TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Kalen DeBoer’s first regular season as Alabama head coach comes to a close with a 9-3 record, which kept the Crimson Tide one spot short of the College Football Playoff.

DeBoer met with the media Sunday night to discuss Alabama getting left out, facing Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl, what he expects from opt-outs and more. Here’s everything he had to say:

Opening statement…

“Obviously news of the day, just everything around the playoff, certainly disappointed that we weren’t one of the 12 selected. Certainly feel we’re one of those, and there’s things that obviously we’ve got to do and could’ve done this year, but got to make sure it’s not in other people’s hands and keep ourselves kind of focused on that next year. Just knowing that the process doesn’t always end up how you think it is, how you think it’s gonna. 

“Had our banquet tonight with our guys. Haven’t had a lot of one-on-one talks and things like that. Certainly they share the same disappointment, but also looking forward to what lies ahead with our bowl opportunity. Obviously, hoping it was going to be more than one game, but we’ve got one more game together and gonna make the most of it. Whether it’s this season, the 2024 team, or just building on it and preparing for the future and being better because of the opportunities we get here in the next couple weeks.”

On whether or not he’s been able to have conversations with the leaders and their message to the team…

“A few, yeah. There’s been a few. It’s been a busy day. We went from first kind of understanding what the situation was going to be as far as not getting in, to talking to a few of the guys still not even knowing what our bowl game was. Then the bowl game announcement. And then right into our banquet, and just finished that up here about 45 minutes or so ago. Again, I think just around our program, I feel like the culture’s in a good place. The mindset of guys, they’ve taken a lot of pride in what we’ve gone through and what we did this year. Whether it’s just the course we stayed on, and the way they stuck together. But also, the resumé ain’t perfect, but there’s a lot of big moments in the season and big wins that we know we had this year. Again, there are leaders, and those leaders expressed nothing but positive things as far as moving forward whether it’s guys who are kind of on the back end of their career, or guys that are going to be important for us moving forward in the same roles or even bigger roles. 

“I’m sure there will be some discussions and things like that. There always is. I would expect that whether you play in the last game in January or you just finished a week ago. There’s discussions. Just guys trying to understand the role. Doesn’t mean it’s bad. Just means that that communication’s there. That’s how you build trust. Again, I think our players feel good that they can come talk to us, and we encourage that.”

On looking at Michigan as a revenge game for both former Washington players and Alabama players that faced the Wolverines last season… 

“There’s so many different pieces to this. I get that and appreciate the question for sure, but I think that again, we’ve always made it about this team. That’s when we’ve been at our best is when we really focus on just what it means to this program, this team. We can go back to the Iron Bowl— it wasn’t about anything external, it was about this group. And that’s what we will certainly keep it to when it comes to getting ready for Michigan and the bowl game.”

On addressing the inconsistency issues that Alabama had at times this season… 

“I think there’s different reasons for it throughout the course of the year. Different position groups might’ve been hit with different things that affected them throughout that week. It might’ve been the matchups, and some of those things that were greater challenges. It might’ve been the flow of the game, other things. A lot of things you can control, and that’s what we’ve got to focus on. That’s what we’ll always focus on is those things that we can control. The things that we can’t control, or the breaks that don’t go your way, we’ve got to make sure that we’re stronger because of what we went through. 

“But I think having an offseason where there’s some consistency and a longer period of time to just be able to do what I’d normally do in a offseason. Whether it’s the details that you’d be starting in the middle of January or end of January where we pretty much hired our whole staff in the middle of February, and just trying to get them to learn the offense, learn the defensive scheme. So, the timeframe and the buildup, the ability now after one year to just grow the relationships, which builds trust, which leads to greater confidence. I mean, it’s just all part of the process. We always want to jump from when we look at, ‘Oh, there’s talent here. There’s talent there.’ There’s a process to this. And we want to skip steps, and you feel like in a lot of places you can, and we did in some areas. But there’s some areas too, where, as agonizing as it is sometimes, you’ve just got to go through those tough times to really know how it can help you in the long run. 

“I always kind of learn from a good friend of mine and a great coach. You always kind of look at why is this happening to me. Sometimes you’ve got to look at why is this happening for me. And that’s what I shared with the team all season long. I think that really helped them understand that, OK, we’ve got to learn from everything we go through, and be better because of it.”

You were preaching commitment to finishing the season after the Oklahoma game. Is that a message you’re continuing to preach today?

“Yeah, commitment for the rest of the schedule, to me it’s more about the commitment to the sacrifices it takes each and every day to be our best. I don’t think it was necessarily, especially at that time, focused on someone we might lose two weeks later when the portal opens. I don’t think it was really directed towards that, it was towards the day to day work that it takes and the process that we focus on that made us successful is making sure that that was the case getting ready for the Iron Bowl, that was the next week.”

Is there a thought to encourage guys with first round grades to opt out in order to play younger players?

