Everything Kalen DeBoer said after Alabama's 52-7 win over Mercer

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 10 Alabama defeated Mercer, 52-7, on Saturday at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. After win No. 8 as the Crimson Tide head coach, Kalen DeBoer spoke to local reporters. Below is everything DeBoer said following the Week 12 victory.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“Good to get a win and get a lot of guys out there on the field. They all put in a lot of work, and there’s that little window that you try to hit where you get the ones the work and you get the score where you need it to be and for the guys to play a quarter and a half essentially and get a lot of guys on the football field, it was fun to see them get out there and play and work on their execution. 

“I like that we got three more takeaways. I think there’s a mindset about our defense and three of the first four possessions to do that. Just really like where we’re at. We’re hunting the ball. And offensively, putting the drives there. I know right at the end of the first half, maybe had a field goal. We’d love to score in the red zone, get a touchdown. But for the most part, again, taking care of the football, no turnovers and getting the takeaways. And that’s where it all starts.

“Guys worked hard all week long. I thought they really had a good demeanor about them, working on themselves individually, wanting to build on what we did a week ago and go into the tail end of the season here, I think, relatively healthy as far as who played and no one getting seriously dinged up for next week.”

DeBoer on Robbie Ouzts…

“He’s just kind of a Swiss Army Knife for us out there, especially in the blocking piece. For him to get down the field – and they put a lot of guys up toward the line of scrimmage. That’s just a part of what they do, and they’ve been very successful with it. No. 1 at the FCS level in rush defense. But some play-actions there that we got behind them on. For Robbie to haul one in was really exciting for our guys, exciting for him. I love to see it.

“He got a chance as a senior to talk to the team last night, and you can just tell the love our team has for him, how much they appreciate the effort he brings each and every day, not just each and every week. He’s got a mindset, a toughness about him that just exudes what Alabama football is all about.”

DeBoer on the play of Alabama’s backup quarterbacks…

“Ty with some scrambles. The long one kind of along our sideline. I think people really know and have watched Ty – probably all of you – you can see that he’s got that ability, can do things with his feet. Everyone gets tied into Jalen and his running ability, but Ty’s tough to handle when it comes to running the football, too. Escaping, making some plays. The fourth down, throwing it deep, that was – if it’s picked off, it’s picked off. So smart just to give him a chance and find a way to make a play.

“And I thought Dylan and Austin coming in and moving the chains. Dylan on a fourth-down conversion. Austin coming in, laying a ball in there along the left sideline for the touchdown. There was that, again, fine window of trying to let these guys run the offense and get that experience and get an opportunity to do what they work on each and every day. I was proud of the way they just handle everything from the execution to just even the procedural things where making sure guys are lined up before we motion, all of that stuff. So I thought it was a good day for all of them as a whole.”

DeBoer on Alabama’s first non-offensive touchdown of the year…

“Those are exciting. The guys talk about it, and when they come up short and they think they had a chance to score, they always hear about, ‘You should have kept along this sideline or cut back.’ And for us to get him in the end zone with that long return, it was something that’s exciting for the whole team because they have gotten the takeaways. We just hadn’t ended up with one in the end zone like that. I love the mindset. Again, going back to what the defense is doing. They’re attacking. Three-and-out is what they’re shooting for. But right now, the position they’re putting our offense in, getting points on the board now, too, it’s really good.”

DeBoer on the keeping the first defense in longer than the first offense…

“Well, I think first of all, there’s a lot of guys rotating in on defense to begin with. I mean, there’s a lot of young guys we already have on the football field with the ones, and there’s less experience even when you put the twos out there. And a lot of that one and two is in rotation up front, in the secondary. And then the score isn’t completely lopsided, and when you start putting your next guys in with the offense, you wanna be careful just to make sure the game can stay and nothing crazy happens. I know that none of you felt like it was in jeopardy. But those are just things that you wanna be careful of and make sure you can get through the quarter and then get into the fourth. But again, we play a lot of guys already before you even get to substituting there in the latter part of the game.”

DeBoer on what he saw from the team this week to make sure they avoided a letdown…

“As we get to the latter half of the season, we really have honed in on more leaders stepping up. Take care of yourself, own what you do and take care of that and then bring someone else with you. And the intensity in practice, it’s not like guys are flying off the walls and things like that, but there’s a focus that they bring, and there’s just a business-like approach where they know that they’ve gotta do this. They’ve gotta eat right, sleep right. Do all those things off the field. Take care of their business there, and it leads to the success that they had. But when they do those things right and you invest, that’s investing in improving yourself and improving our team, and that’s what I thought they did. 

“Downstairs, I know some of the upperclassmen talking about how much they appreciate the young guys and how happy we were that some of those guys got a chance to go out there. They’re giving scout-team looks all week, all season long, and for them to get out there and have a little success and enjoy the moment was great and the whole team’s happy for them.”

DeBoer on Jihaad Campbell…

“That’s a great example of you don’t have to have the C to be a leader, and Jihaad is exactly that. He’s been a leader for us ever since I can remember. I’ve counted on him. I go to him expecting big things, expecting that leadership. He can run. It starts there. But I think just the more and more he just plays ball, executes the plays, understands what our defense is and how it matches up against what he’s seeing, trusting the others around him, not trying to do too much and just attacking. He’s feeling it. There’s confidence that he has that you can see coming out and the playmaking ability. And that’s not just him but a lot of guys. But it starts with some of those guys that are making plays consistently, and Jihaad’s one of them.”

DeBoer on how he has seen the offensive line grow together…

“There’s gonna be plays – we didn’t have any sacks. I know we got hit a couple times or had a little pressure. But I think there’s things – last week was a huge step running the football and just moving people. There’s little adjustments, little tweaks. We played Geno a lot at right guard just to give Jaeden – Jaeden could have been out there and played for us. But it was good to get Geno out there, and we’ve gotta continue to build that depth. But I just think they’re more in sync. You really don’t see any busts, and it’s been going on for many weeks now. You don’t see busts. They’ve been really consistent, and the execution has been good and they’re just trying to make the execution better and better and better each and every week, both in the pass protection and the run game.”

DeBoer on Ryan Williams…

“Probably just how he handles it all. He’s a player that comes to work every day. Nothing goes to his head. He’s about the team. He really is. And when we call on him or when we need him to make a play, he’s ready, and he’s just consistent each and every day. Just a joy to be around. Got a smile on his face. I’ve been challenging him to be a leader because obviously we’re looking to him as a guy that’s one of our playmakers, and the respect the whole team has has been there, really, since Day because of how hard he does work. And then the production, as well. It’s just I think how he handles everything. There’s just a maturity about him that’s well beyond his years. I think we know how he is, right? It’s really cool, and I’m proud of him and I’m proud of the way that the guys just have really rallied around him at times. But I’m proud of the way he just puts the team first always.”

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