The Alabama Players Who Stepped Up at Halftime to Start Turnaround Against Kentucky

Kalen DeBoer reveals who set the tone in the locker room and early in the third quarter to turn a 17-13 deficit into a 32-0 second-half explosion.

Sep 12, 2026; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams (1) runs the ball during the second quarter against the Kentucky Wildcats at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Alabama needed some sort of spark.

Kentucky held a 17-16 lead at halftime, and the momentum was nowhere near in the Crimson Tide's direction.

Alabama is known as a player-led program, and someone on the team needed to step up. The Crimson Tide proceeded to win the game 45-17, including a 32-0 shutout in the second half. So, who stepped up and said something in the locker room at halftime?

"I saw ZB (Zabien Brown) going around. I'd expect that," Kalen DeBoer said during the postgame press conference. "Felt like Ryan [Coleman-Williams] was calling with his side of the ball, and ZB came over. It's not always just cranking it up and screaming and hollering. Sometimes it's just like, calm, cool and collected. And I think guys like ZB got that.

"And Bray [Hubbard], I saw him, I think, in the third quarter, during the game I saw him over there doing it the right way with the offense too. He's got their back."

Coleman-Williams spoke with the wide receivers at the break, and Rico Scott shared what his leader told the room.

"Just control what you can control," Scott said. "Do our job. Obviously, our defense played great, in my opinion, but offensively we can't shoot ourselves in the foot. That was just our main focus. Just making the defense earn it, not giving them anything."

Brown, Coleman-Williams and Hubbard each have something in common: they are Alabama's three team captains for the 2026 season. Under DeBoer, the captains are voted on by the players shortly before the season, and this trio won the election.

Alabama has countless traditions, but among the most notable is the Walk of Fame at the Denny Chimes clock tower in the middle of campus. Since 1948, Crimson Tide football captains have left their handprints and footprints in the concrete around Denny Chimes — immortalizing their legacy. And while it was against an unranked team, Hubbard, Brown and Coleman-Williams embodied why they wear the "C" on their jersey.

Nevertheless, these weren't the only players who stepped up. Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell, who made his second career start, did not play well in the first half. It was clear that the raucous environment got to him a bit, as he committed three turnovers in the first 30 minutes.

2025 Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson would often list what he did wrong after games, and Russell has done the same for the first two weeks. Except he took a different approach at halftime and early in the third quarter.

"Keelon went over to the other side (defense), and just owned some of the things that he fell short on in the first half that put us in a tough spot," DeBoer said. "So I think that was kind of some of the things that stuck out to me. I think there were more guys in that too that just caught the wind, getting ready to go out there and knowing it's not just a two-quarter game, it's a four-quarter game."

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