FRISCO, Texas – Four days after losing the national championship to Michigan, Kalen DeBoer decided to take on one of the most difficult coaching jobs in the country: Following in the footsteps of Nick Saban at Alabama.
Step one of getting accustomed to his new role was getting to know his team and identifying the leaders on the roster. Immediately, one name rose to the forefront: Guard Tyler Booker.
"It was a whirlwind, but it quickly became obvious that everything everyone had said when people were referring to the leaders on the team, that [Booker] was going to be that guy that you really had to go to and count on," DeBoer said.
"He established his commitment to being here very quickly, and that was super helpful for me to continue to keep the ball rolling and know that he was someone that I could count on."
As the DeBoer continued to roll the ball and assemble his staff, he tabbed former Michigan State assistant head coach and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic to run the offensive line room in Tuscaloosa. Kapilovic originally agreed to the same position at Baylor, but changed his mind in February and joined DeBoer's staff late.
As soon as his plane touched down, Kapilovic went straight into a coaches meeting, position group meeting and walkthroughs all with his suitcase still in hand. He had just gotten to town, but learned all he needed to know about Booker from the jump.
"His focus, his attention, the questions he would ask were high level questions," Kapilovic said. "Then we went out to the walkthrough and he's dialed in. Communication is excellent, doing everything the right way, the way you want guys to do it. Didn't take a long for me to figure out, he was definitely the alpha in the room."
It's one thing to stand out in walkthroughs and position meetings, but Booker walked his walk every day in practice too, which translated on Saturdays.
"Every drill, there was no cruise control, there was no just do just enough, he was just relentless in everything he did and that really stood out in the fourth quarter," Kapilovic said. "The stations we do, everything we did, he attacked it. When your best player on the team is your hardest worker, you got a chance to be successful."
In the modern college football landscape, a player of Booker's caliber could have entered the transfer portal with the potential to make significant money elsewhere. Many players on the Crimson Tide's roster left after Saban's departure, but he stuck around and got rewarded for it.
"He bet on himself, he bet on Alabama and just wanted to do everything he could to help us make that transition as smooth as possible," DeBoer said. "He's a guy that's a fighter and he's going to lead and it's going to be awesome for him down there. I'm sure he is going to do the same thing. I have no doubt about it."
In Booker's third and final season in Tuscaloosa, he earned 1st-team All-SEC honors and started all 13 games, not allowing a sack on 371 pass blocking snaps. DeBoer and Kapilovic had seen plenty of Booker on film taking the job, and he did even more for them in 2024.
"As a run blocker, just getting his pad level underneath people and keeping the feet moving, but staying connected was a piece that I think is just a great strength for him," DeBoer said. "As a pass protector, the stats show just no one really gets to the quarterback by going through him, that's for sure."
One of the looming questions around Booker coming into the draft cycle was how good of an athlete he was, and whether or not he could execute blocks well on the move. DeBoer's scheme requires a lot of movement from the offensive line, and Booker grew as an overall player because of it.
"A big part of our offense was him getting out there in space, whether it was the pin pulls, whether it was the screen game, pulling for counters, and he did an excellent job," Kapilovic said.
"We led the SEC in rushing touchdowns and we were in a high percentage in the red zone. So obviously the teams like Dallas did their homework on that. The film shows you he could definitely get it done."
Booker did everything that was asked of him by DeBoer, including kicking out to left tackle in their Week 2 game against USF. Every other game of his collegiate career, Booker played at guard and will likely do the same in the NFL. That said, DeBoer believes that Booker possesses the versatility to play tackle or even at center and is prepared to do so too.
"I just feel like he understands it, and it isn't just about scheme, it's understanding, positioning and all of that. He just gets football, he's instinctual, and then I think physically he's got that ability to step out there as he continues to get more and more confident and comfortable at that NFL level…" DeBoer said.
"He always works on snapping a football and things like that, so he's a guy that is going to be extremely versatile. I know when you only travel so many linemen or are able to suit up so many guys each and every week, I think that's going to be something that's really significant, having a guy on your roster that can do all that."
The Crimson Tide came short of their goals for the season, finishing the year 9-4 and coming up short of the College Football Playoffs. It was a challenging, roller coaster of a year but Booker never waver in his role as a leader of the team and knew when he needed to speak up.
"I've been doing this a pretty good amount of time and he's the best leader I've had in my time as a coach," Kapilovic said. "One thing about him is sometimes you have kids that are leaders and they talk almost too much and it kind of drowns the team out. I always felt like he was very on point of when he needed to speak up, whether it was to the o-line, to the offense or to the team, and a respect level for him was so high"
After Alabama's bowl game loss to Michigan that ended their season, Booker told reporters that DeBoer and his staff "did a great job," and added "it takes a certain amount of pride and confidence in oneself to come follow up the greatest coach of all time."
For him to go out on a limb on his own and say that meant a lot to DeBoer, and was a testament to the type of person he was.
"It meant a lot just because he's so well respected internally, externally, our team just believes in him," DeBoer said. "They see the work and have that respect that you want, and he's voted a team captain for a reason, and so it meant a lot to have that support from him because I think that just continues to trickle throughout the team and they follow his lead."
As DeBoer heads into year two at the helm in Tuscaloosa, he'll look to continue to uphold the standard set before him by Nick Saban. Conversely, he knows that Booker will take pride in carrying on the torch left for him by Zack Martin and all the other elite Cowboys offensive linemen that have come before him.
"He's a guy that respects the game," DeBoer said. "He respects those that play the game a certain way and just like he respected the great players before him in this program, he's going to respect the great ones there at Dallas as well."
