Washington Huskies Player Says Team Learned That Former Coach Kalen DeBoer Signed With Alabama While Watching TV In The Training Room

Sometimes life comes at you fast. Sometimes it comes so fast that there's hardly enough time to tell your team that you took a new job across the country. Then they have to find out about it on TV. This was allegedly the case for some of the Washington Huskies and now-former coach Kalen DeBoer.

DeBoer, of course, is the new head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. It was a process that moved at break-neck speed after news broke that Nick Saban was retiring.

However, it may have happened so fast that the Huskies weren't even told about it before it was all over the news.

According to Awful Announcing, Huskies cornerback Elijah Jackson posted an Instagram live video. In it, he claims he and some of his teammates caught wind of the news while watching ESPN in the team's facility.

“We in the training room and ESPN kicks on,” Jackson said. “They talking about DeBoer finalizing a contract.”

Now, the fact that DeBoer was a favorite for the job and was even finalizing a contract was being widely reported. It's not a surprise they'd stumble across it. However, you can imagine those players weren't too pumped to hear the news that way.

Another player in the video said that DeBoer didn't give a two-week notice and that instead, "bro put in his 24 hours.”

Jackson echoed that.

“He just left,” he said. “It’s a cold world, bro.”

In less than a week, Kalen DeBoer went from coaching the Huskies in a National Championship game to taking a new job at Alabama. That's just the nature of the business. (Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

It's Tough To Blame DeBoer When This Is Just How It Works Sometimes

That might be unfortunate, but it's hardly a surprise and it's hardly the first time a coach's move to another program was revealed by the media before it was even revealed to his soon-to-be former employees.

I remember being at the American Conference Championship game in 2017 between UCF and Memphis. There were plenty of rumblings before the game that then-Knights coach Scott Frost was going to return to coach his alma mater at Nebraska.

However, that news broke — once again on ESPN — while the game was going to overtime.

UCF won that game (then went on to win the Peach Bowl and a National Championship. Coley Matrix; look it up, so talk about an awkward celebration. The entire stadium knew that Frost was saying "Deuces!" as soon as the season was over.

Of course, things went so swimmingly for Frost at Nebraska...

Not ideal, but that's just the nature of the business. Things happen fast, and sometimes they get reported even faster.

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