Everything Kalen DeBoer said to kick off Missouri game week

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to reporters on Monday of Missouri week. Here is everything DeBoer said to kick off game week No. 6 of the season.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“Just proud of the team and the competitiveness we showed on Saturday. Definitely did not start fast and up to our liking there, but we never really flinched. And I think just the spirit of our guys on the sideline, what the energy was there and also in the locker room at halftime, just really show that our guys are understanding the fight that it takes each and every week in an SEC game for four quarters to get a win. And so, got a couple takeaways that were key. Time of possession was something that certainly was a positive for Vanderbilt and will be again this week against Missouri. Something that we took advantage of. I thought there was, again, some things that we did better, but some things that we definitely gotta improve on.

“And it’s a hard reset this week going into Missouri. I think our guys understood that on Sunday, just making that and flipping the switch to where we gotta move forward. We got a very good football team coming off a bye week. We gotta play an 11 o’clock kickoff and on the road. So, just gotta be ready to get ready to roll tomorrow, have a great week of practice, and the guys, I think, are now into that just rinse and repeat kind of mode each and every week, understanding the process. And we gotta continue to get better at the process because, again, those things that happened early in the game or our lack of execution early in the game, that happened for a reason. Some of it’s your opponent, but some of it’s we gotta do our job better. And so, that’s gonna be the challenge going ahead here.

“Again, Missouri poses a lot of problems for you just with what they do physically. Running the football, I mean, they’re dominant. Against the run, they’re dominant. Time of possession. Put a lot of points on the board and hold teams down with the limited possessions you’re probably gonna get. So, Coach Drinkwitz has done a great job building that program up, been super consistent here with the wins. But also just consistent each and every week with what you’re gonna get. And we’re gonna be looking forward to a great challenge on Saturday.”

DeBoer on how Ty Simpson has battled complacency…

“I don’t think there’s a reason to be complacent yet, because it’s still early in the season. And just that’s the way we talk in the program. Just with, it ain’t good enough. Like, there’s so much area and you’re working on things. You wanna acknowledge improvement. You wanna acknowledge the ways that we fight. But from an execution standpoint, there was a lot of stuff that we can do better. I think Ty recognized that. He felt that. We’re addressing it on the sideline. He can feel it. He knows what it’s supposed to look like, and he understands. He’s past the point now where he’s gotta try to prove to people that he can do it. He’s done it at a high level. So now it’s about his leadership with our team and helping us be the best version that we can each and every week as we improve.”

DeBoer on Alabama’s current stretch against ranked teams…

“I think there’s always been times where you look at a month and you’re like, back in whatever month, in the spring, the schedule comes out and you’re like, ‘OK, that’s gonna be a grind.’ But you don’t even look at it that way. You look at one game, and you focus on that one game. And that’s what we did against Georgia. And that’s what we did against Vanderbilt. And now that’s what we gotta do against Missouri. You focus on only that game. And when you do it, all of a sudden you find yourself going through the month and you’re like, ‘OK, we’ve gotten better.’ And, ‘OK, we got the win.’ And again, just focus on the process, focusing on what it has to look like as we refine everything we’re doing. Just competing at the highest level, where you just focus on those things that you can control. The schedule, you work through it one by one. And you end up, usually, if you’ve got the talent and you’ve got the people and you catch a break here and there, you end up on the right side of it.”

DeBoer on Alabama’s red-zone execution vs. Vanderbilt…

“It’s different things, right? We talk about Ty, and the attention always goes to the quarterback. He even acknowledged he knows there’s things he can do better there. To me, it’s just execution as a whole. It’s understanding the situation that you’re in. What’s gonna hurt us is gonna be negative plays. Being behind the chains is emphasized even more as you move closer to the red zone. It’s gonna hurt you out in the middle of the field when you’re behind the chains, but as that space continues to shrink, the defense is gonna throw some more things at you because they’re a little more desperate too and have their way of going about things. You’ve got to execute, you’ve got to adjust as you move the ball into that area. We got caught behind the chains. We ended up with some plays that weren’t executed and didn’t get the yards we needed to put ourselves in good, favorable downs and distances.”

