The past few weeks have been a roller coaster for head coach Kalen DeBoer and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
On September 28, Alabama defeated the then-No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs 41-34, giving the Bulldogs their first regular season loss in years and knocking down one of the biggest hurdles in their path of capturing their 31st SEC championship.
One week later, on October 5, Alabama made its way to Nashville for a meeting with the Vanderbilt Commodores, who they had defeated 23 straight times since 1984. Streaks are made to be broken, however. Vanderbilt pulled off the stunning 40-35 upset victory to send Tide fans into a frenzy.
DeBoer has faced criticism for seemingly not being angry enough or emotional enough that the team took the upset loss.
Earlier this week, the first-year head coach fired back at those critics during his media availability.
“I mean, I’m extremely frustrated. We all are, you know, but we’re not going to lose our cool over that. We understand, you know, what happened,” the coach noted via On3.
DeBoer explained that not only was he frustrated, but the entire team was frustrated after the upset loss.
“A lot of what I see in the response, even in the locker room? I guess you’re talking about press conference afterward or something. That’s really the only time you could have seen me I guess. You know, I think that’s me seeing what already is happening in 30 minutes, 20 minutes after the game is over. I saw extreme frustration. I saw guys wanting to stick together, wanting to still do something special. Believing in each other, expressing that. You know, I had my part in that too where, you know, we understood, you know, what happened and that it’s not up to our standard and how we had to proceed forward,” he said.
Alabama will have a chance to get back in the win column on Saturday when it hosts the South Carolina Gamecocks. at Noon ET on ESPN.
[On3]
