Everything Kalen DeBoer said to kick off LSU game week

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer kicked off LSU week with a Monday press conference. The Crimson Tide will travel to Baton Rouge to take on the Tigers in a pivotal matchup on Saturday, Nov. 9. The rivalry game will start at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC.

Below is everything DeBoer said during his Monday press conference of game week No. 9.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“Had a great bye week. Our guys had a chance to work on the things that we felt we needed to work on as a team and get a little healthier. And in a good spot. Got back to work yesterday with a good practice. High energy. Very intentional on what the job is that we’re up against going into LSU. Getting a head start on that whether it be last week or yesterday. We’ll be back at it tomorrow morning. Got an exciting week preparing for a good football team.

DeBoer on Cole Adams…

“With his injury, he’ll be out for the year. We had to deal with that last week and unfortunately, because Cole is a guy that pours everything into it. Had an injury early in the season. Obviously at the time probably thought that was going to be something more significant as far as the time frame with the first one. Just seeing the effort he put into that first injury, you really found out a lot about who he was as a person and as a player, just the toughness he had. Unfortunately, he had another injury here now. Lower body injury. He’ll be done with the season here this year.”

DeBoer on wide receiver depth with Adams out…

“This season has the flows, the guys that are in, the guys that are out. A couple of weeks ago, we had multiple guys out with K-Law and Kobe. And that’s where Cole got more playing time as well as some others. Unfortunately, we aren’t at full strength there, much like most teams across the country are. You’re short-handed, but you mix and match and you continue to find the versatility in guys and put them in the spots and coach them up. And there’s a lot of cross-training that happens within positions, and receiver is one of them. Guys that can play inside and outside both, we’re going to utilize them to their full potential. It’s always all hands on deck, especially this time of year.”

DeBoer on the edict from SEC on penalties for fake injuries…

“The rules have been the rules, so just having to find another level of enforcement, I think, and seriousness about it is what’s happening here. From our end, I already talked to our players, our staff. It doesn’t change what we do because we go about it and if you are hurt, you need to stay down, especially if it’s substitutions that need to be made, you need to be looked at. But you can put yourself in some tough positions if you really truly are hurt.

“And I really feel like with what our team does and how we operate, and how it’s going to continue to be. I’ve been on the other end where there’s situations at the end of the game or whatever it might be, that get a little frustrating. And that can happen at any time. But the rules have been the rules, and so we’ll just continue to go about business as we always have in our program.”

DeBoer on how to handle punt return responsibilities…

“You’ll go with who you feel best about, obviously. We need to continue to always build depth. I said this at the beginning of the year to our special teams coordinator with Jay Nunez. He does a great job, but also just in developing returners, it isn’t just your upperclassmen that you know can do it, you have confidence in. But it’s also developing younger guys. And you have seen just as much as anyone has that we have younger guys that we’ve been putting out there with Bak and Ryan, and we need to continue to develop more and more. Not just for today, not just for the next couple games or the rest of the season but also for the future, years to come.

“And so just over and over, you just can’t catch enough kicks, punts, and then all the situations that come along with it – when to field it, when it fair-catch it. The communication that happens. Just being comfortable back there. It’s reps and reps and reps of that. And so we’re gonna always continue to develop more and more guys, and kind of who you’ve been seeing is who we’ll start out with Bak and Ryan. But whether we pick just one or the other, I think there’s also pieces with the flow of the game and just things like that that might dictate or even a situational call that we want to where we have a certain guy out there.”

DeBoer on starting fast on the road…

“Certainly, and that’s something we’re always preaching. And unfortunately, as you mentioned in those two games, we haven’t done that. There’s been a lot of – in the Vanderbilt game, I think we quickly got going, had success. You just can’t dig yourself a hole, especially giving the opponent momentum in an environment like we’re gonna see at LSU. So it’s critical. We preach it every day. We try to even set up our practice to where we do start fast, whether it’s offense or defense. And we did’t get that done the last two road games, as you mentioned. Always an emphasis on that, but really, it comes back to not really – the guys are trying. It’s just a matter of doing things that you do well, going out there and executing.”

