Alabama football picked up a 45-17 road victory over Kentucky, and there are certain play calls that head coach Kalen DeBoer believes quarterback Keelon Russell needs to make better decisions on.
DeBoer highlighted that Russell is an aggressive quarterback that likes to make plays, but when it comes to RPOs, he believes the sophomore could have handed the football off more today.
“On some of our RPO stuff, it’s okay just to hand it off,” DeBoer said. “He’s an aggressive kid, and we love the things that he can bring to the table on that, but when there’s guys in your face and kind of from the back side you got to throw through them and it gets knocked down, just hand it off. I think there will be some running lanes that we’ll be able to see. I’ll have to watch the film.”
Russell elected the passing option on a couple of RPOs, and one of those decisions led to disaster against Kentucky. On the third play of the Alabama’s opening drive, an RPO play was called, and Russell kept the football and fired it right at a Kentucky defensive lineman who picked it off and returned it for a score.
It sounds like coaching staff believes there were some few running lanes on certain plays that Russell did not give the rock to the running back, but stuff like that can be fixed with more experience.
DeBoer said he did feel like Russell made a lot of improvements from last week to now, but he believes there’s still some room for improvement when it comes to executing in certain situations.
Russell finished with 188 rushing yards, a passing touchdown, a pair of interceptions and a fumble.
Alabama football will host Florida State next Saturday.
