What Kalen DeBoer is Doing to Help Team Keep Calm in Chippy Situations During Games

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— There was a lot of good college football played around the country with multiple exciting top-25 matchups, but there were also a few moments that went viral for the wrong reasons from a dirty hit in the USC/Oregon game to inappropriate celebrations in the Texas/Tennessee game.

In Alabama's own game against South Carolina, tight end Josh Ford was punched by South Carolina edge rusher Dylan Stewart multiple times, and Stewart has subsequently been suspended for one game by South Carolina and the Southeastern Conference.

The Southeastern Conference and the University of South Carolina have jointly announced a one-game suspension of South Carolina football student-athlete Dylan Stewart for egregious contact against an opposing player during the September 26 game vs. Alabama:… pic.twitter.com/xmaHI2rCSg
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) September 28, 2026

After the game, Ford laughed it off and complimented Stewart, calling him a "great player," and he said they had a lot of fun out there. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was proud of the way Ford conducted himself during the game and in the postgame press conference.

"With Josh, just his intensity has raised the level of a lot of other guys around him, and you couldn’t have a nicer guy as a person, but just nasty on the football field," Alabama heaed coach Kalen DeBoer said Monday. "And we love that about him, and he knows how to keep it within the confines of what the game's supposed to be played at and the parameters with the rules.”

Starting with No. 16 Mississippi State on Saturday, Alabama is about to enter the toughest stretch of its schedule with four of its next five games against teams currently ranked in the top 25. Four of the Crimson Tide's next six games are on the road in conference play.

Alabama will be facing hostile environments where tempers can easily flare between players and fans, and DeBoer and his staff are taking measures to make sure his team isn't a part of any moments like that.

"We take every opportunity that we see within things that happen to us in games and how our opponent responded," DeBoer said. "We look at college football, NFL. Showed multiple clips across the country of just things that we don't wanna have happen within and what we don't represent. And so, we use those examples to make sure we're always on top of it, and I don't take it for granted at all. And so, just again, I think our guys have handled themselves very well. We have a group that is intense. They play hard, but we really take a lot of pride in doing it the way the game's meant to be played, and that's between the snap and the whistle at the end of a play. And so, I like the way our guys play."

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