Everything Kalen DeBoer said to kick off Oklahoma game week

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to reporters on Monday of Oklahoma week. Here is everything DeBoer said to kick off game week No. 10 of the year.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“I really feel like there are things we can continue to get better at, but I’m very proud of the way we continue to find a way to win. The resolve, and the way guys come back to work each and every day, but also in the game. Each series is its own. Each play is its own. Now we come to Oklahoma, where each game is its own game.

“Probably one thing, since you do talk to offensive and defensive coordinators, I think one thing to highlights is our special teams, did a nice job. I know we missed a field goal, but pinning LSU deep three times inside the 20, and that play down on the one, those are plays you work on and just get a couple times every year to really make it happen. Our guys did that, so I’m really proud of that, along with the kickoff coverage. The coverage in general, kickoff, punt, our guys knew they had a challenge ahead of them this past weekend. If you really looked at their stats were with those returners, it’s pretty impressive. Not just maybe this year, but over the course of their careers. Hats off to our guys, they really take a lot of ownership on the field, not only offensively, defensively, but individually. Our guys making an impact on special teams, I’m proud of them.

“Penalties, I love the direction that continues to go. Two for 25 yards, and winning the turnover margin. Doing that every week, that’s just really who we are. And we’ll have to really do that again this week, because we’re facing a team that abides by a lot of the same things we emphasize when it comes to physicality, winning the turnover margin, winning in the red zone each side of the ball for Oklahoma. Same thing applies to what we take a lot of pride in. They have good skill at their special teams, and you can see the field goals and their punting game, they excel there. It’s going to take all three phases to have a win come out this weekend. We’re ready for the week of practice, I know the guys are excited.”

DeBoer on former players coming back…

“I love it. This is their program. It’s ours altogether, but they’re the ones that built this and made it what it is, and I love that they want to come back and are proud of what they accomplished and, hopefully, proud of what we’re doing right now. With so much recruiting and so forth, this week was probably one of those weeks that I didn’t get to see as many as I normally do, whether it’s pre-game or during the day or the weekend. I saw a few of them, Booker in particular, a guy from last year’s team. He was around. That excites me, because that’s what we want. You want alumni to always feel like this is home, a place they can come back to and be welcome. Especially in the offseason, it’s a lot easier to do. But it’s great to get everyone together, our players hear the stories, understanding the history, learning as well, on how they can continue to be better, because a lot of these guys coming back have been in the NFL and understand what that next step looks like, and that’s what our guys’ goals and dreams are.”

DeBoer on Alabama’s positive turnover margin…

“It’s emphasis. We talk about what our identity is, and what you just heard from me, and the things I think are important are what the team heard on Sunday. We got in the team room and reviewed what went well, where we’ve got to improve, but we talk about that. It doesn’t happen by accident. We’re working on ball security drills, stripping the ball, knocking it out. Nikhai’s punch on the ball, getting it out, was phenomenal. We made sure we highlighted that. Not just what he’s doing as a player, but that specific play. Emphasize the one we didn’t get earlier, I believe the first drive of the game. You keep doing those things, you play the percentages.

“I brought up the Missouri game, where a couple didn’t fall our way. But in the end, we got some interceptions to finish out in the fourth quarter. We were just talking about those plays. It goes back to defensively, make the offense snap it again. Against Tennessee, the interception for a touchdown. The play at the end of the game against South Carolina. Our guys believe and know that if they give the effort in practice, work on those skills, protecting the ball as an offensive player, going after it defensively and have that mindset of attacking, the habits we have will lead to plays being made. You create your own breaks.”

DeBoer on if there’s any reminders about last year’s loss to Oklahoma…

“We have a lot of new players on the team, so there are players that didn’t experience that. The ones that did certainly better remember and understand that, more importantly, that you’re facing a really good program that obviously we went to their place and got beat up pretty good last year, and that’s who’s coming to town this week. And so, Coach Venable’s done an amazing job instilling a culture there, and we know that team is coming here hungry. They’re in the hunt for a lot of different things as far as reaching their goals.

“But for us, we do then try to make sure that we always are focused on really this team being what we’re centered on and us improving. And that’s the focus is, again, how did we get to this point this year to where we’ve had the success? What’s it gonna take to be our best on Saturday? And so, again, you try to hone in on that, but you can’t help but remember the past. And those questions that you asked just now were also asked a few weeks ago when we played Vanderbilt and so forth. And so, our guys should remember that, because our experiences help us be better the next time around.”

DeBoer on Kam Dewberry…

“I expect Kam to be ready to go. He got dinged up a little bit in the game, but he’s looking good. He might be early in the week held up some, but should be fine as the week goes on, as far as what I see right now and hear, as well.”

