Everything Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said previewing matchup with South Carolina

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer met with the media on Monday to look back at the Crimson Tide’s loss to Vanderbilt and begin to preview the upcoming matchup with South Carolina on Saturday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Watching the film and all that from Saturday, just a lot of the same feeling that it had after the game. I think the feelings, first of all that the team has, certainly disappointed, upset, fired up. And I think you’re always looking at what the response is. They came back yesterday. The thing you have to provide as coaches is the answers and understanding of where we go from here. And I think our staff did a nice job and our guys did a great job responding with the right mindset, with the right attitude, brought some great energy. One of the nice things about having a Sunday where we get together is we get to move on. Outside of the building, the game gets held onto for not a day, probably not a week for some people. They hold onto it for the rest of their life. But these guys, they don’t get the choice. And we as a staff and them together have to move on, and we’ve done that after yesterday understanding where we have to get better. We know we’re a work in progress and not a finished product by any means. And that showed up on Saturday. But the key is that we continue to improve, and that’s one of our core values is to have a relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. They’ve showed that they want to do that, sticking together and owning it in every way, and that’s staff to every player on the football team, so proud of that part. There’s each side of the ball, all phases of the game, where we can continue to just keep building. We have a great football team. I’m convinced of that. I have no doubt of that. I believe in these guys. I believe in them more when I see the resiliency that they have whether it’s during the games that we’ve played, not just this last game, but different games, the way that they prepared, that leads to the passion that comes out on the football field and that resiliency. 

“They got fight in them. They want to win bad, they want to pull all the traditional traditions of Alabama football; and no one feels worse about this than all of us here in this building– football team and our coaches. So looking forward to South Carolina here this next week. Coach Beamer continues to build on his program there, doing some really nice things, physical football team. And they’re coming off of a tough game as well, with Ole Miss and things not going their way. So we know it’s going to be another fight here in the world of the SEC.”

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On Alabama’s focus in the Vanderbilt game

“I mean, when you come out on the short end, everything gets amplified, right? You look into everything on another level. In regard to that, since that was the question, you can point to every little thing that happened and it being a lack of focus or discipline and having to do it better. And I think what it really comes down to is doing it better over and over. 

“We gave ourselves little room for error with the way the game started, right? They go down and put a nice drive together. Then we have the ball bounce off the helmet, goes for goes for an interception, for a touchdown and so we leave ourselves very little room for error. Knowing that the plan that they already had placed because it showed up on film in weeks prior to playing us, is that they will play ball control offense. They’ll let the clock run down, shorten the game. They get a lead even more so, and then you the whole taking them out of their game is going to be harder to do because we’re playing from behind. 

“So offensively, we had to kind of probably lose some of the balance that we thought we could have offensively with run-pass. We had to speed up the game to try to add more possessions. We still only got nine in the game, and that’s having sped up the game, that’s getting drives at the end of each half where we’re trying to move the ball quickly. So the little mistakes are always going to be looked at as areas where the focus or the discipline wasn’t there. But I tell you, our guys prepared. All the noise outside the building, I thought our guys did as good a good job as they could. 

“Everyone’s human so I mean the pats on the back or whatever they got, but I thought that they were focused on the right things all week long. The effort, the work that was put in, seemed like a really good solid week. The ball literally didn’t bounce our way a couple times. We have to make our own breaks and do a better job of making that happen to where the ball ends up in our hands, whether it’s forcing turnovers or making sure that we don’t put the ball on the ground and turn it over ourselves. So if all those things are part of that question, and I guess that would add to what (Tyler Booker) said after the game. Book has a good pulse of everything that’s happening on the team, and I trust that. We’ve had great conversations with the whole leadership group since Saturday.” 

On his message to Alabama fans who want to see him show more frustration after a loss

“Oh, I’m extremely frustrated. We all are. But we’re not gonna lose our cool over that. We understand what happened, and a lot of what I see in the response even in the locker room – I guess are you talking like the press conference afterward or something? Because that’s really the only time you could have seen me, I guess. I think that’s me seeing what already is happening in 30 minutes, 20 minutes after the game’s over. And I saw extreme frustration. I saw guys wanting to stick together, wanting to still do something special, believing in each other, expressing that.

“I had my part in there, too, where we understood what happened and that it’s not up to our standard and how we had to proceed forward. And so yeah, we were all extremely frustrated. But we aren’t gonna sit and lose our cool because I don’t think that’s the right way to go about it. There’s a time and place for everything. And again, we’re still early in the season. We left ourselves a little less wiggle room to achieve some of the goals we have, but those goals are still out there. And we need to just focus on what our whole mindset is, is to always improve every single day. And that’s never gonna change. And to improve, I think you’ve gotta have things in perspective and focus on the right areas, and our whole team is doing that.”

On holding Alabama DB Malachi Moore accountable after his outburst in the Vanderbilt game and if he could be suspended

“No, we have handled it. And I’m just gonna say this about Malachi — what he did, he has gone above and beyond in owning, taking ownership in it. And this is pretty much immediately after the game to this morning, things that are all prompted by him but also part of just our conversations.

