Kalen DeBoer had many meaningful moments Nick Saban when he took over as head coach at Alabama.

As for what the two talked about publicly and privately, there’s no doubt the transition was smooth. Replacing the GOAT isn’t easy, but so far things are going well for DeBoer.

He revealed a piece from the morning in which he was appointed head coach on Saturday College GameDay.

“I think it was probably the morning where everything happened, and I just think that conversation I had with the coach, I just felt, you know, just feeling how he felt about things,” DeBoer said. “Knowing that I had some kind of peace in my heart, that the transition would be smooth and that I would have the grace of him to be able to go and take over and still be able to embrace everything that he is ready for this program.”

Saban moved into television after his retirement. But he got to share a moment with DeBoer during Saturday’s show before the evening game against Georgia.

“Well, I appreciate the fact that I think Kalen has done a fantastic job in transition, which isn’t easy when you take over a successful program,” Saban said. “But you know, he respects the tradition here, he honored the success that we had, but he put the program and the stamp on the program in relation to how he wanted to do it, and the players really bought into it. And I think it’s a reflection of the way they played this year.”

Alabama is 3-0 and ranked fourth in the country. A win today would certainly cement a position in the top three, perhaps a No. 2 spot, in return for Georgia.

DeBoer took over for Saban and had to compete against the players so accustomed to a legend. But it was a surreal moment.

“I knew when I walked in that Friday night and met those guys, I knew it was going to be dead quiet and they had a lot of questions,” DeBoer said. “There were a lot of emotions and things that they were going through, and it was just meeting them where they were at that moment, you know, and just really trying again, and using the word embrace a lot, but there it went actually.”

Saban, of course, had the last laugh.

“But the real advantage you had is that they were really tired of my ass,” Saban said.