With the Oklahoma loss behind us, we got the thoughts of the Alabama coaching staff after they had a couple of days to ruminate.
Ryan Grubb
On the offensive line:
“You know what? I thought they played well, honestly, I thought the last two weeks, they’ve been building. It’s been a little bit of a slow build. I thought Wilkin played outstanding. We challenged him. Me personally, I put Wilkin on the spot playing right guard, that has not been something that he’s done over his career, and he played really well. I thought, after you watched the film, the interior of the pocket was as good as I’ve seen all year. Like, countless times, you saw Ty climbing the pocket, able to rip ball over the middle, and I thought Wilk was a big part of that, So, the stability that they brought, and then really, the run game part. That was a really good run defense, and honestly, what we did up front, how we executed was as good as we’ve done. I know it doesn’t feel like that with the 80 yards, but the reality is we’ve been, for the last month or better, it’s tough to say, but we’ve averaged, between seven and nine negative yards per game. And on Saturday night we had two, and they were gains of zero, so technically they weren’t negative. Both of those runs, I’ll just say, we just missed them. We had big holes that we just didn’t friggin hit, and it sucks, because the o-line worked their tails off and that’s a part that I know they see that, I know that our guys see that on film, so I thought the O-line played well. I know four sacks isn’t very sexy, but that was a good front and a defense that plays well and could have got the ball out a little quicker a couple times. But I thought they picked up some really good pressures and gave us a chance. And honestly, during the week of preparation, I think the o-line was the guys who really brought the energy and the juice at practice. I’m anticipating those guys continuing to build and honestly keep taking the right steps forward here late in the season.”
I was glad to see that Grubb talked so long about this one, specifically pointing out the lack of negative run plays. I thought Wilkin Formby had an excellent game at right guard, and as a whole, the blocking was better for it. Kam Dewberry and Geno VanDeMark still had about a 50/50 split at left guard, but there wasn’t a whole rotation all game at RT and RG, and Jaeden Roberts and Will Sanders didn’t play any snaps at all.
I agree with Grubb, too, that a lot of the lack of rushing production were less about the blocking and more about the backs missing holes or not making tacklers miss. And then in the passing game, Ty Simpson was only pressured on 8 out of 49 dropbacks – the problem was that he took sacks on 4 of them. Even then, two of the sacks were directly on Miller and Hill missing blocks as the running back, and the sack on Michael Carroll was one that Simpson could/should have gotten rid of the ball earlier, plus Grubb called four downfield pass routes with no quick options. The final sack from VanDeMark was really the only one that was just a bad play from an offensive lineman.
If that configuration of offensive linemen can play like that the rest of the way, I like Alabama’s chances to get things figured out on offense.
Kane Wommack
At under 7 minutes, this might have been the shortest presser we’ve ever had from Kane Wommack. And, to be honest, there’s not much for him to talk about. Alabama’s defense absolutely dominated, and they were let down by the offense.
Still, we did get a question about Red Morgan and how he’s been playing so well lately.
Red Morgan’s Play lately?
“Yeah, Red has always been – He’s a good football player. He flashes, he’s bouncy, he’s very athletic and he’s hard to get your hands on in space from a standpoint of he can kind of – all those field RPOs out there he’s kind of slippery and he’s also a really physical kid. He’s probably one of the best strikers I’ve seen from a tackling perspective. There’s a timing and understanding to a great tackle and to get your foot and shoulder in the ground at the right time to where you have enough forward shin angle and enough lean to be able to maximize that power. Red’s probably as good as I’ve seen at being able to strike. He’s getting more and more comfortable with his consistency and his execution. He’s better and better in man coverage. I know he got a penalty the other day, but I really thought he was in great position there. I thought he did a really good job. So he’s just becoming a more and more complete player. That’s a young man that we asked a whole hell of a lot of a year ago, to come in here and start as a true freshman and it was because we didn’t have another answer. So we put a whole lot on his plate and some things he handled really well and some things he had to push through the adversity, but now he’s come out on the other side as a very good football player. Proud of his fight and excited to see what he’ll do on the back end of the season.”
Morgan filled in at the slot corner position for Dashawn Jones and was excellent, providing splash plays in the flats all game long. He’s still got some coverage imperfections, but his ability to attack and make high speed tackles makes him a weapon from the slot.
Kalen DeBoer
Why Alabama used two punt returners against Oklahoma...
“Well, their punter was a little erratic. He hit long ones and he hit short ones. And some of the short ones, what would happen is they would roll out and end up being longer kicks, because you play for the long game. So I thought our guys did a good job of the fielding part. Obviously, we had a turnover, which was a big deal. From a schematic standpoint, that was a lot of the reason for that. So you saw some of the ones that went longer, Ryan got his hands on those. Obviously field position plays a little bit of a role in that, but there were some shorter ones too. So I felt like, from a schematic standpoint, what we were doing made sense.”
Most of DeBoer’s presser was the usual coachspeak, but he did get asked about the reason for the double return-man formation on punt returns that some Alabama fans were complaining about, and, well, I suppose the answer makes sense.
Kickoff time, television network announced for 2025 Iron Bowl between Alabama, Auburn
The 2025 Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn will kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT, the SEC announced Monday.
ABC will televise the game in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
The most recent night kickoff for an Iron Bowl was 2014.
I would say that a night game in Jordan-Hare makes me nervous, but, quite honestly, they’ve been downright dreadful in home night games.
Finally, here’s the SEC Shorts for the week
This was one of their weaker skits, but Alabama didn’t escape and got the post-credits scene.