DeBoer on Jaeden Roberts…

“I mean, it’s competitive right now at those positions. More than just his. Gus are competing in practice. That’s, to me, a big part of what you got to do. The come back for him has been progressing, that’s probably why you feel the vibe you feel from Coach Grubb and the words he said. You’ve got to just keep doing it. That’s what we ask of every guy. Some of these guys have gotten chances to get on the football field and taken advantage of it, and that’s made it harder for others who maybe have had roles that were assumed. But it’s competitive. Jaeden, love Jaeden. What a great, great kid. Got a lot of potential, and he’s gonna keep working.”

DeBoer on Conor Talty…

“Disappointed in that first kick. Really, you thing about putting yourself in his shoes. You miss that first one, I think the next one was a tie game, and a pretty important kick when he had to go back out there. For him to respond, eliminate any thoughts that might be in your head and move forward, and then make another one, make the three that were important with the score being what it was. Even the one, with the angle, you could overthink that too, at the end of the game to make it a 9-point game. That’s an important kick at an important time. It’s not just him, too, it’s everyone else working in unison with the snap and the hold. Just thought he responded well. There’s nothing you can do when you miss that one. Yeah, you want those points. I thought his response was really good.”

DeBoer on the connection between Ty Simpson, wide receivers…

“I think they feel it. They feel what they’re capable of. And so they continue to do a better job of understanding what the calls are, what Coach Grubb is looking for, what the staff is looking for, why we’re running these plays, what the problems are that we can pose for the opponent when we execute. And then it’s being at the right place at the right time, you know? And then the ball placement will be there, and that leads to yards after catch. So they’re feeling that, and they know we’ll go to them when they execute. So work on practice, talk it through, make sure if there’s something that didn’t feel right in practice or in the game, or something different than what the look is that we did see throughout the week there, man, they’re all over it, you know, they’re proactive. And, you know, I think that’s what great teams do. And that unit working together, it’s been fun seeing their growth.”

DeBoer on how to guard against a ‘trap game’…

“I mean, they’re 5-0, they’re a ranked team. So, I think the whole thing isn’t like — there’s not a surprise that we’re facing this team that’s going to be at a high level on the road. And so it’s taking all of our experiences that we’ve been through and applying it, knowing that going on the road is hard in the SEC, knowing that any game in the SEC is hard, and then taking our lessons learned or experiences, what I like to refer to them, and just understanding how we’ve become successful and how we’ve had improvement here. It just goes back to shutting up and doing the work, showing up and doing the work, doing those things each and every day that lead to a feeling of confidence that allows you to go on the field on Saturdays and be successful and play the best, be the best version of yourselves. And you know, you’ve heard it from us.

“I mean, there’s so many things that we fell short on that really foundationally go back to the preparation or lack of, that we didn’t have. It might just be one play. Might be one person in that one play. So it’s not the whole unit or a whole mindset where guys are overlooking. It’s just one guy’s got to do his job better and all of a sudden that’s going to eliminate an explosive run. Or one guy doing a better job of pass protection and all of a sudden now we’re converting a third down where a guy was wide open that we could have had an explosive play, maybe even a touchdown in the first quarter. So just got to keep the pedal down.

“That’s what our guys have done a great job of. They haven’t listened to what’s outside. You can’t help but know that it’s out there or hear it even a little bit — whether it was the negative talk or the pats on the back, it means nothing. Our guys got to keep moving forward. They got a long ways. I mean, I think we can see what the ceiling is, and it’s much higher than what we performed even on Saturday. And that’s what they got to be excited about, that they haven’t reached that. That’s what’s got to be the challenge moving forward.”

DeBoer on William Sanders, Wilkin Formby and Kevin Riley being local…

“I think from a local standpoint, that’s pretty cool, that those guys are contributing at the level they are and continue to get better. Because that’s certainly the case with all of them. They are continuing to get better. And that leads to Sanders and what he’s been doing and why he’s getting his opportunity. He didn’t go like, woe is me when he wasn’t getting those reps early in the season. He just continued to grind and continued to show up, just like our team and what I’m asking with them, he’s done that, taking it personally. And the guys that, they’re going to keep getting better. You know, you’re in this program for a reason. We’re counting on you, we’re counting on you to get better, we’re counting on you to help make our team what it can be. And he’s done that, and so that’s why he’s gained a few reps in games that you’ve seen here over the last couple of weeks.”

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