4-star Alabama commit Caleb Cunningham believes in Kalen DeBoer's abilities as Nick Saban's Tuscaloosa successor: "The future is still bright"

Caleb Cullingham is confident in the abilities of Kalen DeBoer, who has succeeded Nick Saban at the Alabama Crimson Tide, one of the greatest coaches of all time. During Saban 17-year tenure, Alabama bagged numerous achievements and established itself as one of the best programs in the country, bagging six national championships along with nine SEC titles.

Nick Saban's legacy is fairly evident in his 274-67-1 overall record as a coach. Following the announcement of his retirement, fans were left concerned about the program's future.

However, their worries were soon put to rest when Kalen DeBoer was appointed as the next coach. DeBoer, though, had a bit of a rocky start with the Crimson Tide, as many players jumped ships and decided to enter the transfer portal. Some even questioned his ability to recruit in the South.

However, Nick Saban's successor has proved his detractors wrong through his bold strides in the recruitment process by securing talent powerhouses like 5-star WR Ryan Williams, five-star QB Keelon Russell, and most recently, five-star OT Ty Haywood, who was among the top targets of many top schools, like Auburn, FSU, Oklahoma and TCU.

In a conversation with Rivals, Cullingham, a four-star commit, talked about the reasons why he chose to ride with former coach Nick Saban's Crimson Tide.

"Bama is definitely gonna get me to the league I'm looking at my future. The competition. ... I want to get good coaching every day to get me where I need to be and everybody is gonna come in and compete and work," Cunningham detailed.

"Bama is Bama. Everyone is elite on the team, and that'll get you ready. One of the big reasons I picked 'Bama is everyone on the field is a competitor. It's not gonna be easy like high school. I love the culture there. The culture is great, the fan base is great. Bama made it feel like home for real."

He concluded:

"Even though Saban's not there, Coach DeBoer is gonna build Bama back up. The future is still bright at Bama."

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Nick Saban's Alabama successor Kalen DeBoer on leaving Washington Huskies

The former Washington coach has often spoken about how difficult the decision to leave the Huskies was, as he was on his way to building a dynasty with them.

In 2023, Washington just fell short of a national championship during their 34-13 matchup against Jim Harbaugh's Michigan. In a conversation on "The Next Up with Adam Breman," DeBoer opened up about still having a soft spot for the Huskies:

"Washington was amazing. The people over there, they are amazing, will always be that way, my family just embraced (it) in every way. We loved it there. And we'll, you know, cherish our times, I mean, it was two of really the best years of my life coaching.

"And I think because of the age, my kids and just where we're at, in them understanding what we're going through, we just had a great time as a family, the staff, amazing staff, and of course, the players are the ones that all revolves around and what they did. And so, you know, that was by far the hardest part, [it] has been the hardest decision I've ever had to make, you know, in any way, career or even personal." (11:00)

Fans will be interested to see how the new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer takes Nick Saban's legacy further in the 2024 college football season.