Star-Studded Speaker Lineup Highlights Kalen DeBoer's First Alabama Fall Camp

Some of the biggest names in the sports world spent time in Tuscaloosa this August.

JJ Watt speaks to Alabama football team during 2024 fall camp / Alabama Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—  The Mal Moore Athletic Complex in Tuscaloosa becomes the "who's who" of the sports, entertainment and motivational speaker worlds each fall.

Kalen DeBoer is forging his own path as the new head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, but there are still some traditions he is carrying over from the Nick Saban era, including bringing in famous guest speakers to present in front of the football team during one of the toughest parts of the preseason.

DeBoer cut back on the number of speakers as he wanted himself and the rest of the coaching staff to have the opportunity to pour their own messages into the team in his first year with the program. However, Alabama still had five big guests: motivational speaker Hunter Pinke, Alabama's first Heisman winner and 12-year NFL vet Mark Ingram, three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year JJ Watt, America's Got Talent finalist Oz the Mentalist and 12-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul.

"It's been a great tradition, and it was exciting to carry on the tradition with JJ Watt, Chris Paul, and we had a speaker on life in general with Hunter Pinke come in too," DeBoer said. "These guys, I think the cool thing with especially JJ and Chris Paul, they're still playing, or JJ just recently retired, but they're still playing. They are elite, they did it for many years."

DeBoer said a common theme for the speakers was sacrifice and commitment– what it takes to be the best. It was clear when speaking to a few of the players that Watt was definitely the most popular speaker. He was able to point about some tips and tricks for the defense and also shared a few jokes according to defensive lineman Tim Smith. The defensive line got to spend extra time with Watt, and Smith said it was entertaining to see how people live outside football.

Even though the defensive players had more in common with Watt, his message still made an impact on the Crimson Tide's offensive players as well.

"I just felt like I could relate to him the most,” Alabama tight end Robbie Ouzts said. “He’s a couple of years removed from the sport but a lot of his lessons and a lot of his advice kind of directly correlated to what we’re going through right now. And then it’s just so awesome to see a guy of that stature standing in front of you. You’re like, ‘Golly, can’t imagine.’ But that was very fun. I love JJ Watt.”

Watt played the last three years of his college career at Wisconsin, who Alabama will play in Week 3 this season. He joked with the players that they needed to go out and experience all Madison has to offer the night before the game so that they would show up hungover to the 11 a.m. kickoff the next morning.

Left tackle Kadyn Proctor also picked Watt as his favorite camp speaker. Watt spent 12 seasons in the NFL, leading the league in sacks in 2012 and 2015 and forced fumbles in 2018. He was a five-time Pro Bowler and was named to the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team. He was inducted into the Houston Texans Ring of Honor in 2023.

"Just having someone legendary like that, hall-of-famer type guy come in and talk to us," Proctor said. "Somebody that’s dominated the league and just talking about mindset to us and how he approached the day, and how we have to think.”

Wide receiver Kobe Prentice's favorite speaker/entertainer was Oz the Mentalist, who had some "crazy tricks." Ingram's appearance is the first in a series of former Crimson Tide players that will be stopping by Tuscaloosa all season as shown in the below social media post from the team's official account.

Rollin’ with the Tide!

A fantastic new series featuring former Alabama greats returning to Tuscaloosa!

Huge thanks to @markingramII for kicking things off. Keep an eye out as we reconnect with Bama legends all season long! #RollTide | @MercedesBenz pic.twitter.com/UZcpTkjBfF

— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) August 19, 2024

"He did such a good job connecting with the team," DeBoer said of Ingram on the Green Light Podcast. "I told the team -- a lot of times you bring in these guest speakers, and they're outside of the program, and they're the superstar in their sport or they're popular people -- I said, we have those people. They're alumni."

There are no shortage of Alabama alums from the Saban era that are coming off legendary NFL careers or are still actively playing big roles for teams all across the league. If that's the direction DeBoer chooses to lean on moving forward, he will have plenty of options. However, even without Saban, the Alabama brand still carries enough weight to bring some of the biggest stars in the country to Tuscaloosa in years to come.

See also:

Everything Alabama Head Coach Kalen DeBoer Said After Thursday's Practice

Kalen DeBoer Calls Alabama Freshmen Ryan Williams, Zabien Brown 'So Advanced'