In another frustrating performance on Saturday in Knoxville, Alabama suffered its second loss of the season to Tennessee.
After a stretch of games in which the Crimson Tide has underperformed since defeating Georgia, head coach Kalen DeBoer shared what his message was to his team as well as the fans after dropping the game 24-17.
“The message to them is to get back after it and get to work,” DeBoer said. “First of all, do some soul searching and look inward. I know there’s enough guys that still believe, that still want to go do what we want to do. You know, there’s still a lot of season left for not just us but everyone and it’s gonna go fast if we don’t take advantage of it. That urgency has got to be there, there’s no question.
“We get a chance to go back home but we got to go to work first before we play that game and find a way to take that next big jump. You know a lot of guys we need to incorporate into schemes offensively and defensively just with some guys going down. So they’re getting an opportunity too to help build depth but we need to make the plays to go win right now and that’s where we’re just falling short.
“Make sure our minds are right. Make sure our hearts are in the right place and then all I know is that you just go back to work. That’s the only thing you can do and that’s what I’ve always done and that’s what these guys, you know just having a talk in the locker room, really firmly believe that’s what they want to do too.
“You know, don’t lose belief in these guys because there’s a lot of guys making some big sacrifices in ways that you’ll never know, because they just keep plugging away. It may be physical things and stuff like that but they’re working hard and they have a lot of pride in who they are individually and who we are as Alabama.”
Now with two losses on the year, the margin for error has shrunk for Alabama that will now need to get back to work this week to welcome Missouri to Bryant-Denny Stadium.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
