

Harbaugh and Kaepernick have remained close; Harbaugh named Kaepernick an honorary captain for the Michigan spring game this past season.

“Coach Harbaugh, he’s always been phenomenal for me,” Kaepernick said in an interview then. “From the time we met at the combine to my pro day to him drafting me and choosing to start me. From there, our relationship has continued to grow and develop. Phenomenal person. Phenomenal man. Lots of love for Coach Harbaugh.”

At halftime of that spring game, Harbaugh, knowing Kaepernick was still open to playing in the NFL again, had Kaepernick conduct a throwing session.

“It shows who Coach Harbaugh is,” Kaepernick said. “He does this for me. He’s someone that is gonna fight for you. His relationship with you goes beyond just football. He loves you as a person. My relationship I’ve maintained with him, his dad, Jack, and his family. It’s phenomenal to be able to reconnect in person after the pandemic and a few years apart.”

Harbaugh is gruff, and some of the things he did at Michigan were wrong, but no NFL team will care. They will look at his successful NFL tenure, and the fact he took the Wolverines to a title, and will jump up and down like a kid coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.

There’s long been this low-key chatter among some NFL coaches and front-office executives that the coaching job Harbaugh did in that 2012 season was one of the best of the past 20 years.

In the end, Harbaugh is that good, and winning a national title only enhances the lure for NFL franchises.

So, yes, Kaepernick is right. Period.

The Buffalo Bills are asking Bills Mafia for a helping hand … literally. 

The Bills are seeking help shoveling snow in Highmark Stadium ahead of Buffalo’s wild-card playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in Orchard Park, New York, where seven to 11 inches of new snow is forecast on Saturday night. 

“Be part of the team to get the venue ready for the hometown Bills Wildcard Playoff game vs. the Steelers!” the franchise wrote on Friday. ‘Shovelers can shovel snow throughout the night on Saturday into Sunday morning if needed.’

The weather is forecast to be 24 degrees at kickoff at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, with winds of 26 to 30 mph and gusts up to 44 mph. A Winter Storm Warning advisory is in effect in the area from Saturday though Monday, with the National Weather Service citing blizzard conditions and widespread blowing snow.

 The Bills are seeking help from 10 p.m. ET on Saturday into Sunday morning. Helpers will be compensated $20 an hour, with complimentary food and breaks provided out of the cold, the team added.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

To work, helpers will need to be 18 years or older with a proper photo identification, weather-appropriate gear, including gloves, scarves, hats, boots and coats, in addition to a shovel if available. If you don’t have your own shovel, one will be provided, the Bills said.

Buffalo is not the first franchise to ask its fanbase for help. The Green Bay Packers have asked their fans to help shovel snow at Lambeau Field multiple times across the years, most recently in 2020.