Everything Ryan Grubb Said After Bye Week, Previewing LSU

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama football offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb held a press conference on Monday morning. He discussed Ryan Williams, the team's fourth-quarter performance against South Carolina, the running game and more. A full transcript, along with press conference video, is below.

On his bye-week meeting with Jon Gruden:

"Coach Gruden and I met this summer. Obviously, Coach just likes talking ball. We met down in Mobile at the Senior Bowl golf tournament. We've just stayed in touch. I think it was two weeks before the bye week, I reached out to him and just said, 'Hey, I'm thinking about coming down there and just talking some ideas.' Coach is great with stuff like that. Sent him, kind of a request list of some things I'd like to talk about with him. He's got more film than NFLfilms.com. He's unbelievable, man. It was great."

On self-scouting during the bye week:

"Yep. We did. I can't tell you anything we found. That would be silly of me. We certainly did that. There's plenty to work on. I think that's the big thing, and the guys know that. I was really impressed with the practice we had yesterday. Some of the things that we've addressed with the guys that we've got to get continue to get better at. I think that's where it starts is there's a belief that improvement can still happen at this portion of the season. Certainly, our guys believe that."

On the fourth quarter of the South Carolina game:

"Well, I think I mentioned it before. That was probably one of our biggest growth moments of the season was the fourth quarter of that game. Certainly, that could've been reminiscent of the fourth quarter of the Florida State game, and the guys not being able to find a way to get it done and make the plays that had to be made late in the football game. I just give a ton of credit to the guys, just the resiliency and the mindset to be able to go make those plays. I think it's easier said than done. You can get in a state of mind when things aren't working that you just fall back into it's not going to work, it's not going to work. I thought they were very coachable on the sideline. I thought their approach to every series was that it was gonna happen on this series. They didn't let previous failures lead into that next series. That's the growth that this team's had with guys like Parker and Ty moving into those roles and really establishing what it was going to feel like when we went back out onto the field. Ty really did a good job of leading the guys on the sideline."

On Ryan Williams and his growth:

"Ryan's been great. I think everybody saw his reaction on the fourth-down play where he had a tough catch, and he didn’t make it. He’s made so much progress, I think, in the last two weeks catching the football. I think there’s things in the blocking scheme where Ryan’s been more involved in making sure he’s on the field when we’re running the football as well. I think Ryan’s as hard on himself as anybody. So, for us, just keeping Ryan engaged and being here and being in the building, staying active in his preparation.”

On issues with the running game:

"It's all. It's not one thing. Whatever it is, whether it's pass protection, run blocking, all those things work together. For us, it's runners pushing the hole enough, making sure we're pressing the cut long enough. It's double teams, it's execution of the double teams. Certainly from the previous question, that's one of the things we spent a lot of time on evaluating types of runs, attacking the double team, how we're coaching those things, how we're talking to the guys, communication at the line of scrimmage. Everything is up for grabs. For us, reassessing some of the things we do well and then we can execute at a high level with the guys that suit the runners that we have, so we really looked at that. I think the last two practices we've done a really good job on that."

On the message in the run game for the LSU contest:

"I think in each room there's a message that has to happen. Just about getting excited about running the football. I think there's a piece there too for the coaching staff, that it can't be the 'woe is me' dog-cussing them every time something doesn't work. It's got to be like, 'Let's get excited about running the freaking ball. Let's get excited about fixing some of the issues we're clearly seeing on film and let's go out there and flex on some people a little bit.' The guys have taken that mentality going into this game that we can run the ball and we can be effective doing it. Not just like a subpar average team, we can run it well. I'm looking for the guys to go out there and prove that."

On areas after the bye where he wants to see improvement:

"Schematically there would be nothing I'd mention there. I think -- I wish I had something cooler to tell you guys. Really, the reality is, and I told the guys, very few football games in my career have I gotten done with the game and been like, 'Man, I wish I had more flood concepts in.' Or, 'I wish I had more inside zone concepts.' Typically it's like, we need to block better, we got to tackle better. For us it's always coming back to the basics. For us, the blocking circuits, the ball security circuits, taking care of the football, all the things that really are the grind of the season that you don't -- you never want to be very far away from. For our guys, keeping them in tune with that like we are every week and letting them know that football game's in the fourth quarter and some of the throws that Ty made were accompanied by really good pass protection. Some of the run hits that happened at really key moments at the end of the game were really good technique on blocking. Just keeping the guys in tune with that, that has to continue to improve. I think one of the things we've done a good job of through the season so far is taking care of the ball. Yesterday there was a couple of moments where I didn't feel like we were protecting the ball the way we have. Those things we addressed. For our guys just realizing how important the details of all the type of schematics that go into drill structure and getting great at those things. Our guys believe in that too, I never feel like I'm wasting my breath when we show clips or talk to the guys about pad level, double team foot placement, hand placement, where I'm putting my hands when I'm catching the football. Felt great about that, I felt great about the guys' reaction to it."