"They hired the wrong guy" - Stephen A. Smith rips Alabama for picking Kalen DeBoer over top CFB coach after loss against Tennessee

Alabama Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer is under immense pressure after dropping his second game of the season 24-17 to the Tennessee Volunteers in Week 8. The loss dropped Alabama to 5-2 and 2-2 in SEC for the season, endangering college football playoff hopes Tide fans had after losing to the Vanderbilt Commodores in Week 6.

On Monday's "First Take," outspoken analyst Stephen A. Smith wondered whether the Crimson Tide made a mistake in hiring DeBoer as retired coach Nick Saban's successor (1:30).

“I’m sort of disgusted from what I’ve seen from Alabama. I mean the hell with Roll Tide. We can’t say Roll Tide,” Smith said. “Listen, Kalen DeBoer doesn’t seem like the right man for the job. This is a man that’s won at every level. … But this dude is no Nick Saban. Boy do we miss Nick Saban."

Smith thinks Alabama should bring back their former coach and should have gone with Oregon coach Dan Lanning in the first place.

“If I was Alabama, I’d beg Nick Saban to leave College Football GameDay and come back in the middle of the damn season," Smith said. “I’m so disgusted with what I’ve seen. … It looks like they hired the wrong guy. They should’ve went and got Dan Lanning from Oregon.

"The personality, to go from Nick Saban to DeBoer, it just seems like night and day. The level of accountability, the defense, the fluidity. I mean the roughriders, you don’t seem to be there."

Kalen DeBoer's team "over" for the season—Paul Finebaum

The criticism for Alabama's Kalen DeBoer has reached a fever pitch and ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum piled on during an episode of "SportsCenter" after the Crimson Tide's loss to the Tennessee Volunteers.

"I'm in on that and after what we saw yesterday in Knoxville, it's hard to believe that Alabama can run the table," Finebaum said. "They're one of the most undisciplined Alabama teams I have ever seen. It is just unfathomable to think they can put all this back together again.

"They have road games at LSU, which is an almost impossible place to win. So, even though it's not impossible, and I'm sure Kalen DeBoer will find a way to make his players believe it's not over, it feels over for the Crimson Tide."

With a crucial game on the road at Death Valley against the LSU Tigers still to come, Kalen DeBoer has zero margin for error after the Crimson Tide's loss in Knoxville.