DeBoer on his relationship with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts…

“Just a couple years ago, got a chance to go watch a Dodgers game with Alexis, my daughter. She’s softball, so baseball, that piece right there, it was just fun to go there and watch a game. And got to spend some time with him in the clubhouse afterwards. And I was blown away at, first of all, how much time he gave me in the middle of his season. I know how hard that is as a coach myself. And then we’ve just stayed in touch. This summer, I went up and saw him play up in Milwaukee. And again, we just stay in touch. I can’t help but notice how great of a job he does of bringing these guys together that he manages. They’re all such great players, but he finds a way to have a role for each of them, them having just such a low ego and enjoying the process of what they’re doing. And finding ways to win, the resiliency it took, obviously, the last two years in both World Series, it’s just amazing.

“And I think there’s a lot of similarities in our styles, maybe. There’s probably differences, too. It’s a different sport. But I got a lot of admiration for how he manages and how he gives his time. The presence he has when he walks into a room, it just really blows me away. Again, him coming here this last weekend, something that was kind of on the docket, going back quite some time, I think probably a month or two ago. And so, I was really looking forward to it. I think they had a great time watching the game, but we also had a great time taking a few nuggets to learn from, to help us be better as coaches and be better as players.”

DeBoer on Lane Kiffin alleging Oklahoma steals signs/gathering information…

“You got to adjust. I mean, I think across the board, across the country, there’s some element of every team doing something. And so, for us, I think our staff does a pretty good job, but you certainly gotta make sure you’re always doing your best to change things up. And we got huddle, no huddle, and there’s a lot of different things we do, too. We just gotta continue to do what we’ve done, not just this year, but the year past, as well.”

DeBoer on the horizontal pass game being an extension of the run game…

“Yeah. I mean, totally. I think that’s a lot of what our offense has done over the years. But you still want to be better in the run game than what we are, and we have been. So I don’t think it’s a systematic thing that we have with our structure, but you want to make a defense have to defend everything from sideline to sideline and have them be concerned about what you’re going to do vertically. We can talk forever, because I would love to. I love that part of it, the style and the schematics of it. You saw in the game the other day. I mean, we had tight ends catching it on perimeter screens, off of some runs. Isaiah Horton had some. Just different things to stretch the defense this way, to open up seams, to be able to run the football. And then the run game opens up the play action, which is now more of a vertical piece and even your screens and screens-and-goes and things like that. That’s part of what, I think, good offenses do.”

DeBoer on if Conor Talty’s struggles have affected his decision-making…

“I actually don’t think it’s affected me much at all. He kicked two 40-plus-yard field goals in the game. One got us the early lead 3-0. The one at the end makes it a two-score game— I think it was 44 maybe, somewhere in there. The one that he missed, I think the great kickers can overcompensate for maybe, the execution of the rest of the snap and the hold not being perfect. That’s going to continue to be the growth. 

“In him,  I think the thing that I really like is when he’s had maybe one that didn’t go well, he’s able to respond and come back and make the next one. And there’s been some big ones that he’s made that have stretched games, and it’s been maybe not in the last minute, but it’s been late.  I just think it’s part of the growth. You know, this is really his first year out there, and him being able to respond and just take whatever happened, move it off the side and go make the next one, because that’s what’s in front of him, it’s what you got to do.

“I think we punted probably about as close as we’ve been all year, you know, late in the game there, and that’s the one that we pinned them deep, but we were just so far out, and it was fourth-and-pretty long. And so to me, that really wasn’t one that was as hard of a decision, but I really can’t say that it’s affected my choices to go. I think we’re going to be aggressive. You guys have heard that from me. We’re going to play to win at the right times, but when we get down in there, I trust our defense, too. If we don’t convert, like we did early in the game, I trust that our defense will have a great mindset to go out there and go play ball, and it doesn’t affect them. You can’t put them in bad spots over and over again, but you know they’re going to bow up and do their job. We’ve talked about that a lot in team meetings.”

DeBoer on focusing on the process…

“I think this year just, I mean, every year has got noise, right? But I think this year, it’s been so much different types of noise that we’ve had to deal with that, again, we’ve become, I think, a pretty good team when it comes to pushing that out and understanding that what’s in front of us is all about us— how we think, how we respond, the work we put in. 

“I already told the guys on Sunday, we got a hard reset. We go back to work, and we understand our strengths, we understand our weaknesses, who we are as a team, and we just continue to get better. And so you’re exactly right. I mean, that process and that weekly process, we need to keep refining individually and as a team, what we’re doing. Evaluate now as we get the season, you know, what’s our practice plan look like? You know, just the little tweaks you learn from years and years and years of coaching. You know, what should that look like? What worked? What didn’t work? And then the players, what’s the note-taking process look like? What’s the rehab process, recovery, and all of that? So there’s so many pieces to it. And then the mental part that you’re talking about where what everyone says doesn’t matter. There’s still so much football to be played. We have big games, and nothing bigger than the one right in front of us, so I think we’ll be pretty locked in.”

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