“I don’t know if it’s going to be because of opt-outs though. I think, from what I feel right now, and I’m not saying there won’t be one, but I feel like right now, we’re in a place where most of those guys are planning on playing. I don’t care what round they’re planning on going in. And we’ll see.  But that’s my early just understanding, having talked with a few guys, and you know, these guys are committed to this place. There’s been a streak of 10-win seasons or more, and they’ve got a lot of pride in this program in continuing to move forward. [They] want to play and spend one more game with their brothers here on this football team. 

“So, I think we’re in a good spot. There will be some things, I’m sure, with some guys moving on out of the program, as I think maybe some have already announced that they don’t plan on being here. And I think that’s going to be the case every year, and especially here as we go through really our first full cycle where we’re working together with them as well. Last year, we were really just in full retention mode. There was no portal to take any guys from I guess, other than programs that lost head coaches, and that’s a situation we were in.

“Again, we’re going to build our program with the freshman class, which I’m really excited about the signees we’re going to retain, and we’re going to develop the guys we have here. And filling in the areas that need some numbers or maybe just need to be a little bit better on the football field on Saturdays. That’s a fluid things, and again, communication’s where it all starts.”

What was your message to the WRs who may have been frustrated with the lack of targets?

“I think they’re aware that just our style of offense this year it was all about whatever it took to win. I’ll credit those guys, they did a great job of doing whatever they needed to do to help us win. We’ve got a lot of unselfish guys that from year-to-year is going to change and evolve based on the personnel that we have. The style’s going to be different. It might not just be your quarterback. It might be the number of receivers or tight ends. Yeah we’re going to try to have some guys that fit a little bit of what we envision it being down the road. That’s kind of what I really appreciate about our guys is it was all about whatever it took to win and them taking a back seat to whatever it would take to do that for them individually and all those guys did that.”

What is the health status update on WR Jalen Hale? Any chance we see him in bowl game?

“I don’t anticipate you seeing him in the bowl, but he’s been out there. We were excited, it must have been a week or two ago, running around and doing some things. Again, not any type of full contact yet at that point, but just was fun to see his body out there running around and he brings a smile to his face and I know he was enjoying that moment, getting out there, just working through the process and progressing along. He’s been amazing going back to the time he even had his injury just with his mindset. I know our guys really respect him for that and appreciate the grind he’s been putting in to come back as quick as he possibly can.”

On how upcoming practices could give a jumpstart on position battles for next season…

“There might be a position or two, but with a lot of our team being the same for the most part that I would expect for the bowl that’s been on the football field. The development of the guys that maybe aren’t playing as much––yes that could happen and something we’re focused on. But we’re trying to maximize the opportunity to go win a football game on December 31. There will be a lot of focus on those guys finishing this year strong. Those guys that are choosing to play this last game, they’re doing it to win it and finishing it out the way it’s supposed to be done.”

On how the committee valued Alabama’s strength of schedule…

“As far as the future, that’s something I’ll let [athletic director Greg Byrne] lead the charge on. He has an understanding of that and we’ll figure that out moving forward.

“We want to play competitive games, we want to play the best games and I understand how it didn’t feel like that. It definitely wasn’t rewarded,” DeBoer said. “It felt like with our schedule and the wins that we had against teams that were ranked––now or even at the time––LSU was at the time, but not anymore. I’ll let Greg administratively lead the charge and understand what needs to be done in the future, if anything at all.

“We’ve got some higher profile games against programs that traditionally have been very successful and we want to be a part of that and we want that to happen. That’s the exciting thing about college football is being in as many big games as possible. I don’t want to back down to that, we want to be a part of it and that hopefully will be rewarded down the road.”

On how the same five offensive linemen weren’t consistently on the field together…

“I think the latter half of the season it’s been a little bit better. There’s always reasons for different rotations. It might be competition battles in some cases, I’m not just talking about the offensive line, in some areas this is a good way for guys to build their stamina for games. Sometimes it is injury related.

“I felt like our offensive line earlier in the season was going through a lot of that. I think there’s been solid and consistent growth there, some matchups are going to be tougher than others, there’s a whole offensive and sometimes it’s a defense and the things they do to make the run game tougher or protection a little more challenging.

“What you want to do is you want to have an offense that can be balanced, and balance to me is all about the ability to run or pass when that is needed because the opponent is going to try to take your best stuff away. Some of that falls on the offensive line, it also falls on other positions to be able to exploit when possible or when those things come up. ‘When they take this thing away then go to that’ or vice versa. We’ve just got to keep growing our entire offense so that way we can take pressure off of the offensive line. I think a lot of it is execution and that just comes with the reps. I think we got better in a lot of ways with reps on offense but with our offensive line too.”

On if Jalen Milroe and Tyler Booker will Play in the ReliaQuest Bowl and how leadership affects decision…

“I feel it’s very positive and I’ll let those guys make the announcements and talk to the team. We have team meetings tomorrow. We’ll have opportunities here throughout the week that we had scheduled no matter what the case was. We’ll be working out tomorrow no matter what and so I’ll let those guys talk.

“It’s positive for those guys and it’s positive for others too. I feel like we’re in a good space in what these guys are trying to accomplish. Whether it being seniors/guys using up and finishing their eligibility or guys that are trying to figure out their course of action or potential related to potentially going to the NFL Draft. Those are the decisions they’re going through right now.”

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