Roq Montgomery says Alabama 'more dialed in' this offseason: 'It's not a fashion show, it's football'

The 2024 season represented a transition from the Nick Saban era for the Alabama Crimson Tide to the Kalen DeBoer era. With that came some big wins and some bad losses. Now, however, the team is much more focused.

Alabama offensive line Roq Montgomery recently shared on The Bama Standard Podcast that the attitude is different, with the team being “more dialed in” and “more serious.” That should, in turn lead to better results on the field.

“The message right now from me and my teammates, just our entire staff, is we got a different outlook on everything,” Roq Montgomery said. “It’s like more dialed in, more serious. It’s not like we ain’t never been serious about anything, because there’s things that we do, but we just got to get back to the old days — to when Bama does nothing but win, and win championships. That’s the main focus right now.”

Coming off a 9-4 season that ended in a frustrating ReliaQuest Bowl loss, Alabama knows that the team didn’t live up to its own standard. To fix that, there are real cultural changes going on in Tuscaloosa, as Montgomery broke down.

“We ain’t playing no games with nobody. Anybody on staff, anybody that’s a player, like no nothing. Don’t be late to nothing. Do your work on time. Do all the little stuff great… Do the little stuff right and we’ll be rewarded in the end. So, we’ve just got to do the little things the right way and then we’ll be just fine.”

One coach who Roq Montgomery noted has been influential in making sure everybody does things right is Dave Ballou, the Director of Sports Performance at Alabama.

“This is our second week of workouts. We started as a team last week. You can’t be late to workouts no more. No more jewelry. No more necklaces. None of that. It’s not a fashion show. It’s football. Shoutout to Coach Ballou, our head strength coach. He’s not playing that shit. Excuse my language, but he’s just not. If somebody late — like we had a few people late, I’m not gonna throw nobody under the bus — if somebody late to workouts, everybody got 15 up-downs on Ballou’s whistle. And then whoever late got to push a plate and do their workout, and 15 up-downs. Like, no jewelry, no nothing. Any team that has won before us, nobody was doing none of that,” Montgomery said.

“So why start doing it now? It’s a lot of stuff that happened last year, but we ain’t won a championship since 2020, so it’s like what the hell we doing? That’s not ‘Bama football.”

Alabama has won 18 national championships in its history, including six under Saban. However, as Montgomery pointed out, it’s now been since the 2020 season when the Crimson Tide last won a title. Getting back to that level of dominance isn’t easy, but it is the focus of the offseason.

“I feel like everybody going in the right direction right now,” Montgomery said. “But I feel come August we’re gonna be a scary sight to see.”