Everything Kalen DeBoer said after Alabama's 24-21 win at Georgia

ATHENS, Ga. — No. 17 Alabama defeated the No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs, 24-21, on Saturday at Sanford Stadium. After the huge road win, head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to reporters.

Here is everything DeBoer said after the Crimson Tide’s conference opener.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“Just a great team win for our guys. Credit to Georgia. They’re a great team. And just proud of the way our guys came out and fought. You can’t overstate what our guys have just been doing as far as just every day trying to get better, and that’s what it’s about. And they just focused and knew they were gonna have to play four quarters, and it took every second of it. And so, again, finding a way to win first half, a lot of conversions, especially on third down, got off the field, and then turned into a fist fight in the second half, and the defense standing in there, getting a big fourth down stop, that was big. But it’s another step in the right direction for our team. I know that they’re already talking, they’re not done with their improvement. They’ve really been focusing on that. They’ve been focusing on us, that’s, I think, the key is not getting caught up in anything else other than what we control. And I’m super proud of them for that.”

DeBoer on being able to hold on and win on the road…

“It’s a mindset going in. Especially against a team like this, you’re gonna get punches thrown at you. You’re gonna take, you’re gonna get some. And we got some tonight. And it’s just, what’s your response gonna be? And our response was to punch back and punch back harder. And I really felt like, even when isn’t perfect execution, just felt like there was an attitude and energy that our guys had. And there’s gonna be no regrets when we walk off the football field, because we gave it everything we had.”

DeBoer on the screen pass to Kadyn Proctor…

“That went in during fall camp. It was going really well, and then we had one that didn’t go well, and so, it got shelved for a little bit but brought it back out. He made a catch earlier in the week that gave us a lot of confidence. The middle of practice, sweaty hands, not a great throw, pulled it right off the ground. Pretty impressive seeing a big guy like that do what he did, and he’s been pretty consistent on it. He’s done his part, and our guys are excited for him. Who wants to tackle that guy, right? Who wants to tackle him? He’s such a great athlete, and he’s worked hard to continue to even improve that in other ways.”

DeBoer on the final play call on third down to seal the win…

“We wanna play to win, and didn’t wanna give them a chance. So they have over a minute probably to go, or right at a minute, maybe with the punt. And so that gets hard, especially on the road. And it’s a pretty conservative play, because you need five yards. And what are you gonna do if you get three? What are you gonna do if you get four? And so if we got out the back door clean with Jam, it was gonna be a good play. And then you still got it in your quarterback’s hands, and he can make a decision where you’re at on the field. If you have to take a sack, you take a sack, keep the clock running, and then you go from there. But proud of the execution of the guys. We’ve had that one in for a while, a long time, even last year. And so just executing it at the right time, I thought it was a great play call, great execution.”

DeBoer on Ty Simpson relaying the call being an indicator of his poise…

“It takes a lot of work when you get in an environment like we had today. They can’t hear him, and you gotta make sure every word is heard. And the effort that he put forth today, the energy he just showed in the locker room, and he’s given everything he has. But yeah, we knew we were more than likely gonna have to get right up there in their ear, telling them exactly what’s going on with those protection checks, make sure everyone’s on the same page. One guy blows an assignment or doesn’t hear something correctly, now you got a guy in your lap, you’re the quarterback.”

DeBoer on what’s the identity of the team coming out of a win like this…

“I think there’s a toughness that’s being built. I don’t think we’re there yet. I think there’s things that we can do better. We talked about mental, physical and emotional toughness that it was gonna take. That was one of the first things we put on the keys to victory at the beginning of the week. We knew when it came to turnovers and takeaways, that was gonna be critical. And then execute in critical situations, and we did that. And those three things right there, we’ve taken care of the football. We executed in critical times, got the fourth down stop, executed on third down. Got off the field, especially in the first half. We were good in the red zone offensively, 4-for-4, I think three touchdowns. And so, all those things… but there’s a toughness that our guys are building on, and we still got a long ways to go, and they know that.”

