The SEC isn’t for the weak of heart, and it took Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer a little bit of time to fully figure that out.

Every week, The Next Round Podcast has Alabama wide receiver Germie Bernard on as a guest, and as someone who played for DeBoer at Washington, he noticed a significant change in him.

In response to the article that Alex Scarborough wrote on 247Sports, where he was saying that DeBoer is a different coach, co-host Ryan Brown asked Bernard if he notices that same exact thing.

“Oh most definitely. He’s more fired up. He just knows what’s at stake. Coach DeBoer is a very, very nice guy – a guy that doesn’t really like to raise his voice and get loud and yell at people. But that had to change real quick. He learned that and he understood that. He has to have a different mentality coaching in the SEC.”

You noticed quickly after Week 1 how different DeBoer was when he would speak to the media. He was stern, short, he didn’t hold back, and he was sure of the objective – which is exactly what he tells his players to be.

DeBoer uses the words “intentional” and “purpose” a lot and he expects his players to follow suit.

Be intentional with your pursuit. Execute with purpose.

“A lot of guys are really leaning into that,” Bernard said. “Because that’s what they’ve been used to being under (Nick) Saban. For Coach DeBoer to change his mentality, and get after guys with what needs to be done, and fire us up.”

His smile gets extra wide when he starts talking about how different he is compared to when he was the coach at Washington.

“It’s definitely a surprise to me seeing him have a mentality change but we all have to have a mentality change being in the SEC, so I think it’s been really good for our team.”

For a guy who everyone praised as his calm demeanor being the one aspect that separates himself from the pack, DeBoer quickly read the vibe of his team and knew that it needed a kick in the pants.

And so far, we’ve seen that paying off.

Two games, two exceptional performances on defense. Two games, and now a team in despair feels like they can take over the world. 

All because he knew his team didn’t need a friend, they needed a coach.

And now after two games, the Crimson Tide are getting thrown into the fire again, this time to an FBS powerhouse.