Everything Kalen DeBoer said after Alabama's 56-0 win over Eastern Illinois

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama defeated Eastern Illinois, 56-0, on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium. After the Crimson Tide’s ninth win of the season, head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to reporters. Below is everything DeBoer said during his postgame press conference.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“Just good to get a lot of guys out there today, and, of course, get the win. Just a good week of practice. Good locker room downstairs. Excited about a few things. One, getting a lot of guys on the field. Had some shoutouts to some of the walk-ons in particular, who put in a lot of work. Guys who got some stops and put the ball in the end zone. And then, just looking ahead to the excitement of what lies ahead with the Iron Bowl, and just the opportunities that are in front of us. And so, a lot of the things that we would have goals for are all there, and the things we set out to do at the beginning of the season, or even way back in January, are right in front of us. So, go attack it, and I know we’re going to do that. But love the response that we had this week, all week in the work on practice.”

DeBoer on Josh Cuevas, timetable for him to return….

“We’ll just kind of have to see how he comes along here during the week next week.”

DeBoer on Ryan Grubb coaching on the field…

“We’ll talk about it afterwards, but it’s something he’s been thinking about here for a while now. Just communication, trying to see if there’s a way where you’re always trying to make things better. It doesn’t mean it was bad before, but just something different, and today was a good opportunity to do that. So, we’ll hash that out, kind of see what we want to do moving forward. I thought it was good, though. I thought the communication was really good, and there’s an impact, I think, he makes when he’s around the players. They feed off him, and just, I thought the communication, again, between the coaches and him just being right there with them and overseeing everything and getting a feel of what’s happening, it was good.”

DeBoer on fans booing kicker Conor Talty…

“I wish they’d have (his) back like I know our locker room has his back. And he’s trying. He’s working hard. And he had a great week of practice. I don’t think he missed one all week, and we put him all over the place. He’s going to keep plugging away and just want everyone to support him. He’s just like every other player on our football team, giving everything he has.”

DeBoer on replacing Talty with Peter Notaro for one extra point…

“We were maybe thinking we were gonna get another chance with some field goals and things like that. We wanted to try to get a number of guys opportunities. And so, we had multiple, I think, four kickers out there that all got their chances, and we were probably hoping that we could get another chance to get him out there, but that never popped up.”

DeBoer on Alabama’s success running the football…

“I just think that it’s always execution and just more reps. Everything, you get better with reps, and it doesn’t matter what your position is — head coach, position coach, player. And so, a day like today, there’s just a lot of reps, and we had a shakeup there with the offensive line with Geno in there and a few other guys. And so, again, more reps for those guys against the looks that we saw. Did mix in running backs, and I thought they all ran hard and got their opportunities. And so, it’s just trying to build on everything. I thought last week, a week ago, I thought we took a step forward. And we’ll watch the film and continue to go back to work. I feel like we got a physical football team, both sides of the ball. And that’s what’s gonna come down to here if we go down this home stretch.”

DeBoer on the tight end position with Cuevas out…

“Kaleb has played all year. He’s had big catches going back to the very beginning of the season. Just the combination of guys working together, I think, is always key, whether they’re working together in the blocking schemes. And that was a big part of what we were trying to do, too, is just getting some of those guys reps together, building for the future. There’s intentionality on some of the calls and personnel groupings, with potential situations that could happen. And I thought getting Marshall Pritchett, who’s going to be a really good football player — the last few weeks, he’s really gained a lot of steam, gotten a few reps. He’s been great on special teams, and we saw him early in the season on scout team, tearing it up, and getting healthier throughout the year. And now, he’s out there doing his thing, and it was good to see him get comfortable. It was good to see Brody out there making some plays and playing physical, too.”

DeBoer on Keelon Russell’s growth, play vs. Eastern Illinois…

“I credit him. I credit our staff. I think it’s always hard to get three guys a lot of reps in practice. But I think we’ve really done a good job. I wanna give credit to Nick Sheridan, Ryan Grubb of having some intentionality about how we can get all those guys really important, valuable reps. And they take it very seriously. Not just when they’re on the field, but when they’re behind the line, going through their checks and giving these guys a chance to go out there and play. You can see, I thought he made a lot of good decisions. There’s one to finish the drive there. Probably got a little anxious, a little quick on it. I think hang in there a little bit longer, he could have made something happen. But that’s gonna happen, especially with where he’s at in his progression. But come a long ways throughout the season. The way he spits out things in the huddle, just command of the offense, command of the verbiage. He’s right there doing a great job, as is Austin Mack. Austin goes out there, and really don’t skip a beat with any of those guys.”

DeBoer on Ty Simpson’s play; his message after the two interceptions…

“The last one, he has to throw it in the end zone at the end of the half,” DeBoer said. “In fact, I told him, I’m glad you threw it in the end zone, because that means the stats don’t matter, right? Because that’d be one where a lot of quarterbacks would have just checked it down, and you’re up 28-0, I think it was at the time, and they don’t want that. I appreciate that about Ty. That’s gonna do no good. Your goal is to try to score. And so, he had a good week of practice, and probably forced the one in there. I’ll have to see the film a little bit, I didn’t check that play. But probably forced that one in there. I think sometimes that happens in these games, is you try to force the ball down the field. He didn’t get as many opportunities, probably knew it was gonna be a shortened game, but you gotta be disciplined. And I really feel like he’ll do that moving forward, just like he has all season.”

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