DeBoer on the fourth-down stop by the Alabama defense…

“No question. They do a great job in the run game. You knew that they were gonna try to really hold the line of scrimmage, both defensively and then control it offensively. And so, they did a nice job, but you play every play as its own play. You play every game as its own game. There’s nothing that carries over. There’s nothing that carries over into that situation. So just do your job, be fundamental, play with great energy, and make things happen. We didn’t sit back on our heels and just hope that they didn’t execute. We went out there and attacked it and made a play.”

DeBoer on Ty Simpson’s decision-making, especially on third down…

“I think he’s continued to do a really good job of keeping his eyes downfield, trusting his offensive line more and more in path protection. And then the guys are getting in the right spots at the right time. The repetitions that are happening in practice, just even the completion percentage and the execution in practice. You can see it, they continue to build. And so, he’s ripping it, cutting it loose. And I’m proud of him because he’s playing with some energy and some emotion. He’s giving some talks to the team that are pretty passionate. And he’s all in, that’s for sure.”

DeBoer on the importance of 2-yard runs on first down…

“We gotta continue to get better in the run game. There’s times when we had looks that we just should really take advantage of. And there’s an execution piece to it. There’s a toss play, and it’s not always the offensive line. There’s a toss play to the right that I just felt like numbers-wise. I think Germ had the ball in his hands, and we just gotta get everyone on the same page doing your job. But there’s some times inside too where there are two-high safeties, and we should be able to get more than what we had. Not just three or four, we should be able to get seven or eight. And especially as the game goes on now, in the last drive, that happened a little bit more. And so that’s why you just stick with it. I think I saw 38 attempts or something like that as far as rushing attempts. That’s a credit to Ryan Grubb. Just continue to stay within, not getting greedy, not just feeling it has to turn into an all-out passing game. So just proud of the continued fight that he had and what he brings out of the offensive line.”

DeBoer on his success coming off a bye week at Alabama…

“I think first of all, we got some guys back that helped. I think TK in the middle, we really needed him. I thought he played, I don’t know if he’s played great. I haven’t really seen it that close, but he helped. He made a difference. Jam obviously makes a big difference, not just in the run game, in the protection piece, just confidence in him. So you got your guys and they’re healthier. And then you got a staff that does a great job putting a game plan together. And then you get more reps at it. And so when you can make those plays look and the checks be on point through a few more days of practice, a few more reps. That’s what you get, because we had good football players out there.”

DeBoer on Alabama’s fourth-down attempt…

“I mean, just we were a yard, and I’d like to think we can get that yard. And just, there’s times last year where I wish I had gone forward a time or two. And just play aggressive, play to win, what we did there at the end of the game. And you gotta be smart, you can’t be reckless. But just trying to, they squeezed the edge pretty good and caught us from behind. And so thought we had good numbers to the front side with Ty keeping it, a lead blocker there, didn’t physically get the job done.”

DeBoer on what stands out most since the Week 1 loss…

“It started that they pretty much just got an edge to them. Took everything that was out there and channeled the energy into us, into us being better and getting better. And there’s two things you can do when things are coming down on you a little bit. You can go back yourself in a corner and you can fight. And these guys, they’ve made up their minds, they’re gonna fight. And the staff is doing the same thing. And so I think just that was where it started. But I think it’s just continued now to continue to build. And we gotta make sure we don’t forget what that chip on the shoulder was that kinda got this momentum going. And we’ve gotta understand what it took mentally, physically, emotionally today to be able to sustain from start to finish. Not just 30 minutes, it’s 60 minutes.

“And so that’s been a word that we talked about going back to January. I’ve talked to you guys about it, sustaining it. Can we sustain the energy? Can we sustain the passion? And not just for the season, not for the game, but each play. And we sustained it. And at the very end, churning out those first downs at the offensive line. That’s something we weren’t doing in fall camp. That’s not something we were doing at the beginning of the season. At the end of the game. Maybe we did it at the beginning of the game, the first drive. Florida State, okay, worked at it, got it done. But we weren’t doing that in the second half like we did today.”

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