Everything Kalen DeBoer Said During Monday Press Conference Ahead of LSU Game

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer spoke with the media Monday afternoon recapping the Crimson Tide's second bye week and looking ahead to the home matchup with LSU on Saturday.

Here's everything he had to say:

Full Transcript

Opening statement...

"Good morning. Just coming off the bye week, I think it was very productive. Guys got a chance to get their bodies freshened up and mind, as well. Yesterday was great practice for us, full of energy, and getting a chance to dial in at the end of the week and going into yesterday on LSU. And just always focused on continuing to improve. I think that our guys still really believe that that's the case, that needs to be the mindset we always have in our program.

"But heading into this game against LSU, we expect nothing but their best. A high level of energy. It's gonna be a great environment. I'll just add that we need our fans to continue to be what they've been and show up and continue to make Bryant-Denny Stadium the hardest place to play in the country.”

On Dre Kirkpatrick's arrest...

"Unfortunately, with the information I have at this time, talked to Dre, and we need to indefinitely suspend him. He understands there’s consequences that come with his actions.”

Injury updates on OL Geno VanDeMark, OLB Qua Russaw, TE Danny Lewis Jr...

"VanDeMark is making good progress, has been practicing this last week, so I expect him to be ready to go. Qua has made — I think I mentioned last week — he's made good progress. That continues to be the case. Probably don't expect him to be ready to go this weekend, but he's doing a lot more than he has, and that's very promising with the direction he's been going. And then Danny Lewis, we'll see how things go through this week, but the bye week was certainly good. He wasn't able to play the previous week, so I'm hopeful that he'll be ready to go. But we expect him to be on the football field practicing with us more this week than he has the previous two.”

On how similar last week’s prep was to previous success coming out of byes...

"I think it just really goes into having a great staff that puts a great game plan together, gets it dialed in in a timely manner. And when you have players that go make plays and they get those extra practices in on a great game plan and go execute, that's really what matters, that's really what it comes down to. And so, I expect the same thing with our staff. They've done a great job, really focused and have the routine down, the timeline of when we wanna install certain things, having practices that are fresh, and guys excited to be out there on the football field, continue to get better. So yesterday, like I said, was a great practice. It wasn't long, but it was just a dialed-in Sunday practice, and looking forward to getting on the field tomorrow, Tuesday. And I think our guys are really excited about it, as well.”

On the pros and cons of not leaving the state of Alabama for the rest of the season...

"I guess I hadn't even thought of it in terms of not even having to leave the state, but I thought in terms of having a number of home games and that's been been great for us. It doesn't guarantee anything. I think it still comes down to the preparation, but we definitely feel there's a home field advantage playing here at Bryant-Denny as I said. So we're looking forward to having these teams come to our place and our goal, as always, is to protect our house. So guys really take a lot of pride in that, and want to continue to do that and uphold the streak that we have."

What sticks out about playing LSU?

"This is going to be a physical game. It was last year. I think it always has been, that's the tradition. You see what their team is made up of, it's physical players. I think they got elite skill, both offensively and defensively, whether it's coverage or being able to win on the perimeter and the running backs as well. This rivalry goes way back. Doing the introduction with our team, it was 1895 if I remember right, doing the research and that's a lot of games that have happened between these two schools. So we're looking at this as one of those rivalry games that I know was I was told much about when I first got here. So it's going to be, again, a great environment, a lot of pride both for our program and theirs as well."

On the growth of WR Ryan Williams...

"As I've always said, whenever adversity comes, it's your response. And I think any type of adversity he's ever had, his response is always to go attack. Whether it's coming off of an injury, or it's coming off of just him wanting to play better than he did the week before, it's always 100%. From a character trait, just humility that he has, he's all about the team 100%. When he really focuses on that and tries to be the best he can, which is really the case all the time, man it's just so much fun being on the football field with him every day in practice. He runs his routes full speed. He's doing the extra work before practice, after practice. No one on our team is ever going to question the work that he puts in and how important it is to him. But he's continued to attack, just getting better, and I think that's shown up. We're all human so he's not going to be perfect, but he's really continue to hone in on the things that matter. And I think you'll continue to see him trend up."

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