What DeBoer feels led to Alabama having fast start against South Carolina

Alabama football got off to its best start in a game this season against South Carolina.

The Crimson Tide was able to go into halftime up on the Gamecocks 35-10 after stumbling out of the gate in its games against Kentucky and Florida State. Kalen DeBoer was asked what went into the Crimson Tide’s ability to get rolling on Saturday night after the game.

“I mean, actually we gave up the first play, right? It was an explosive run,” DeBoer said. “Just guys settling in. Just, I mean, it’s execution, you know, and you hope that every game we play, our guys become more and more familiar with ourselves and confident in ourselves. And the more film we get, the more opportunities to know what we’re going to see in front of us helps too. But I thought the guys just cut it loose, had a good week of practice. That always carries over. Never have to question the energy in practice and the effort in practice. That’s never going to be a problem with our guys. We got guys that love football. They’re just constantly, even today, watching football. And, you know, we’re focusing on our stuff, but they just enjoy being around each other. They got each other’s backs and they’re going to keep playing. They don’t want to let each other down. And so I think taking what we’ve learned from the last 3 games and applying it to tonight and really trying to be dialed in early. Not that we weren’t before, but the execution certainly showed up and guys made plays.”

Alabama football’s wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams said the Tide put a huge emphasis on starting fast at practice this week.

“It was definitely something we put front and center all week,” Coleman-Williams said. “We haven’t started fast all year, so that was definitely something we wanted to do. And it felt great; it felt like we were playing some good team ball, we were feeding off each other, the energy was high. We were just executing, continuing to still try and get that complete 60-minute game from both sides, still working at that. But it definitely felt great to come out fast.”

Alabama football will look to carry this momentum into a matchup with Mississippi State next week.