With the bye week over, Alabama is headed right into LSU week, and we have our regular programming with the coaching staff press conferences back.
Ryan Grubb
On issues with the running game:
“It’s all. It’s not one thing. Whatever it is, whether
it’s pass protection, run blocking, all those things work together. For us, it’s runners pushing the hole enough, making sure we’re pressing the cut long enough. It’s double teams, it’s execution of the double teams. Certainly from the previous question, that’s one of the things we spent a lot of time on evaluating types of runs, attacking the double team, how we’re coaching those things, how we’re talking to the guys, communication at the line of scrimmage. Everything is up for grabs. For us, reassessing some of the things we do well and then we can execute at a high level with the guys that suit the runners that we have, so we really looked at that. I think the last two practices we’ve done a really good job on that.”
The lack of a functional run game is the #1 weakness on this team. There are things to fix in all the units, but the run game has been consistently underwhelming across the board all year, and that’s something that’s concerning. I agree with Grubb here that the issue is a tough one to identify, as it seems to travel on any given play where the fault lies.
Unfortunately, these press conferences only mirror what we saw in Seattle a year ago. Grubb tried to run the ball. But ultimately it was not what he baked into the DNA during the offseason, and so it never stuck. And by the final 1/3 of the season, he totally abandoned it.
I don’t think this Alabama team will ever be good at running the ball. The question for Grubb will be if he will continue to emphasize it anyway. I liked what we saw from the UGA game through the Tennessee game – even when it wasn’t working, he kept at it. But against South Carolina, we suddenly had Ty Simpson throwing 40+ passes again, and that feels eerily like Grubb from last year.
But why run when it’s bad? Game theory, and all that. Speaking of, if you have some free time on your hands, here’s a cool video about that very concept.
There’s talk that the current football pendulum is swinging towards teams that pass the ball out of heavy formations as what is starting to be the winning strategy. It’s showing up in the NFL, and I think we’re starting to see it some in college too. This may be an offseason project for me after 2025 wraps up.
Kane Wommack
Obviously, they got to get away a little bit, had Halloween going on, all that stuff. Guys got do all that stuff, as families we got a chance to do those things as well. Which, watching the trick-or-treating, and people go crazy for a candy bar, it really concerns me about the moral fiber of our country moving forward. But back to work, so I don’t have to worry about those things. I don’t look at the news. I don’t look at anything. That was the only chance I got to see the outside world and it wasn’t pretty.
I got a chuckle out of Wommack’s opening statement here. Nothing football related, but the dude is definitely a different cat
“Well, I think Tim, Tim is such a physical presence in those a-gaps and some of the things that we’re able to do with him from a zero-nose standpoint, where he’s head up to the center. We’ve got a few different fronts where we operate where he’s playing a zero-nose. Anytime that you can two-gap and create some havoc and then some of the blocking schemes and the way people have to block versus a zero-nose versus a shade. He can be influential in four-down looks, absolutely, and some of the things that he’s doing up front when we show a zero-nose as well is very disruptive and so those are things that you know, great to watch and see the strides that he’s taking right now and the steps he’s taken.
I also always like when Kane goes off talking about some of the technicalities of the scheme. His willingness to do that has been part of what’s made him one of my favorite coordinators Alabama has had.
Personally, I’m still struggling to understand when this defense is running 1-gap vs 2-gap responsibilities for players, so any statements like this are helpful.
Kalen DeBoer
On Dre Kirkpatrick’s arrest…
“Unfortunately, with the information I have at this time, talked to Dre, and we need to indefinitely suspend him. He understands there’s consequences that come with his actions.”
Injury updates on OL Geno VanDeMark, OLB Qua Russaw, TE Danny Lewis Jr…
“VanDeMark is making good progress, has been practicing this last week, so I expect him to be ready to go. Qua has made — I think I mentioned last week — he’s made good progress. That continues to be the case. Probably don’t expect him to be ready to go this weekend, but he’s doing a lot more than he has, and that’s very promising with the direction he’s been going. And then Danny Lewis, we’ll see how things go through this week, but the bye week was certainly good. He wasn’t able to play the previous week, so I’m hopeful that he’ll be ready to go. But we expect him to be on the football field practicing with us more this week than he has the previous two.”
This was one of the shorter pressers from DeBoer in memory. He didn’t give us too many tidbits of info, but at least we got some straightforward updates on injuries and Dre Kirkpatrick Jr.‘s suspension.
Geno VanDeMark will play, Qua Russaw will not, and Danny Lewis might, but will be an end-of-week decision.
Speaking of, we have some details now on Kirkpatrick’s arrest:
In a court filing Monday, police wrote in a deposition that they observed a white Mercedes sedan traveling a “high rate of speed” and “accelerating without regard to heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic” after 2 a.m. CT on Saturday morning at the intersection of University Blvd. and Campus Dr.
Officers on foot attempted to stop the vehicle by having it pull into a ride share lane.
“I verbally told the driver to pull over and stop the vehicle,” the officer wrote. “The vehicle began moving towards the ride share lane and then pulled back towards the driving lane while [two other officers] were in front of the car and I was pulling on the door handle. He continued to approach officers, who placed their hands on the hood hoping that the driver would stop.
“The driver continued forward, and officers moved out of the path of the vehicle as it sped off. Officers struck the vehicle and driver’s side window in an attempt to get the driver to stop.”
The officer said he “visually identified the driver as UA student D’Andre Javon Kirkpatrick, with whom I have had multiple interactions on the Strip.”
Continued the police report: “[Tuscaloosa Police Department] and UAPD officers attempted to follow the vehicle with no success.”
Police said the incident was captured on surveillance camera and police body camera.
Seems like a ridiculous and dangerous stunt that Kirkpatrick pulled. And the comment that the officer has “had multiple interactions” with Dre in the past is concerning.
Finally, we have a time announcement for the Oklahoma game.
Alabama’s November 15 game against Oklahoma will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT, the SEC announced Monday.
The game will air on ABC.
Alabama previously announced in February the game will serve as the Tide’s homecoming, only the sixth time since 1976 that the school has held homecoming in November. Alabama has not lost a homecoming game since 2001.
Hey, everyone loves the 2:30 time slot!
Roll Tide!
