Everything Kalen DeBoer said after Alabama’s first preseason scrimmage

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama held its first preseason scrimmages at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday. Shortly after the 2-hour workout, head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke to reporters in the media room. Below is everything DeBoer said about the first scrimmage of fall camp.

DeBoer’s opening statement…

“Getting worn out by those alumni out there. Got a big group of alumni here and got a chance to spend some time with them right afterwards. They’re down on the field. But good scrimmage for the guys. I say it it seems like every time, but I felt good about the back and forth. There was times the offense moved the ball, especially early up the field. Defense did a nice job anchoring down as the scrimmage went along. Got into some situations at the end, some end of game stuff, that I think is really important. Things that we’re able to do much more and be more comfortable repping those things. Doesn’t mean it’s perfect. That’s why we practice. Got some end of game situations in there at the end, too. Just kind of last second stuff, seven seconds — last play of the game type thing.

“Really all the injuries that we have right now — we got Jaeden Roberts is still dinged up. He got, middle of the week, just stuff we’re dealing with and keep evaluating him. Don’t expect it will be a long-term thing, but don’t know his timeline necessarily. James Smith continues to come along and likes the progress that he’s showing. He didn’t scrimmage — neither one of those guys scrimmaged. For the most part, we’re in a good spot. I think a lot of what we went through in the spring has really helped us. I was hoping it was going to be a blessing in disguise, but I think we’re building some depth, and when we don’t have a guy out there, you feel good not just about that replacement or who’s competing for those spots, but also the guys are now moving up the depth chart maybe from a 3 to a 2, and so forth. Blessing in disguise, maybe. We’re building depth in both the spring and fall.”

DeBoer on how the quarterbacks looked…

“The biggest thing with those guys, the quarterbacks, is they’ve done a great job, first of all, taking care of the football. No picks today. A few touchdown passes — I don’t know the exact number, but a few touchdown passes from all three of them. The completion percentage over the course of camp for all three has been in that range we want. Would like to have a minimum of 65%. They’ve just done a good job of being consistent when they take care of the football. I think there’s been, maybe, three picks all camp when you talk about 7-on-7 drills, team drills. Might be off one — probably not off two. They’ve done a good job taking care of the football. I think the first week, just missed a few plays. The last practices, finding ways to get explosives. 

“Commanding the huddle, I think your two guys that have been around the offense the longest — Ty and Austin — when they get in the huddle and they’ve got to rattle off a play, they’re sharp and confident with it. Keelon is still learning those things, but he’s doing a great job. The progress is something that you’d hope for and he’s right there. Explosive opportunities, they got the ball there. They delivered the ball. Timing, I feel like very few times are we in a spot where we’re not throwing on time, not confident where we should deliver the ball. From a timeline, because I know that’s kind of what you want, I feel like we’re getting closer. I would’ve said before camp that we definitely got to make a decision by the time we get done with the second scrimmage, and I would anticipate, for sure, that being the case. We’ll see kind of how the next few days go. But it’s two good showings, I think, especially by Austin and Ty again today, and I think Keelon making the progress we’d hope for. You can see what his ceiling is going to be, it’s just a matter of reps.”

DeBoer on what he saw from the running backs…

“Yeah, I thought Jam started out really well. I thought the offensive line did a nice job creating some seams for Jam to hit. Got to the second level and broke a couple tackles. I thought it was one of the better showings I’ve seen Jam have in a scrimmage. And then Daniel Hill is a guy we’re getting more and more comfortable with. He’s a big back, but I think he’s deceiving when it comes to what he does from a skillset standpoint because he can catch the ball out of the backfield. Dre has been consistent all camp long. I thought he poured a couple balls — a couple runs up in there. Did a nice job, maybe when there’s not even something there, just moving the pile and getting those 3-yard gains that are important to setting your offensive up for good down and distances. Rich continues to do his thing, too. All of them — I think Jam certainly had the best day, and that’s been consistent. Feel good about all of them in pass protection, first with their responsibilities and the ability to go up there and execute, too, and get the job done with blitzes and things like that. Our running backs are doing a nice job and when they get out, they’ve been effective pass-catchers, too.”

DeBoer on how much the offensive line rotated with Roberts out…

“With Jaeden out today, the rotation was less. It was kind of those guys in there. Left guard Kam, right guard Geno. That was kind of our lineup. That is more than likely kind of what it looked like before camp. That hasn’t really changed much with the main corps of six guys competing for those spots more days than not.”

DeBoer on what was disappointing/concerning today…

“So I mentioned Jam getting some good runs the first couple plays of the game. Obviously that meant there were some seams. The first drive in particular, some seams. So we’ve got to be ready to play. Gap integrity defensively. I didn’t feel like over the course of the scrimmage the defense had an issue with the run. Just being ready to go with the first couple plays, the offense got down the field pretty quickly. The defense did a nice job anchoring down and keeping them out of the end zone at the end. Some good give and take when I say that was kind of first drive only. They did a good job. Then on the alternative, what you’d like to see is the offense continue to execute. The run game, it wasn’t like they were bad, but those explosives you want to try to see, certainly the defense did a nice job of clamping down. You just, I sit wearing the headphones every single play. If I flip from one side to the other, there’s complaining and a guy’s upset, and the other side there’s a crew that’s pretty happy and ready to go play the next play. I think there’s a good give and take. I can’t say there was just anything where we are in trouble or nervous about this. Again, playing some young guys there defensively. James as I mentioned has been out. Getting good rotation, guys getting a lot of good reps.”

