Everything Kalen DeBoer Said After Alabama's First Spring Scrimmage

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama football is already in the back half of the spring practice window, with A-Day just 15 days away. The Crimson Tide held its first scrimmage of the year on Friday, and head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke with the media immediately afterwards.

How's your bracket?

"You know I can't do that, right? There's only one team that matters, one team that matters. So wish Coach Oats the best of luck tonight. His team, they're fun to watch and excited about the run they're on. So I wanna see them keep it going."

Opening Statement

"Good scrimmage today, getting what you want out of the first scrimmage in particular, seven practices down. A lot of new faces, as we know, getting a lot of good reps. First time really seeing them tackle with just the way the setup of the day's work coming off the spring break. So today was really good. A lot of evaluation that we can take from practice today and get better. We'll turn around and make sure we're improving on those areas on Monday."

How have the quarterbacks looked?

"I love the aggressiveness that they have. They're not gun-shy. They go and make plays attacking whenever they can get the right opportunities with the throws, and they're making the throws. And the guys are coming through and making the plays for them and catches.

"So I think they're gaining more confidence in the offensive line each and every day. That's gonna take time. We know there's a lot of faces up front, but they're clear with their communication. There's not a lot that's catching them off guard. And so they can go out and let their skills speak for themselves and make the plays."

What have you seen from the guards?

"Well, you guys know that Will Sanders isn't in there right now, obviously, he would be thrown into the mix with his experience and ability. Different guys, we had Nick Brooks, we've rotated Michael Carroll in there. So Michael is so diverse. He can play guard and tackle, and it's been great. Allowing him to see what he does best, but also get some guys, some reps up. We need tackles. Mike's gonna be one of our three to four, three main tackles, no matter what. You know that.

"Jackson and Jayvin have done a nice job, too. And so it gives us a little bit of work that we can kind of figure out on the right side there. And then Ethan's done a nice job coming along. I thought this week was really a consistent step in the right direction for him

"Mal Waldrep has been in with the twos, rotated with the ones. He, at the end of the year, had an injury and stuff. And so it's good to see him. You just feel like he's really picking up every single day, gaining more and more confidence in each and every practice."

What have you seen out of Jayvin James?

"I think this week was a good week for him. Consistency, I think there's areas, he's pretty solid in pass pro. He can get better in the run game. Just getting used to our offensive style and things like that, I think. But has started to pick things up and consistent. That's what you're looking for right now. You just don't want the highs and lows and just missed assignments that didn't come out of nowhere. And all of a sudden the quarterback's caught, surprised in the backfield, with a guy in his face. And so it starts with that, making sure the communication from center on out is there and Jayvin has doing a nice job getting that started. And so Jayvin outside, just done a pretty consistent job. And that's what you want. Now we need to see him keep taking the next steps and become a dominant player for us

Is Jackson Lloyd the starting left tackle?

"Well, I think it's always in our program gonna be day to day. He's done a great job to deserve the notoriety, I guess, that's been given to him. It's happened because he, every single day, brings his best. That was last fall. That was this winter and spring. He's become very strong, and he's already an athletic kid. And going out there and doing some really good things on the football field.

"But I think that's the important thing, not just for him, but for all our guys. As you're the guy that's taken most of the reps at a certain position, I don't care if it's O-line or wide receiver, you better not get comfortable. You better keep the pedal down, cuz the next guys are coming. And that's the neat thing with having so many new faces. As you're seeing in practice, the competitiveness is happening. It's within a position group, it's within offense versus defense. A lot of new faces, a lot of those early practices were just spent on us understanding what tempo we want and what we want it to look like when we're practicing here at Alabama with all these different guys, whether it's high schoolers or transfers coming into our program."

What did you see out of the running backs today? And broadly speaking, are you seeing improvement out of the running game so far?

"I thought AK had a couple of nice runs in there. All of them gotta continue to grow and get better. Daniel's been consistent. I think he's taking advantage of just kind of having an off season to lean up. A year ago, really from the previous 2024 season, he was still dinged up. Had to have surgery. We knew it during spring ball, had to have it after. I think that really went into him not having the off-season he'd probably like. And the season that he knows he can improve on and be better than. So those guys are all working. EJ's really not taking a lot of reps, if any at all. And so that's unfortunate, but we'll keep working. Kevin, I think, is building on what he showed all of us last season as well."

What have you seen from some of the newcomers on the defensive line?

"A lot of potential to set the front, let them play ball. Not have to utilize pressures and blitzes all the time to cause chaos in the backfield. The ability to stop the run with the four and, obviously, the linebackers and your support is there to help. So we have certainly a bigger group of guys than what we've had in the past. And last year, probably our biggest struggle against the run game was on the edges.

"Our system lends to making sure balls don't get out there very often in the run game. But even in the last game, you saw people just running right down the middle of our defense. And we wanna be able to mix things up, but we also wanna be able to just play base with the guys and our personnel. I think with those guys you mentioned, they're gonna allow us to do that. They still got a ways to go, but I like the direction we're headed."

Is Conor Talty still your kicker? Is there a battle there?

"I mean, when you bring in someone else, it's open competition. It's pretty obvious to Connor that that's the case. What I love about Conor is he didn't shy away from it and decided to stay here. He knew he had plenty of time to leave if he wanted to. He wanted to stay here. He's got it in him, just continue to battle and like that competition there, I think we're gonna be good. I know we're gonna be good no matter who it is and whoever wins out, because both of them have a pretty high ceiling."

Who's impressed you with those inside linebacker positions?

"Very competitive. I think first you got guys like QB coming back, Abduall, Luke, all those guys know the system, right? And Duke as well knows the system, so they have a little bit of a head start. And it's fun seeing the growth that a guy has from even the end of the season, getting the install in the winter, putting some more mass on, becoming more confident, and those guys are certainly doing that.

"Caleb comes in, and you can just see that he's been on the football field and taking a lot of snaps. There's a veteran presence that he brings, he's out there and the schemes aren't too fast for him, he picks those up. And now that's allowed him to go punch the ball and cause chaos that type of way, and just be the baller that we were expecting to get when we brought him in."

Anything stand out from the receivers today, just how you feel about that group as a whole?

"I think they're working really well with the quarterbacks. They made a lot of plays today. They did a really nice job making the ones that are hard, and sometimes that's a catching contact, but they hit some explosives today. And that's everyone, right? That's the offensive line, providing the time. That's the quarterback making a good decision, throwing on time, and putting the ball where it needs to be. Explosives are a result of timing and ball placement. And I thought the quarterbacks did a really nice job. It allowed the receivers to catch balls on the run and go do their thing, the piece that they're actually really good at."

How have Ty Haywood and Kaden Strayhorn looked?

"We need them to make big strides, because they don't have a lot of snaps under their belt. And we are gonna need, and we're counting on them to be in the mix and be competitive with those guys at the ones. They still got work, but they come and bring a great attitude, as I would expect it, and they have that ability. You can see they have it in them, it's what we hope for. But they're still past learning the system, but the timing and just being comfortable out there, you can see they're still working."

"I would say Kaden's done a nice job. The center position has to get it all going. And he and Racin coming in really have kind of been a positive for us as far as getting everything aligned. I don't feel like there is much confusion at all, considering we have brand new centers, and so that's a credit to them."

Two more, I just wanna go back on Crowell. Do you kind of know how long you expect him to be limited with that?

"I'd say it's week to week, it's probably not day to day, but it's week to week, unfortunately."