Ahead of the start of the season, a Group of 5 team called out the Alabama Crimson Tide. Miami (OH) RedHawks coach Chuck Martin accused Kalen DeBoer and the Crimson Tide of stealing their award-winning kicker.
2023 Lou Groza Award winner Graham Nicholson followed his terrific season by transferring to Alabama. The Tide hoped to replace Will Reichard and did so in an exciting fashion. But there’s resentment in the air over how it went down.
“We didn’t lose him, he’s at Alabama,” Martin said via Al.com. “We know exactly where he’s at. Again, you media people, it’s all pretend. Like, no, Alabama stole our kicker. They illegally recruited our kicker and stole him from us and that’s a fact. We act like it’s not. We live in this la-la world, like, ‘Hey, let’s not talk…’ I don’t know why. Everybody knows what’s going on.”
Martin followed by outright saying that Alabama “stole” the RedHawks kicker. After his comments made it to Tuscaloosa, DeBoer offered a response.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he said. “He entered the portal, and we reached out to him. That’s how it goes, right? So, we did everything we were supposed to.”
Kalen DeBoer response https://t.co/eXaHbucjFU pic.twitter.com/zlK03aM67X
— Nick Kelly (@_NickKelly) August 22, 2024
DeBoer says Alabama did everything by the book, so the tenseness will likely remain between the two sides. They will, unfortunately, not meet on the football field this season. But it would have been pretty amusing if they were to.
