Washington's Kalen DeBoer, who guided the Huskies to a Pac-12 championship and a spot in the CFP National Championship Game this past season, is negotiating a contract to replace Alabama's Nick Saban, sources told ESPN on Friday.
If a deal gets done, DeBoer, 49, would inherit one of the most coveted jobs in college football--and one of the most difficult in replacing Saban, whose teams won nine SEC titles and six national championships in his 17 seasons at the school. Saban, who had a 206-29 record at Alabama, retired on Wednesday.
Washington athletics director Troy Dannen has made an aggressive pitch to keep DeBoer, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel, with a new contract that would make him one of the 10 highest-paid coaches in the FBS and more than double his current annual salary of $4.