Everything Kalen DeBoer said in Birmingham to kick off Alabama bye week

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to reporters before taking to the Monday Morning Quarterback Club at The Harbert Center. The Crimson Tide is on its second and final bye week before a critical game at LSU on Nov. 9. Here’s everything he said.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“We’ve got the bye week here and just a chance to get out and do a few speaking engagements. I know our staff’s got a little bit of that going on, too, as well as some opportunities to get out and do some recruiting, especially later in the week. So it’s a good time for our guys, I think, two-thirds of the way through the season, just heading into November here, coming off a win and kind of get healthy and just go lay it on the line. Always focused on getting better, and the guys, I think, have a good mindset about that. They have all season long. Excited for the rest of the season and what comes with it.”

DeBoer on when Alabama begins LSU preparation…

“The staff will be working on that already with the game planning here today. We’ll get into practice on Wednesday and Thursday. We do all have fall break at the end, so there’s no classes at the end of the week. But the guys get today away as far as the players are concerned, and we’ll get back in the weight room and do some stuff tomorrow.”

DeBoer on getting a win going into a bye week, a ‘make-or-break’ game vs. LSU…

“That’s the way we’re looking at every single one of them. We’ve gotta be comfortable being uncomfortable. We preach that just as far as emphasizing strain when it comes to just what we do every day, no matter what the situation is. And now, we’re really in that moment. I thought we passed the first test as far as it being in that kind of time of being uncomfortable, and the guys really honed in on what they can control and that was a lot of focus, all the work that’s needed to prepare to be great on Saturday. We took a step. Continue to be a work in progress. We’ll always be that way. I don’t care how good you are. But I’m proud of the way that they have continued to respond each and every time in everything we ask them to do.”

DeBoer on Cole Adams; plan at punt returner if he’s out…

“I don’t have an update on him. That’ll probably be later today. And then, yeah. With Ryan and Bak in particular, just rotating those guys. Really, it’s probably more about who we’re comfortable with. There’s a little bit with maybe what we’re trying to do specifically. Bak’s someone we’re very comfortable with, and we rotated Ryan in there, too. Both of them are guys we trust.”

DeBoer on if he wants to settle on a punt returner or if he likes the rotation…

“I think Bak was the first one we threw out there. And some of them might just be the situation. Are we just looking to get it caught? Or are we looking for an explosive play? Who seems comfortable back there? What’s the week been like as far as those guys and their consistency? Cole’s that been way, and that’s why he was that guy up until we couldn’t play him. We’re comfortable with both of those guys.”

DeBoer on how to keep the players level ahead of a crucial LSU game…

“Whether that is what it is or not, that’s how we’re gonna approach it even though we really don’t need to say too much in regards to that. We’re just focusing on what we can do right now in the moment and really honing in on the kind of mindset that you’re only as good as your last play. You’re only as good as your last game. So take the things and learn from the Missouri game, just like we would everything else. But really, just we’ve gotta go out and play our best game that we possibly can against LSU. And that goes back to the work that’s gotta be done between now and then. The pressure is naturally gonna be there for every game. We can’t put added pressure to ourselves. We’ve just gotta go out and play, be at our best. That comes through confidence and in the prep that you put in.”

DeBoer on if crowd noise was a factor at Tennessee; what you do ahead of LSU…

“You’d love to say it wasn’t, but I think it arguably was. I think there’s, right off the bat, some issues with the snap count and things like that. So I think we worked into it, and we’ll continue to do the things in the week of preparation to mimic that and give us as many snaps as possible where we’re really relying on silent cadences and so forth, prepare for the hardest scenarios. But I felt like we did a good job of that, but we got in the moment and we struggled, especially early on.”

DeBoer on his intense coaching moment with Roq Montgomery…

“… I do remember. Just things that are happening that you just wanna be better at. Just the moments that we were going through, and I just felt like there was some things we could be better with how we were handling and being composed. And that’s just the expectation for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re on the field for the first snap, at the end of the game, up or down. We’ve been emphasizing doing things the right way and playing to the standard, and that’s what that was all about. Roq’s a great kid, gives everything he has to the program. It’s not specifically about him, it’s just about everyone.”

DeBoer on the defense the last few weeks, Kane Wommack’s approach…

“Just stay the course. And I think you see success come with guys working together. I thought they did a nice job trying to piece it together, especially going into the Tennessee week. You’re always disappointed, especially when you come out short. But I thought the staff did a nice job trying to simplify things, move some pieces around. We had to have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C for guys in case injuries presented themselves at certain positions. But there’s been some cross training of positions that I think guys really, you can kind of almost see that that’s gonna be something that they might be down the road. I think we maybe envisioned that for some of them. We just have to get some of those things sooner than what we probably anticipated, and that being right now. 

“So the mindset, getting the shutout was big for them. We threw some guys back out there that maybe weren’t in that drive at that moment, and that was important to me to get that shutout. Called timeout, I wanted to see, look at what they were going to do so we could get our feet in the dirt and play ball and try to preserve the shutout. That drive was disappointing because we threw some new faces in and we gave up, I believe, three explosives, and I think there was maybe only four in the total game – one before that. So the expectation of one yard being too many is continuing to evolve, and giving up no points is what the expectation is for our defense. So I thought we took a step in the right direction there. We’ve gotta building on the turnovers and getting those takeaways has been huge, especially the last three weeks. I love that about what they’re doing, too.”

DeBoer on Ty Simpson trying to block downfield on Richard Young’s late run…

“I saw that, too. And not just Ty, but that was a great effort on his end. We’ve just got a lot of guys that want it so bad for the team, and when they get their opportunities – and that was one for Ty. I thought getting down the field, and he can run, too, and we saw that. But just team players wanting to do everything they can to help their teammates out, and that was a great example for sure.”

DeBoer on if he gives Simpson a hard time about a quarterback blocking…

“No, I’m gonna be all about it. You’ve gotta be smart, right? But he’s giving great effort, and you’re never gonna take that away from those guys.”

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