“The thing I want to make sure Bama fans know is that this guy has been rock solid and been a critical, critical piece — along with others; there are some others as well — of keeping this thing together since January. When a lot of guys chose to leave, this guy stood firm. This guy loves Alabama football. He works relentlessly out there every single day on the football field. It’s the passion that I hope — I mean, the question was asked about me and the passion and frustration. I mean, that’s what you saw from him. And so yeah, there were some things that he regrets and wishes he probably didn’t do, yeah. But he’s owned up to it, and we’ve handled it internally and still handling it internally.

“And so he’s a first-class guy. He is out in the community weekly. That’s just part of who he is, doing things to give back, understanding the platform he has. A lot of eyes are on our program, a lot of eyes are on him. And this guy plays hard for himself, his teammates, but this program means so much to him. And so it doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make it right by any means, what some of the actions were.

“But I just want people to understand also that he’s had my and our back since day one, and there comes a point, too, where sometimes, as things play out, you’ve gotta have your guy’s back, as well, and understand that we all make mistakes and we all just gotta own up to it. And we’re doing that, and we will continue to move on.”

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On how to go about correcting the penalties

“Well, I think we were doing a better job even in the game the other night. Obviously, there was the 15 yards at the end, right? The penalties, I think, in the moments were probably the biggest thing. And some of those calls are tough ones to have happen to you. I mean, I’m looking at Que (Robinson) coming in and trying not to really hit the quarterback in an aggressive manner. But the penalty is there. I mean, there’s not a recklessness about it as he’s trying to get after the quarterback. He’s just trying to do what he’s supposed to do.

“I’m trying to think of a couple others. There’s gonna be penalties that happen. I don’t feel like that was the major play in what hurt us. It’s a part of it, just like anything when you — as I said earlier — when you do come out short, you end up amplifying everything. But I think there’s execution and just things that we could have done better. We need to make sure we don’t turn the ball over when we get the ball in our possession. So again, we always talk about those things postgame in our follow-up. We did that Sunday. We talked about the penalties and just continuing to make sure we’re working and focused on that.

“And I think we had a couple games early, right, where the numbers really stacked up against us, and that’s not helping our average, I guess, per game. Again, is it where we want it to be? No. Was last week’s game where we want it to be? No. But I think that was a small part of it. All those little parts add up, and that’s why you get what you got on Saturday.”

On making defensive adjustments and how involved he is in that process

“We’re always talking. I’m seeing whether it’s taking a look on the iPad, or just conversations with Coach Wommack, I think the key with anything — and that’s including our team — is to not overreact. Understand exactly why what is happening is happening, and you have adjustments built into your game plan, and so it might be mixing things up. But you also got to make sure you’re executing against what you’re seeing, and sometimes it might be something a little bit different. You just need to have another opportunity against that look with the call you made defensively too, just to be able to execute better. 

“You’re always gonna look back. Again, everything gets amplified. You’re always going to look back and say, ‘Well, we could have done this earlier,’ or whatever it might be. Offensively you do the same thing. I know we’ve had those conversations, not just during but after. Again, worse thing you can do is panic. We have a defense that has shown a lot of — had a lot of success here, through five games. There’s just little bits and pieces of what we’ve got to do. Really, in the second half, I thought we did a much better job on first down and second down. The game was a first- down game the first half. They put themselves in better situations in the second half, we just had to a do a better job of getting off the field on third down.”

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On what his message is after the Vanderbilt loss

“That’s exactly the words I was going to say, was you stay the course. That’s what the message is to the team. Now, stay the course, right, but everything is always just digesting what happened, having some perspective, and having the answers for the guys. That’s what we have to make sure we do as coaches, so we can walk away understanding what we can control, how we need to fix it, and just knowing that the next game, there’s going to be different matchups that are strengths for us. There’s also going to be different matchups and ways that an opponent attacks us. I’m not just talking offensively, but defensively. 

“We got to be ready. This position group can’t get — one position group that had success can’t get all comfortable. I don’t think we have. Because you’re the one that might have the tough matchup the next week. As a team, that’s what it’s all about. You have to continue to work on your area, keep it within the team concept, stay the course and just keep fighting, keep playing and stick together. That’s, to me, the biggest thing and I’ve seen nothing but that here in the last 24, 48 hours.”

On Alabama DT Jehiem Oatis opting out

“I felt like it was going that way. I think the thing you also have to understand is there’s other elements to this, right? There’s health elements. There’s life elements. I love these guys. They work hard. Jehiem’s choices and things, there’s reasons for that, right? And so he has notified and continued to be in communication here with us. I kind of felt like it was maybe going that direction, not just today or yesterday but here in the last few days. We move forward with the guys that really are able to help us win and focused on our program as we go through this. I don’t wanna put finality to it, but we’re always gonna want what’s best for all people and Jehiem is one of them.”

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