Everything Kalen DeBoer said to kick off Eastern Illinois week

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to reporters on Monday of Eastern Illinois week. Here is everything he said to kick off game week No. 11 of the season.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“Good morning. Obviously, just like I said the other night, disappointed in the outcome from the game. I guess the approach I can already see is dialed in. Like I told you, I know the character of this football team. This is not a time to sit still, this is a time to keep moving forward. We see areas that we can continue to improve on, but that’s what we have done all season long. We continue to push, continue to go back to work. And these guys, again, they’ve shown how resilient they are, and you can see the want to in the fight. Getting down early in the game the other night, I think, and how we continue to compete is exactly what you see in the big picture of this season, and what these guys are all made up of.” 

DeBoer on the two-punt returner strategy vs. Oklahoma…

“Their punter was a little erratic. He hit long ones and he hit short ones. And some of the short ones, what would happen is they would roll out and end up being longer kicks, because you play for the long game. So I thought our guys did a good job of the fielding part. Obviously, we had a turnover, which was a big deal. From a schematic standpoint, that was a lot of the reason for that. So you saw some of the ones that went longer, Ryan got his hands on those. Obviously, field position plays a little bit of a role in that, but there were some shorter ones too. So I felt like, from a schematic standpoint, what we were doing made sense.” 

DeBoer on Jah-Marien Latham and a potential seventh year…

“Nothing as far as what the future holds. I know we’ll continue to talk with him on that here. And obviously there would have to be something that’s done from the NCAA level to get that year as well.” 

DeBoer on the Wilkin Formby/Michael Carroll combo… 

“I think they did a pretty good job. I thought there was things where our execution was was certainly improved, and I thought Wilkin did a nice job getting off the ball. Some areas, there’s a goal line play that I really felt like he really had a low hat, and showed some things that he’s continued to work on. And Michael was out there competing. You know he’s gonna give everything you he has. There’s no doubt about it. He doesn’t look like a freshman, and he’s played a lot of snaps this year that are meaningful. Together, I think those guys had a good week of practice. And again, it wasn’t perfect, things that they could have been better on, but there’s a lot of a lot of success that they had together as well.” 

DeBoer on DaShawn Jones’ status vs. Oklahoma… 

“He was available, but he had a good injury the week before in the game, and that definitely limited a lot of his practice throughout the week. So that gave Red more opportunity and Day-Day was available if we needed him.” 

DeBoer on his reaction to Conor Talty yelling at David Bird…

“We’re all competitive, and those guys are competitive. And they want to make that kick and have the execution be at a high level. And every single one of those guys are always taking ownership. But obviously, in that moment, Conor’s a competitive guy, and he knows how important those points are. And the response and everything like that, not exactly what you want, but it’s also an understanding of how important it is to these guys. And they work together relentlessly in practice. I see it. There’s a cohesiveness that these guys have. And so, in the locker room, I think they got that resolved very quickly after the fact and were ready to go out there and execute more throughout the game.”

DeBoer on what he saw on Oklahoma’s 42-yard punt return…

“I saw Lotzeir Brooks give unbelievable effort from flying down the field, probably 50-plus yards, to almost getting the guy down, and then rolling and getting right back up and chasing probably another 50-plus yards the other direction. I think that guy right there gives so much and has been so productive in the special teams all season.

“I think there might have been about a split second where one or two guys hesitated, and that allowed for a couple blocks or some just missed tackles, and then we lost a little contain. We knew in the return game, once he got rolling, he had some good speed. And we’ve done a great job against returners, but it’s that one time when you flinch. And I don’t know if we flinched, but we hesitated for a second and thought he was gonna be down, and the blocks got back on us, and that’s what happens. And it was a big momentum shift early in the game for them that certainly got them three points. We understand what the difference in the game was. And so, there’s a few of those one-off plays that were the difference in the game.”

DeBoer on if tight ends will play a bigger role in the passing game…

“Yeah, I think both, in particular, Cuevas and Kaleb, do an amazing job. The tight end position’s always been important to our offense. It’s not just the pass game, but it’s the run game and the ability and the flexibility these guys have to line up wide, be in the core, move around. It’s not just physical, it’s mental capacity to do all these things. I mean, Josh is a stud. You just see him on one play, made a guy miss in the flat, toed the sideline and then lowered the shoulder at the end of the run. It’s just the competitiveness he has. And Kaleb just continues to get better. You can see him at pad level, for a tall guy, continuing to work at it. He’s got great hands. He’s been, throughout the year, a guy that you can consistently count on to catch the ball in tough places. And so, there’s more to it with our tight end corps, but those two certainly get the brunt of what we give as far as reps.”

DeBoer on dialing in as a team…

“I got in a locker room, and it did surprise me, and I shared that with you. I already could feel what the hurt was, but also what the response would be. And the week of practice last week was phenomenal. I’ve shared it with you guys many times, how we can track that, how we can see it, how we can feel it, how we can understand what that looks like. And again, the competitiveness, the fight that those guys had, it wouldn’t have been there at that level if it wouldn’t have been invested in the early part of the week and the process that these guys go through. And that will continue to be the case.

“We have to use this week to continue to get better, and that is the priority. That’s where our head needs to be. In order for us to continue to have the outcomes we want, we gotta make it as simple as possible and focus on what we can control. And that’s our mindset, our attitude, and then that leading to the effort and continually each and every day to get better.”

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