'We Run a Lot More Here': Michigan DL Damon Payne Says He's in Better Shape Than When He Was at Alabama Because Kalen Deboer's Team Doesn't Condition as Hard

Other than Kalen DeBoer being 5-5 in his last 10 games, having now four losses in 14 games as a favorite of at least two touchdowns, everyone questioning his team's effort, a looming $70 million buyout and transfers saying they no longer condition very hard at Alabama, everything is going great in Tuscaloosa.

The latest blow comes from Michigan DL Damon Payne, who transferred from Alabama prior to this season and seems to credit the shape he's in to being on a team that actually has to run. I never thought we'd see the day where conditioning was something that was being questioned at Alabama, but here we are.

It seems the prevailing issue in T-Town might be overall team discipline. Guys are visibly loafing on tape. There isn't that fire present that was required to play for Nick Saban. It just looks like a team that doesn't care.

I still don't know if I think DeBoer is an actually bad Xs and Os football coach, but it's abundantly clear he was not nearly equipped to be the guy to follow Saban. And I don't think this sort of precipitous drop-off was inevitable at all. Dan Lanning could have walked in there and had that program competing for the national title last year and this year, no doubt in my mind. But he and the few other guys that would have been able to do that didn't want to leave good situations to be the coach who followed the best to ever do it.

Credit to DeBoer for being willing to do that, but it just doesn't seem like things are going to work out.