DeBoer on Alabama’s depth, particularly at WR and DB…

“Just new guys popping up. Guys you would expect to make plays. But one day, you’ve got Germ, you talk about receivers, you’ve got Germ making a lot of plays today. Horton getting his opportunity. Rico just doing the little things that matter. Cole Adams made a nice play today. One that was really good to see. Yeah, the depth, guys understand, man I’ve got to go out on a day we’ve got a scrimmage, I’ve got to go out and prove it. Especially those ones that haven’t gotten as many opportunities or know they’re just right there, kind of hovering between a one and a two.

“The depth thing, we have a lot of positions, I think about linebacker and O-line, where we have a lot of upperclassmen and guys that have a lot of experience. All of a sudden it drops down to where you’re playing Michael Carroll and Jackson Lloyd at offensive tackle. That’s the part that is nice to see. You wish it wouldn’t necessarily have to be that way. You’d love to have maybe redshirt juniors, and Olaus doing a good job, and things like that. But those young guys that maybe offensive line and linebacker is a lot of the same. Just really getting a lot of reps in there. You’ve got the Deontae Lawsons and that crew of upper classmen. You’ve got the crew that’s incoming freshmen. I love the depth we’re building. Those guys are important, not just on defense, offense, but on special teams they’re going to be really critical. A lot of freshman last year. Most in the SEC by far and I think one of the top three in the country. Close to 1,600 snaps with freshman on special teams last year. It’s good for those guys to get out there and do the fundamentals that are especially transferable from maybe defense and tackling to special teams.” 

DeBoer on the tight end group compared to the spring…

“They’re really consistent. I’m trying to think, there was a couple nice just moving the chains type things, consistency. Can’t say there was a lot of explosive plays out of the tight ends, but they are extremely critical as far as moving around. You guys know we do a lot of shifting and motioning. They’re involved in protection, next time they’re out. I thought they were really consistent. Again, not a lot of explosiveness that we saw from them. The explosiveness came from the other guys we’re talking about in the skill areas. I’m pleased with where it’s going. We lost two really good ones that could do some things, especially up front when it comes to big bodies and having to play SEC football. I think we can probably continue to get better blocking at the point of attack, and especially maybe in short-yardage or goal-line situations, you know, continue to get there. But that’s a whole unit thing, too. It’s not just on that position.”

DeBoer on what he was looking for in a first scrimmage…

“First of all, guys feeling confident when they break— whether defensive lining up, offensively breaking a huddle or running out and doing it confidently. And I really felt that that was the case. You know, we scrimmage, and there’s a lot of install that gets put in each and every day. And so when you first put that in, there’s a lot of coaches that are kind of like hovering, trying to get the guys lined up. From my standpoint, you get to Wednesday, Thursday and know you have a big scrimmage Saturday, you’re wondering how confident they’re going to be. 

“I thought the coaches didn’t hold back. There’s base stuff that they did, but also, everything we’ve installed, they wanted to find out how vulnerable we were, or how hard we could attack and push. And so we challenged out guys.  And you could hear the confidence come out in communication. A communicating team is usually a confident team, just confirming things. That tells you where you’re going and also confirms that your buddy behind, in front, next to you, he knows what he’s doing too, so you’re on the same page. I think that’s really where it starts: communication. Defensively, just really not like little coverages, just a guy completely being out of position. Forcing people to win their one-on-ones is really what it came down to a lot today, and we’ve got to execute.”

DeBoer on what he saw from the pass rush…

“I’d say the pass rush— and I think the offense does a good job of doing things to slow down the pass rush, to counter it, because we know there’s some guys that can get home, and you can’t leave them one-on-one. So offensively, there’s some good schemes and things that are going to keep that in check, to keep our quarterback upright. That’s one of the staples and one of the most important things of our offensive success is being able to have that quarterback not sit back there and be completely comfortable, but we’ve got to keep them upright. We’ve got to have them out there. And so I think the offensive line probably did a better job when there was one-on-ones. Guys did a good job. 

“I think LT continues to do a job. I’m really excited about Qua and what he can do. Yhonzae over the course of camp, I think, has been consistent. You didn’t really get a chance or see him today, really getting home, but he’s around the quarterback. And even in the limited time early on, I feel felt like James Smith, and so he’s an important piece of that too.

“It’s just guys working together. I think that’s going to be the key for us. We had times where we got close, but we’ve got to continue to just work together and not leave the lanes for quarterback to run through. I can just see everyone every practice as a defensive line, and linebackers involved in those fits, continue to be disciplined and upholding their job and responsibility to where all of a sudden these huge lanes for a quarterback doesn’t really happen. It happened maybe once or twice, and I would contribute that to some pretty good, instinctual quarterback play as well. So I think the offensive line probably did a little better job, but there’s some scheme pieces to that too to take away so many one-on-ones and just make ourselves vulnerable.”

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