Kalen DeBoer delivers pitch for Alabama to make College Football Playoff

Following Alabama‘s 28-7 loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, all eyes turned to the College Football Playoff picture. The Crimson Tide sit in dicey territory, entering the weekend at No. 9 in the CFP rankings.

Will Alabama be penalized for playing in an extra game? It’s a valid question and one that coach Kalen DeBoer batted back and forth in a post-game press conference.

“If this game applies to and takes away from our resume, I don’t think that’s right,” DeBoer said. “I really don’t. I think the precedent’s been set, and I don’t know how you can go into a conference playoff game and you’re a No. 1 seed and did all these things throughout the year and playing in this game, against one of the top teams in the country as well, how that can hurt you and keep you out of the playoff when we’ve done what we’ve done all year.”

The reality, though, is that no one will know until Sunday afternoon. And Alabama’s not the only one potentially facing a drop after losing a conference title game. BYU entertained thoughts of cementing a playoff spot with a win in the Big 12 Championship Game, but that didn’t materialize either.

For his part, DeBoer was quick to defend his Alabama team. He opened up when asked to give his pitch.

“Well I think you look at the games that we played throughout the season, but if you’re really looking at this game I mean it was a 14-point game with seven and a half minutes to go, we had the ball,” DeBoer said. “You can look at things that didn’t go well. We gave them four short fields. And again, I don’t want to take anything away from what Georgia did, the field position battle is part of it. But gave them four short fields. That’s a testament to our defense being resilient. One of those touchdowns, I mean if we’re really worried about the score then probably punt it on your own 11. But I’m here to win an SEC Championship.”

Alabama was aggressive in playing things out in the second half when maybe narrowing the margin of defeat could have done more for its playoff case. DeBoer lamented that that’s the way things have gone.

“If you lose by one or you lose by more it’s still a loss, and that’s what I was caring about,” DeBoer said. “We’re here to win an SEC championship. We can’t get worried about how much did we lose by. That is what it was about. We’re here to win. That’s how we play. Again it was a 14-point game, we had the ball with seven and a half minutes to go against a really good team that knows us well and we know them well.”

DeBoer hung his hat on the defense and the job it did limiting Georgia despite some challenging circumstances. The Crimson Tide were battling several key injuries defensively.

“I thought our defense did a heck of a job going against them,” DeBoer said. “One thing that we didn’t really do was take the ball off them. The one turnover they got helps again in a short field. That’s football. That’s the way I looked at this game.”