The Alabama Crimson Tide will be on the road for a matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday afternoon.
Alabama defeated East Carolina 48-10 in their season opener last weekend, and the Tide now find themselves with a true test on the road against the Wildcats. Sophomore quarterback Keelon Russell will need to play at an elite level once again, and the Alabama offense as a whole will undoubtedly look to get off to a better start in both the first and second half after numerous struggles against the Pirates last weekend.
Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer took a moment to comment on Alabama’s third quarter struggles during his weekly appearance on “Hey Coach”, as DeBoer claims execution will be key in turning things around moving forward.
“I think it’s just execution.” DeBoer said. “The plays were there, guys wide open but it just goes back to one guy can make a mistake and it can cost you. I was disappointed in one of the pressures we had because it could have been an explosive play there early in the third quarter. We had the holding call, that took away one of our drives. So some of those things are easily fixable, because that’s stuff that you can or can’t control depending on which play you’re talking about. Some of it’s just more young guys getting snaps and the situations they are put in, the situations that pop up. And then just continuing to get some banked reps and feeling confident with how they can handle it.”
Alabama struggled to get anything going offensively in the second half until their final drive of the third quarter. Russell and the offense as a whole will need to limit their mistakes as much as possible against Kentucky this weekend, and DeBoer appears to have addressed the issue directly with the team following his comments.
