Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer was all smiles after the Crimson Tide’s 52-7 win over Mercer at Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday.
Alabama (8-2) got out to a 28-0 lead behind two touchdown passes from Jalen Milroe, who got freshman sensation Ryan Williams involved early in the Tide’s Week 12 victory. Williams had a 14-yard touchdown catch and also scored Alabama’s first points on a 29-yard jet sweep.
Tight end Robbie Ouzts was left open on a broken assignment for a 44-yard touchdown, and the Crimson Tide had their first non-offensive touchdown of the season when Zabien Brown scooped up a Mercer fumble and returned it 68 yards to the end-zone.
Alabama finished with 508 yards of offense and 29 first downs en route to emptying its bench and using three different quarterbacks behind Milroe: backup Ty Simpson and freshmen Dylan Lonergan and Austin Mack.
Afterwards, DeBoer spoke to the media and said that he thought the team had the right mindset heading into the game after such a big road win last week against LSU in Baton Rouge.
Here’s what DeBoer said in his postgame press conference.
“Good to get a win and get a lot of guys out there on the field. They all put in a lot of work and there’s that little window that you hit where you get the one’s the work and you get the score where you need it to be. For the guys to play a quarter and a half essentially and get a lot of guys on the football field, it was fun to see them get out there and play and work on their execution. So, I like that we got three more takeaways. I think there’s a mindset about our defense and three of the first four possessions to do that, I just really like where we’re at. We’re hunting the ball.
“Offensively, putting the drives there. I know right at the end of the first half, we had a field goal there and would love to score in the red zone and get a touchdown but for the most part, again, taking care of the football, no turnovers and getting the takeaways, that’s where it all starts. Guys worked hard all week long. Thought they really had a good demeanor about them. They’re working on themselves individually to one, build on what we did a week ago and go into the tail end of the season here, I think relatively healthy as far as who played today and no one getting seriously dinged up before next week.”
DeBoer on what Robbie Ouzts means to Alabama’s offense
“He’s kind of a Swiss Army knife out there for us, especially the blocking piece. For him to get down the field, they put a lot of guys up toward the line of scrimmage. That’s just a part of what they do and they’ve been successful with it. No. 1 at the FCS level in run defense but (there were) some play actions there that we got behind him on.
“For Robbie to haul one in, that was very exciting for our guys and very exciting for him. I love to see it. He got a chance as a senior to talk to the team last night. and you could just tell the love our team has for him and how much they appreciate the effort he brings each and every day; not just every week. He’s got a mindset and a toughness about him that just exudes what Alabama football is all about.”
DeBoer talks about playing four quarterbacks and what he thought of their performance
“Ty with some scrambles, kind of the long one along our sideline. I think people probably know Ty and have watched him, probably all of you, you can see that he’s got that ability. He can do things with his feet. Everyone gets tied into Jalen and what he can do with his feet and his running ability, but Ty is tough to handle when it comes to running the football, too. Escaping, making some plays, the fourth down throwing it deep, if it’s picked off, it’s picked off. So, smart just to give him a chance and find a way to make plays.
“And I thought Dylan and Austin coming in and moving the chains — Dylan on a fourth down conversion, then Austin coming in and laying the ball in there along the left sideline for a touchdown. Again, there’s that fine window of trying to let these guys run the offense and get that experience and opportunity to work on what they do each and every day. I was proud of the way they handled everything to the execution and just the procedural things where making sure guys are lined up before we motion them and all that stuff. I thought it was a good day for all of them as a whole.”
DeBoer on how big it was to get Alabama’s first non-offensive touchdown
“Those are exciting. The guys talk about it and when they come up short and think they had a chance to score, they always hear about, ‘You should have kept it along this sideline or cut back.’ For us to get (Zabien Brown) into the end-zone with that long return, that’s something that’s exciting for the whole team. Because we’ve gotten the takeaways, we just haven’t had one end up with one in the end-zone like that. So, I love the mindset. Again, going back to what the defense is doing, they’re attacking. Three and out is what they’re shooting for, but right now the position they’re putting our offense in and getting points on the board now, too, it’s really good.”
DeBoer explains why he wanted first-team defense to play longer than the offense heading into fourth quarter
“Well I think first of all, there’s a lot of guys rotating in on defense to begin with, so there’s a lot of young guys that we already have on the football field with the one’s, and there’s less experience when you put the two’s out there. A lot of that one and two is in the rotation up front and in the secondary. And the score isn’t completely lopsided, and when you start putting your next guys in with your offense, you want to be careful just to make sure that the game can stay and nothing crazy happens.
“I know that probably none of you felt like it was in jeopardy, but those are just things that you want to be careful of and make sure you can get through the third quarter and into the fourth. But again, we play a lot of guys already before you even get to substituting there in the latter part of the game.”
DeBoer on what he saw from Alabama in its focus and intensity to avoid a letdown against Mercer
“As we get to the latter half of the season, we’ve really honed in on more and more leaders stepping up. Taking care of yourself, own what you do, take care of that and bring someone else with you. The intensity in practice, it’s not like guys are flying off the walls and things like that, but there’s a focus that they bring and there’s a business like approach where they know they’ve got to do this. They’ve got to eat right, sleep right, do all those things off the field. Take care of the business there and that leads to the success they had.
“But when they do those things right and you invest, investing in improving yourself and improving your team, that’s what I thought they did. I know some of the upperclassmen were talking about how much they appreciate the young guys and how happy we were that some of those guys got a chance to go out there. They’re giving scout team looks all week long, all season long. For them to get out there and have a little success and enjoy the moment was great and the whole team is happy for team.”
DeBoer on the improvement and intensity that linebacker Jihaad Campbell brings
“That’s a great example of how you don’t have to have the ‘C’ to be a leader and Jihaad is exactly that. He’s been a leader for us ever since I can remember. I’ve counted on him and I go to him expecting big things in that leadership. He can run and it starts there, but I think the more he just plays ball and executes the plays, understands what our defense is and how it matches up against what he’s seeing, trusting the others around him, not trying to do too much and just attacking. You know, he’s feeling it and there’s confidence you can see coming out in the playmaking ability. And that’s not just him but a lot of guys, but it starts with some of those guys that are making plays consistently and Jihaad’s one of them.”
Here’s everything else DeBoer said at his postgame press conference Saturday:
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