DeBoer on Elijah Pritchett…

“I think Elijah’s got a ton of potential and a lot of things that he’s grown in. There’s always the areas and at this time of the year, there’s enough film on someone to where teams attack you certain ways. Whether we’re talking about the tackle position or it could be anywhere. Defensive back, defensive line. You put on film as a team, as an individual the thing that opponents are gonna look at. And so he’s continuing to work hard every single day.

“I mean, he comes out to practice. He’s competitive. I feel like his growth has been kind of proven over the year. I think there’s a consistency to him that is higher than what it was at the beginning or even the middle of the season. And that’s what you’re looking for. That’s all you can ask in your players is that they continue to grow, they continue to improve. And he’s doing that, and we’ll continue to help him as coaches. That’s our job.”

DeBoer on LSU being a must-win game…

“You saw our response, I think, with the Missouri game. That was really the case there. I say that, and all of a sudden you start thinking, ‘Why wasn’t that the case with Tennessee?’ Well, it was. That’s just more experiences that you have together, backs to the wall, there’s different things that different teams respond well to. At least for the first test, and Missouri was at home, we got off to a fast start defensively, did a nice job there and just continued to apply pressure.

“I think offensively, once we got field position in our favor we kind of cracked through. For us, it’s just always going back to really the process. The work that needs to be put in, the areas we need to continue to improve on. The guys, I use the word intentional a lot whether it’s here, whether it’s with our team. We have to be intentional and we have to bring that energy in order to really continue to improve, and they’re doing that. They want to make something big of this season, and it’s important through the action that you see on the practice field, you see it in the way they’re going about their business off the field, just the details that they really continue to hone in on. It’s just a matter of time, right?

“As the season goes on you become more comfortable with what we’re doing, whether it’s our scheme or just the routine, or each other. A lot of our youth is rising up and continuing to gain more and more confidence, mixed in with the veterans that continue to have great leadership. I like where we’re at. Unfortunately, like you said, we have less wiggle room, and our backs are to the wall, so we’re going to fight. Each and every day we’re going to fight, scratch and claw like you’ve never seen, and that continues on this week.”

DeBoer on indicators of a successful bye week…

“I think last week, and this week, there’s great indication, I guess this week we’ll talk about yesterday’s practice. There’s a ton of energy, there was purpose, very deliberate in how we went out there. There’s emotion and there’s energy but it’s really focused on the right things. The leaders, you know I challenged our team not just to have the leaders step up, but at this point have a team full of leaders. We can’t have, these freshmen aren’t freshmen, the new guys that are coming into this program aren’t just new guys anymore. This is our team. That’s been the message, but really for them to all raise their game as leaders, that means accountability for themselves, ourselves individually, and then also bring someone else with you. That’s been the challenge the last couple weeks and we’re going to continue to hone in on that.”

DeBoer on Robbie Ouzts…

“He does some things on special teams, too. With Robbie, he’s just a really versatile guy, and becoming more versatile when it comes to special teams and offense. He’s one of those guys that when you talk about the reps that you’ve had now in our offense, and how we teach things, just getting used to the locations we’re going to put him in as a tight end, but even as a fullback role, the spots that we put him all over the field. The reps have really helped him develop and grow, and now you see him not just go out there and try to execute what’s on paper and what the play’s supposed to be, but he’s actually going out there and making plays.

“I think the first play early in the game we went right to him, just like it was second nature for him to run the route, to catch the ball, to get vertical and run through people like he’s used to doing. He’s a guy that our team looks to because he’s very unselfish, he’ll do whatever it takes for our football team to be successful, and that happens through his effort, that happens through his attitude. You can just see it, he’s a pleasure to have on our football team and a pleasure to coach.”

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