What Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said after beating FSU

The Alabama Crimson Tide got their revenge on the FSU Seminoles, beating them 50-36 on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. FSU is now 1-2 on the season, losing their last two games, and fans are once again calling for Mike Norvell to be fired.

FSU's defense had another disappointing showing, allowing Alabama to score on their final nine possessions of the game and rack up 567 yards of offense, including 247 on the ground. Keelon Russell showed why the Crimson Tide are so excited about his future, completing 23 of his 30 passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns, with a 57-yard rushing touchdown on top.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer praised the work he did in just the third start of his career.

"Just let the game come to him, but we've got to find and pick and choose our times to be aggressive too, and I think he's balancing that better and better from probably the second half last week through this game."

DeBoer also talked about how FSU found success throwing the ball against Alabama, how the Crimson Tide turned the game around in the second quarter, and more. Here is everything DeBoer had to say after Alabama beat FSU.

Opening Statement

First, I gotta say how much I appreciate and our team appreciates our fans, 2:45 kickoff and we're what, almost six hours later and they're out there bringing energy. I felt like it had an impact, it was something our guys felt. Obviously we've got to make plays and do things to give some of the fans a cheer about, but a long day from heat to rain or lightning, I guess.

I just appreciate you guys so much as a fan base. Our guys really appreciate that as well. 

We obviously have to start faster two games in a row now where we find ourselves behind. Probably different scenarios on how that happened, but nonetheless we've got to do a better job of coming out of the gates. I'm not going to take away anything about our team as far as its belief. I think you can see the mindset that we weren't taking anything for granted because I do feel when you find yourself in that spot, if you thought it was going to be an easy game, you start panicking and you start overreacting.

Our guys didn't do that and so they just stayed in the fight, kept making plays. I think we got our eyes in better spots offensively, got some stops there at the end of the half and threw out the right ones at the third quarter there on fourth down. We just kept playing and it was great to see our run game pick up where it needed to from last week.

It took a little bit to get going, but just really getting our eyes in the right spot, executing. There's always going to be something that people throw at you from week to week, both sides of the ball. You just got to fall back on your rules, fall back on doing your job.

I thought our guys continued to do that. I thought Keelon showed good resiliency, continued to make plays. I thought our leaders in general just stepped up, whether it was in the locker room. Guys really care. They care a lot and they're going to fight. I'm proud of the response there.

Winning the turnover margin, that's always going to be a big deal. 3-0, got to play a clean game offensively as far as taking care of the football. That's a big deal there.

Got the turnovers. Those are always important, doesn't matter where it's at on the field. 

On their success in the final minutes of the first half

Guys made some plays. We had a nice call with Ryan's touchdown around the right side. Just caught him there. A nice throw down the sideline at the end. We call it the end of the half, I guess.

I don't know what was the end of the half there with the timing and how we came back out. Guys did a great job of making plays and executing. I think those plays were there.

They were in the plan. I really appreciate the guys getting to the locker room and getting back out there. Playing aggressive and getting some stops defensively.

Got off the football field, played some good team football in that little stretch. That's what we've got to remember. We've got to remember that those moments, we can make it happen.

Just keep playing, keep fighting. We've got the athletes to make plays. 

On how they prepare to get off to better starts during the week

Obviously, we gave up some big plays defensively. That was something. We did a good job last week. It's coming in different ways. We've got to finish some drives there early.

We've got some field goals, move the ball down the field after the first drive. I feel like a lot of our practice is tailored around starting fast. We're always going to look at those things, figure out what we can always modify.

I just really feel strong that our practice actually lends itself to starting fast with how we operate. We've just got to execute better. I think a lot of it is you go through these moments and you learn.

Just cut it loose. You might make a mistake. There might be a look that you don't see. Just go play hard. Go play fast. Again, I think sometimes our eyes were in the wrong spot.

They had some things that they were going to throw at us too. They had extra time. I thought they executed at a high level and played hard.

They had an off week last week to prepare for us as well. 

On Alabama's success running the ball in the fourth quarter

Yeah, that's huge. That's huge.

