What Kalen DeBoer Said After A-Day Scrimmage

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Alabama football put on the spring showcase on Saturday with the 2026 edition of A-Day in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Crimson Tide spent two hours in the stadium in front of fans scrimmaging to close out spring practice.

Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer spent time with the media after the scrimmage and talked about Austin Mack leaving the scrimmage early, the improvements in the running game and the progress the defense has made this spring.

This post will be updated with a full transcript.

Full Press Conference Transcript

Kalen DeBoer Opening Statement

"You bet. Beautiful day for some football, and I appreciate all the fans that came and supported the guys today. It was a great event, too, at Denny Chimes, celebrating our captains from the 2025 season. A great tradition that is unique, and it's awesome seeing those guys again, too, before the NFL Draft.

I thought the guys competed again. It's a unique situation with our practices, two of them still being next week, so we're not done yet. Get back to work Tuesday and Thursday, still got a lot of opportunities to get better, a lot of situational that we can get to. But it was a good back and forth, much like many of the other scrimmages; you can see how we orchestrate it with the ball where we spot it. There's some advantages the offense gets towards the end. We've got to get that red zone work in, but there's a lot of things to learn, a lot of situational stuff that we can get better at."

Why didn't Alabama split the red zone work at the end between the two quarterbacks?

"Yeah we just had to limit Austin [Mack] with some stuff. Just that was why. This week was a little bit where Keelon [Russell] got more reps just with some things Austin's going through. Austin was good for the most part, but wasn't able to finish it out, but he'll be fine."

We saw Noah Rodgers leave the field on a cart, can you update his status?

"Yeah, we'll have to get him evaluated here. Unfortunate with him getting dinged up. We'll kind of see what that looks like. He'll get the MRIs and all that kind of stuff and we'll see what happens with more information as we go through the spring and summer."

What did you think of the running game with the running backs and offensive line?

"There's time where in a game you'd try to approach it wearing them down, working plays off of plays. You're going out there, it's ones and two and you're back and forth so sometimes it's even hard for me to sit back there and think about what group had the most consistency. A couple seams at times that I remember with the ones and that's really what you're trying to hone in on. Both sides of the ball trying to keep it simple, getting some guys out there, so there's more complexity you can have with the defensive schemes, there's more things you can do offensively as well, but I think there's a few things we can hang our hat on that we can execute well. There's some backs, and you guys saw who stood out and who can make the cuts and who ran some people over when they needed to. Who got it done and maybe who's got some work to do.

Offensive line-wise, I do feel like their communication, their technique, and execution is getting better. It's not something that happens overnight. They'll continue to work. We've still got a full week ahead of us at practice and we expect to get better. I think from the center on out, though, the communication, guys are on the same page, not a lot of guys busting assignments. That's going to happen here and there still in the spring, new faces in certain spots, but I thought for the most part we're getting a play off to a good start here in the early stages of spring."

What do you like about Michael Carroll at right guard, is he going to play guard or tackle?

"The last part of spring he played mostly guard and we love the physicality he brings. He played some guard early on when he came in here and we knew he'd be pretty good at it, really good at it, and there's some things he can do against some of the big matchups and also in pass pro he can get out there in space because of what he can do as a tackle. He's a flex guy for sure, but he has taken, to answer your question, he has taken more guard reps here in the later part of the spring."

Just to be clear is Austin Mack hurt?

"Yeah, he's dinged up a little bit. He'll be alright. He'll be fine."

How has Ryan Williams improved in the spring and is it still too early to tell how EJ Crowell can contribute this fall?

"Yeah, with EJ, just not a lot of reps the first couple practices then really nothing since. It is. You're going off what you saw there and you have optimism. There's a lot to learn for him, even just the contact and the physicality that comes along with the next level up. But from an athleticism, speed, got the strength and you're optimistic. There's a lot of promise and so it's going to be pedal to the metal for him, learning the schemes, getting comfortable with the guys around him, obviously, there's pass protection that's highly important for a running back as well.

Ryan's consistency was something all spring long that he should be feeling good about, but Ryan's expectations are just like all of ours. That we expect elite performance and he's going to just continue to grind. He's a leader for us on our football team and he can be because he works as hard as anyone out there and so it's paying off. It's showing up. There's been a consistency and I know people are always going to ask about catching the ball and that's what I'm talking about, talking about the consistency there. Not making just the easy ones, but also making the hard ones, also making the hard ones as we've seen him and get accustomed to him making."

What is the biggest thing defensively that needs improvement?

"We've just got to continue to execute when we have pressures and things like that. We've gotten a lot better, that was something we kind of slotted as an area we can improve on from last season. We know the different variations of things we can do with our defense. There's a lot that we put in. Up front, I think, it's just continue to build and grow and see how far those guys can go, because we have a pretty good idea of what the secondary is capable of. You're always going to work on tackling. You're always going to work on pursuit. The effort stuff has got to happen, has got to be a must. I don't really feel like we've ever had issues with that. Our guys are accountable to it. So, now it's just a matter of execution. Execution of blitz patterns. Executions of our base stuff. We want Coach Wommack to be able to have everything he needs at his fingertips that he needs to go be successful. I know they're taking those steps daily to do that."

What did you think of the defensive pass rush today?

"Yeah, and it's hard when the quarterback is non-contact there's some times I get caught looking down the field once in a while, trying to see things too and all of a sudden there's a guy in the quarterback's face. I thought they did a good job of getting pressure in different ways. The key to me is that they're all working together. I guess that would go back to the previous question of things we need to continue to work on.

I thought last year, one of the ways we improved our pressure on the quarterback was by everyone doing their job and working in unison and not giving lanes for the quarterback to step up. I think once in a while there's still lanes for the quarterbacks to move up. We saw Keelon right at the end here do exactly that, get out in some space, he'd have a run-pass option. That puts a lot of pressure on your defensive backs and your back half when that happens. So to me, that's an area where we can continue to improve with our defensive front."

Did the quarterbacks take a step forward this week?

"Yeah, I thought they looked more comfortable today. And again, both sides trying to get back to the basics at the end. I could feel both sides trying to get to some of those red zone concepts that we haven't practiced as much and then you saw a couple big receivers not getting lined up with a lot of confidence. Now the quarterback's double checking. That's the stuff we've got to work on next week just getting to clean all the time to where there's not a question whether someone knows their responsibility. So again, that goes along with the installs. Red zone is the part where you've got to be clean. If you're on the same page - you know, we saw a takeaway - I can't say it was because someone didn't know or do their job, but that's a big deal to us. We were very good in the red zone last year as a team. Pretty balanced between offense and defense and our execution down there so we've got to keep working on it. We'll do a lot with two-minute drill next week, too. We haven't done any of that, just with a lot of new faces we wanted to get our base stuff in and next week we'll get into a lot of that situation. Red zone, two minute drill things like that."

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads, and Blue Sky for the latest news.