Kalen DeBoer firmly believes Alabama can get back to playing at championship level

Kalen DeBoer isn’t ready to give up on this season yet. On Monday, the Alabama head coach revealed his mindset moving forward despite the Crimson Tide suffering their second loss of the season on Saturday.

“I still feel like, (with what) my experiences have been, there’s too much football left,” DeBoer said. “There’s so many things that can change between now and then. So that’s really, as Kane [Wommack] had said, that’s really where our focus is at. It’s just on this game, 1-0.

“I already heard in the locker room from our players. They understand the big picture is one thing. In order to make the big picture relevant, we have to take care of what’s in front of us. We have to continue to build, do what the championship teams do, build on what championship-caliber teams do, build on your belief, build on your intensity and everything that you do. And then just have some grit.”

That grit was missing for the Crimson Tide in their 24-17 loss to Tennessee this past weekend. In the loss, Alabama’s defense allowed Tennessee to rack up 408 total yards of offense.

When the Crimson Tide found stops, they spoiled their success with other mistakes. Alabama finished the game with 15 penalties for a 115-yard loss. Additionally, Alabama committed two turnovers.

Thankfully for Alabama, one game doesn’t define a season. Nonetheless, the Crimson Tide don’t have much room for error if they want to reach the 12-team College Football Playoff. Kalen DeBoer understands this harsh reality and is prepared for the challenge.

“If you look across the championships that have been won in this program, obviously I wasn’t a part of them, but there’s probably a lot of common things,” DeBoer said. “I firmly believe this team is capable of that. We just got to jump over that line, that is a fine line, of winning and losing, what it takes to be great. And we have the people here that are going to work hard, do everything they can within their means to make that happen. So I’m excited to get back to work. 

“We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. We knew winning a championship each and every year, especially in the SEC, is going to be hard. We knew there were going to be challenges along with transitions, all that. No excuses. We have to continue to move forward. We have to continue to build.”