Vegas has underestimated the 2024 Alabama Crimson Tide and HC Kalen DeBoer should take it personally

The 2024 version of the Alabama Crimson Tide face a lot of uncertainty.

Under the guidance of a new HC for the first time in decades, Kalen DeBoer has a whole new challenge on his hands.

But when analyzing both his resume and the Tide’s schedule, you can quickly see that Vegas isn’t giving DeBoer nor the Capstone the respect they deserve.

Alabama Win total set at 9.5 games

Per FanDuel , the tide have +116 odds to win over 9.5 games in 2024, meaning the books expect the Tide to lose at least two, but maybe three regular season contests.

Well, I won’t go game by game , but you would have to really stretch to see a world, where based on preseason rankings, that the Tide lose more than two games.

The toughest contests will be Georgia, LSU, Missouri and Tennessee, but Alabama boasts either a higher coaches poll ranking, or home field advantage in everyone of those matchups.

And to be fair, the only teams with higher over unders are the four teams ranked ahead of Alabama according to coaches: Texas, Oregon, Ohio State and Georgia.

They all have their number set at 10.5 but let’s take Georgia, and Texas for instance. They both play in the SEC, same as Alabama now that Texas has joined as a part of conference re-alignment, not to mention, they play each other.

But if you want to argue they have better rosters, that’s fine. You can make a case for Alabama’s returning roster, but questions are prevalent at key positions like WR.

The real reason why Alabama has the win total of 9.5 is because Vegas doesn’t think Kalen DeBoer can hold up to the standards put in place by Coach Saban.

And that much may be true. No one is going to create or in this case, replicate the sustained level of championship success that Coach Saban did.

But Coach DeBoer is a winner. And I don’t mean that lightly. Not only did he take a Washington program that had a combined seven wins in the two years prior to him joining, within quarters of a national championship, but he is 104-12 as a college coach. Yes that’s right.

But it’s fine, the Tide already have plenty of motivation going into 2024, so why not pile on some extra from Vegas.

Related: Alabama Crimson Tide 2024 Schedule Prediction: How likely is a return to the SEC Championship Game?