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Kalen DeBoer expects Alabama's draft-eligible players to play full length of ReliaQuest Bowl

1918632_10206777287683070_1367905321192383146_nby: Charlie Potter12/30/24Charlie_Potter
Alabama QB Jalen Milroe and coach Kalen DeBoer
Alabama QB Jalen Milroe and coach Kalen DeBoer (Will McLelland / USA TODAY Sports)

TAMPA, Fla. – Kalen DeBoer said it when Alabama learned it would be in the ReliaQuest Bowl, and on the eve of the season finale, the coach has a similar feeling about opt-outs.

He isn’t expecting any.

But DeBoer took it a step further when asked if he expects Alabama’s draft-eligible players, like Jalen Milroe, to play the full length of the game on Saturday, Dec. 31 (11 a.m. on ESPN).

“Yeah, there’s been no conversations or anything,” DeBoer said. “I’d be pretty surprised. I think they’re here to win, to compete, to put the best product that we can put out there on the football field for four quarters and go out there. 

“So I wouldn’t expect something like that. But that’s the way these guys are. Jalen Milroe and the other guys, they’re going to go out there just like they always have been and give everything they have. They’ve shown that in practice, so I wouldn’t expect anything different.”

Milroe and Alabama’s leaders, at least the healthy ones, have all announced they will play in the Crimson Tide’s final game of the 2024 campaign. Meanwhile, Michigan saw nine players choose not to play in the ReliaQuest Bowl and instead focus on the 2025 NFL Draft.

The question to DeBoer is timely considering Miami quarterback Cam Ward sat out the second half of the Hurricanes’ loss to Iowa State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl earlier this week.

DeBoer doesn’t believe his first-team players will do something similar against Michigan. Right now, the only chance for starters to be pulled is if the score gets out of hand.

In his final press conference before the bowl game, DeBoer praised Alabama’s leadership.

“I think that’s always the key is what’s your leadership and the leaders just understanding the precedent that’s been set here in this program when it comes to bowl games, opting out and just setting the tone on how important every opportunity when you get to put the crimson on is, and these guys get out one last chance here this year,” DeBoer said.

“Guys like Tyler Booker really stepping up and Milroe, as well, and others just really saying, ‘Hey, we get one more chance as a brotherhood to go on that football field together. We get a chance to be better as football players, and we want to set the program off and continuing in the right direction going into next year and leave it in the best possible place that we can.’ 

“So they poured everything into it, all these guys, and I couldn’t be more proud of the mindset and how that’s trickled throughout the team and really led us to having some really good practices here all the way through the bowl practice here, even today.”

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