Kalen DeBoer led Alabama to its first four-loss college football season since 2007 during his first year as head coach in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide fanbase nearly imploded when the College Football Playoff committee left them out. They were even more distraught with a loss in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
This year is going to be different.
According to rising sophomore Roq Montgomery, the program underwent a major culture shift over the last 37 days. DeBoer is not messing around. Nonsense is no longer tolerated.
The third-year offensive lineman pulled back the curtain on The Bama Standard Podcast. He believes the new attitude in Tuscaloosa will lead to more success on the field.
The message right now from me and my teammates, just our entire staff, is we got a different outlook on everything. It’s like more dialed in, more serious. It’s not like we ain’t never been serious about anything, because there’s things that we do, but we just got to get back to the old days — to when Bama does nothing but win, and win championships. That’s the main focus right now.
— Roq Montgomery
Based on Montgomery’s comments, it sounds like DeBoer tried to bring a more lax approach to Alabama. That was a stark contrast from the Nick Saban era. The greatest college football coach of all-time did not stand for anything short of perfection. Poor behavior did not fly. Every rep had to be up to his standard.
The Crimson Tide is apparently going back to what was working. Its attempt at something different did not lead to results.
We ain’t playing no games with nobody. Anybody on staff, anybody that’s a player, like no nothing. Don’t be late to nothing. Do your work on time. Do all the little stuff great… Do the little stuff right and we’ll be rewarded in the end. So, we’ve just got to do the little things the right way and then we’ll be just fine.
— Roq Montgomery
Although Roq Montgomery did not explicitly state that players often got away with late arrivals to meetings, workouts, etc., he implied that it was not a big deal during Kalen DeBoer’s first season in Tuscaloosa. That kind of thing does not fly in year two. The same goes for guys who take their appearance more seriously than their task at hand.
This is our second week of workouts. We started as a team last week. You can’t be late to workouts no more. No more jewelry. No more necklaces. None of that. It’s not a fashion show. It’s football. Shoutout to Coach Ballou, our head strength coach. He’s not playing that s—. Excuse my language, but he’s just not.
If somebody late — like we had a few people late, I’m not gonna throw nobody under the bus — if somebody late to workouts, everybody got 15 up-downs on Ballou’s whistle. And then whoever late got to push a plate and do their workout, and 15 up-downs. Like, no jewelry, no nothing. Any team that has won before us, nobody was doing none of that.
— Roq Montgomery
Look out, SEC. Alabama football is showing up on time to meetings! Players aren’t allowed to wear chains or jewelry. Montgomery thinks that will be the difference between 9-4 and a national title. He is certain that the Crimson Tide will be “a scary sight to see” come August.
You can watch Roq Montgomery’s full comments here: