Everything Alabama OL Darrian Dalcourt said ahead of Utah State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama offensive lineman Darrian Dalcourt is now heading into his second season as a starter. Of course, last year was cut short for the rising senior due to injuries, but he’s now back healthy and ready to go against Utah State. He spoke to the media for the first time on Tuesday.

Below, you can check out everything Dalcourt said during his availability.

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On how it feels to be back…

“It definitely feels good to be back. You miss the process, you miss being out there, going out there and playing with your football. It’s definitely an enjoyable process to be back.”

On Jaheim Oatis…

“He’s a young player. He’s a great player. He’s strong, heavy. I’ve never really seen a freshman be built like that so early on. But he’s a great player, great addition to this D-line. We have really good depth at D-line, but definitely a great addition to what we have.”

On where the offensive line is now…

“I think, firstly, Coach Wolford was a great addition to us. He’s brought a really good intensity to what we have going on. I think, so far in the camp and the summer, we’ve been really focusing on communication. So I would say, from that standpoint, we’ve developed a lot farther than we were last year.”

On Kendall Randolph…

“I call him ‘Old Head.’ But so far, Kendall’s been really consistent. He’s been here a long time. He has a lot of leadership, a lot of consistency. We’re happy to have him back for his sixth year. But yeah, ‘Old Head’ is my go-to.”

On the running backs…

“I would say every back brings a unique skill set to the group. I think we have really good depth at running back. Every running back brings their own unique thing to the group – some speed, explosiveness, blocking. But we really appreciate having so many backs that can go in there and play.”

On the importance of establishing chemistry in Game 1…

“Offensive line, I think, takes the longest to build chemistry, become a cohesive unity. But that’s why we have spring ball and summer, camp especially. I think so far, we’ve done stuff like get extra meetings and meet together after practice. So I would say that chemistry is building up strong, and then proceeding this week, we’ll see how it goes.”

On what he learned in Year 1 as a starter, being sidelined…

“I would say for my freshman, sophomore year, I had a tremendous opportunity to learn from somebody like Landon Dickerson, who was the best at the position, was a great leader, great player. But when you go in there and you play, you realize how much it really takes to go out there and excel for your team. You realize how much extra you have to do, whether that’s watching film, going to get extra treatment. So I would say after I began to play, I realized how much extra goes into it to be able to do what you have to do.

“And then when you’re on the sideline and you’re not playing, I would say I took pride in that. I took pride in being able to watch what’s going on, give people tips, like what mistakes they made. Two sides to the coin, but I was appreciative for both.”

On how you measure success on the offensive line…

“We listen to Coach Wolf says. We listen to his feedback. We listen to the message that we had, that we go by, whether that’s yards per run, stuff like that. But we usually just listen to the coaches – what they think we can improve, what we can get better on.”

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