What Kalen DeBoer Said After Alabama Lost the ReliaQuest Bowl to Michigan

The Crimson Tide head coach meets with the media to wrap up a disappointing end to his first season leading the program.

Dec 31, 2024; Tampa, FL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer looks on before running onto the field before a game against the Michigan Wolverines at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

No. 11 Alabama ended the year with a bad taste in its mouth as the Crimson Tide lost to the Michigan Wolverines 19-13 in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The Crimson Tide failed to win its 10th game of the season for the first time since 2007 and the lackluster performance creates offseason questions for the Crimson Tide.

Head coach Kalen DeBoer met with the media after the loss to discuss what went wrong for the Crimson Tide.

Opening Statement:

Just congrats to Michigan here, obviously we dug ourselves in a hole in the first quarter. The turnovers gave them great field position. I thought our defense did a great job most of those drives holding them to field goals, gave us a chance. I love the fight in our team at the end of the first half to gain some momentum. Just got to finish some drives there at the end of the fourth quarter. That's what it comes down to. Make a throw, make a catch. Guys played their hearts out though. I'm never going to question the competitiveness. Some guys out there playing through a lot when it comes to even just the physical pain that they're trying to grind through trying to finish this thing off right. I feel for those guys. I want the guys that obviously, are coming back to remember this feeling, remember some of the feelings throughout the year. But we've got to keep building, continue to move forward."

Did you consider a field goal early in the fourth quarter facing a 4th-and-7?

"Yeah, you think about it. I felt like at the time, and obviously now we know that he can kick the one at the end from that distance, just felt like we were on the fringe of really what the percentages were. Understanding who we are. That sounds like you don't have confidence in your kicker, which I do, just felt like we could convert a fourth-and-seven, was it fourth-and-seven? Yeah, fourth-and-seven, so unfortunately we didn't. I felt like the passing game when we were executing, which that's a big part of it, we could find a way to convert and get the ball into the right guys hands and let them go make a play."

What went into sticking with Jalen Milroe at quarterback after the tough first quarter?

"Well I think there were some elements that played. I know even the pick, that's a really nice play. You throw it maybe two inches out further and it's a catch for us. I'm not sure if we run out of bounds there or what there but they made a nice play. You guys were there you saw the elements on the snap. I mean, that's, gotta field it. You can't turn it over. They struggled I think, fortunately for them they had the field position where they didn't really have to press until the rain moved through. That certainly didn't help us and kind of dug ourselves a rut and had to play a little bit different style again, but hats off to our guys that are just at the end of the first half understanding, hey just get one score and one score led to two. Wish we could've done something there, I think at the end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth quarter where we get maybe a field goal, get some points on the board, put the ball in the endzone."

Did you ever consider making a quarterback change?

"No, I didn't. I just felt like, there's things he still did. We scored a field goal with him using his legs. We went 95-plus yards in less than a minute. Just that factor and what we needed with him and his mobility added to the run game. I felt like that was the swap right there. The interception early, you want, a lot of those incompletions happened in down and distances that weren't favorable or backs to the wall and have to throw to throw the ball at the end of the first half and at the end of the second here so I know that gets away from you from a completion percentage. But I thought there was a lot of good plays too. I saw the fighter. The fight in his eyes. As long as I see that I want to hang with the guys that this program means a lot to."

Why did the running backs only get 12 carries?

"Yeah, I think they're one of the top five rushing defenses. I know there's personnel on both teams that were different from what you would see in the regular season, both us and them. But I think there was certainly part of our game plan that we thought we needed to spit the ball out and get the ball in the right guys hands. We tried to do that, whether it was slipping or incomplete passes some plays didn't get executed the way you practiced them for the last two or three weeks. There were some runs that Jam [Miller] at the end of the game poured up in there, at the end of the first half, I really thought he did a nice job getting us out from behind our own endzone there. He ran hard and I think having a little bit of a balance was important for us just because of who they were and a little bit of what we felt like we could do to attack them."

Do you think the season was successful?

"I mean, every time you're in the locker room and you have something like this it's disappointing. But I think there's a lot of things that you take from it. I know that the guys that hung in there and probably played their last game in the crimson and white they wouldn't of had it any other way as far as to show the grit, to show the determination, to show the competitiveness, they stayed the course. There's a whole lot more I just think that really goes into the last 12 months. People see what happens on a Saturday but it's guys choosing to stay here, choosing to go from one week to the next when you're on a little bit of a rollercoaster through the middle of the season. As long as we learn from it, then to me it can be a success moving forward. We're going to take all these things that happened and there's some things that happened in the game today. We've got to learn from it and make sure those mistakes don't hurt us a year from now. I don't care if it's turnovers, penalties, it's everything. To me, it's a success if we move forward and take advantage of the lessons even though we don't want to learn those lessons sometimes because they're hard. We're going to learn from those lessons, move forward and be better because of it. I told the guys who played their last game, you know how much I appreciate them, I know their teammates shared how much they appreciate them as well in the locker room. I know they're going to make us proud when they move onto the next level and I promised to them we're going to continue to make them with the fight and the standard of competitiveness that they instilled in this program moving forward."

Was there an explanation for the sideline penalty?

"I think just ran into someone on our team, I'm not sure who or what."

Why do you think you couldn't keep the end of first half momentum going into the second half?

"The losses were the ones that hurt us. A sack, being behind the chains, that's what they thrive on, their defense does a good job of thriving, being physical, forcing you into down and distances where you're behind the chains. When that happens, it's tough to overcome against a team that understands their identity, plays team football, we knew the game would get shrunk down, we needed to kind of knock out the first quarter, which you can't do because that's part of the game and all of the sudden it takes on a different game of its own because you're down 16-0. You're just fighting, scrapping, trying to give yourself a chance like we did at the very end."

How have you seen Jalen Milroe grow and respond to adversity?

"I think everyone would probably share the same feeling I have is the guy always speaks about the team, he always speaks about his teammates. It's not about him and he leads that way every day in our program. When you're the quarterback of any football team the eyes are always on you, especially when you're at Alabama and you're going through some ups and downs once and a while in the course of a season. It takes on a heavy burden sometimes. He's just steady, he stays the course. I guess the fight in him, the ability to move forward. I thought that was something even in the midst of times when maybe he didn't make a play that he could've made or wanted to make or even a mistake, which everyone's going to make a mistake here and there. I thought that's one area he's really improved, especially the last half of the season. I think our guys appreciate that in him. I think we've taken that on as a team as always trying to move forward, even when we're not perfect."

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Alabama's Season Ends on Sour Note with 19-13 Loss to Michigan in ReliaQuest Bowl