You get that momentum going. Then when you can trust Keelon to make a decision and you've got the defense flowing hard, knowing that you want to run the football and you can just throw one play action in there and it's a run-pass option and he makes a decision like that, those are great moments for him to learn from. We'll have to apply those again down the road, but it just keeps the defense on their heels.

Credit our guys. I thought they were very clean. Flying off the football, the offensive, the running backs, seeing the holes, making guys miss, running over secondary players, third-level players like they had to, especially against the structure of the defense we were seeing.

We've improved a lot in that way. 

On the big plays Alabama gave up in the passing game

Yeah, that's disappointing. I know our guys, we can be better there. That's really what kept them in the game.

A combination of pass rush and doing our job to where those second, third level throws, we can't have that. I have all the confidence in our defensive backs, but just a reminder, nothing from one week carries over to the next. Third down in particular, you've got to get off the field.

We were doing great the first two weeks, but they've got players, and you've got to go out there and you've got to go take it. You've got to go do your job, and I know we'll get some things corrected. Our guys are competitive guys, and we'll take a look at it. Teams will continue to go to those concepts and those ideas to stress us, and we've got to do a better job executing. 

On the step Keelon Russell took

Yeah, I think every game there's something that he's doing a better job with. Week one to week two, it's just the operation, even before we snap the football as we're lining up in the huddle. I think last week as the game went on, he got more comfortable and thought he came out and was in the passing game accurate, seeing the field and making a couple of subtle checks, things like that. Confident he's going to get more snaps.

Just let the game come to him, but we've got to find and pick and choose our times to be aggressive too, and I think he's balancing that better and better from probably the second half last week through this game. 

On what happened on FSU's big plays in the passing game

Yeah, our guys know what they're doing. I think there was one early in the game where we got our eyes in the wrong spot, and conceptually, a guy got behind us, and we should be fine there.

Didn't feel like there was anything with a call as far as just watching it. I'll see you again tomorrow. We just got to execute, but they made some one-on-one plays too.

I mean, there was some man-to-man one-on-one competitive. The first touchdown, we bring some pressure, and they throw it, and it's inside, and so it was a touchdown right in the back of the end zone. So there's some one-on-ones that we lost, and then they got some time and were able to look down the field and clear some windows out and hit some dig routes that are deeper.

So a combination of getting pressure, putting some pressure on the quarterback, respecting what he can do. I thought Daniels did a nice job completing those passes when they were open and using his legs to extend plays as well. So a combination of that.

We just got to play better. I know what we're capable of. We got to go back to work and fix it.

On wide receiver Lotzeir Brooks and his chemistry with Russell

Yeah, I think that's always a lot of it is the quarterback and the receiver just gelling. I think there's positions you want to put guys in to let them go one-on-one, windows that you feel Keelon probably favors throwing to, and it's going to continue to go when you have more than one target. Ryan gets a lot of attention, and now when Lotzeir doing his thing, I like that.

We were hitting our tight ends a little bit. We hit Caleb in particular down the middle of the field, so I love that we're spreading the wealth to different guys and just make it tougher to defend. But yeah, Lotzeir doing a nice job, I think, being quarterback friendly, defining his route, and being in a spot where the quarterback expects him to be.

On the keys to starting the second half strong

Just keep playing. I think the mindset, again, like I said earlier, is that it's a four-quarter game, and so we've got to execute better.

I think we see things, and we've got to execute and not give ourselves the one mistake here, the one mistake there. We had a false start, I think, on the first drive, and what are we, a couple yards short of having a first down? Those are the drive killers. So defensively, we kind of talked a lot about those things already, but you've just got to be sharp.

You've got to be locked in. You can't have the foolish penalty or just the lack of execution. Get your pads on a guy and finish the block.

Go out there and have the physicality that we showed the last really two-and-a-half quarters. I think there's a lot of things that our guys will take and build from, and there's a lot of things that we'll look at and be upset about. So I'm confident in this group that they'll get back to work and never take it for granted.

These guys are resilient in a lot of ways, but they're also very competitive, and I saw that tonight again. Thank you.

Follow us @FSUWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida State news, notes, and opinions.

This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: What Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said after beating FSU