What LSU coach Brian Kelly said about facing Alabama

No. 11 Alabama will hit the road this weekend to take on No. 15 LSU in Death Valley, a matchup that could essentially serve as an elimination game for the impending 12-team College Football Playoff.

On Wednesday morning, LSU head coach Brian Kelly joined the SEC coaches teleconference to discuss the matchup. Here’s everything he said about the Crimson Tide:

Overall thoughts on the game…

“Coming off a bye week our team is excited about getting on the field, certainly at home against an outstanding football team in Alabama. Again, it’s like anything else, each and every week in the SEC is an incredible challenge, and one that we’ll have to meet with the best game of the year. Certainly we didn’t execute for four quarters well enough against A&M, and we lost that game on the road. We look to play four quarters of football. If we play our best for four quarters, we expect good outcomes. That’s what really we’ve been working on is to eliminate a lot of the distractions that come with these kinds of games, but again, I think a lot of excitement with GameDay being here, and certainly a primetime nationally televised game creates a lot of excitement. But with that, you have to do a great job with your preparation and focus on playing four quarters of outstanding football. Looking forward to the opportunity of playing Alabama.”

On playing Alabama without Nick Saban…

“You know, I think in some instances this football team still resembles the building blocks of Coach Saban. It is Coach DeBoer’s team, and it will continue to take on his personality and his direction, but a lot of the work obviously in terms of building the foundation is still there. It’s a well-disciplined, coached team, there’s a great culture, and Kalen took over a program that was in great shape. A lot of the underpinnings are still there, and certainly a very talented team. Again, when you talk about [Saban] will not be on the sideline, I think he still has an office there. There’s still that sense that there’s a man behind the curtain, if you will. You sense that in terms of the overall program. And I don’t want to take anything away from Coach DeBoer because it’s his team, but you do sense a little bit of Nick there. It’ll be different, but not to a point where you don’t feel like there are influences from Coach Saban.”

On Alabama’s defense…

“Well, I think it’s like anything else. First year coordinator, similar to us. You saw how we were kind of, we had a rocky start at times, and we got better as the season went on. I think that’s very similar when you have first year coordinators, putting in a new structure, a new scheme, learning about some new first-time starters. I think there’s a lot of similarities. Certainly we didn’t handle the change in quarterback, but let’s be honest, we drove their starting quarterback at A&M out of the game because we were so disruptive. We didn’t handle the change very well, but having said that, both defenses have made great progress with first year coordinators. I think the reason for that is just the comfort in understanding the scheme and then the defensive coordinator getting to know his defensive personnel much better.”

On Jalen Milroe…

“I think for me, more than anything else, is when you put on the film you see a much more consistent player in terms of what he’s doing play in and play out. I thought last year as they were trying to figure out who the starting quarterback was, it was ‘let’s try to make a play.’ A lot of times it was outside the realm of the offense. Now it’s much more consistent within the realm of the offense. Growth would be more about consistency within the offensive structure and understanding of what they’re doing, and really being much more efficient as a quarterback.”