The FSU Seminoles picked up a massive win on Saturday, beating the No. 8 Alabama Crimson Tide 31-17 in a packed Doak Campbell Stadium.
A major key to the upset was their ability to run the ball, something new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn loves to do. Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer addressed that in his post-game press conference, praising their execution and play calling.
“You knew going in with the quarterback runs, it was going to be a challenge,” he said. “They did a nice job, I thought, in the first half of keeping some drives alive, even on passing downs, ones that weren’t called runs. And they did a nice job getting going sideline to sideline. They did a lot of things with those fly sweeps that we worked on, prepared for.”
DeBoer also talked about their struggles to run the ball and more. Here is everything he had to say after FSU’s stunning win over Alabama.
Opening Statement
Had some opportunities get back in the game there. The name that game is that we can’t be hesitant early on. We got to start faster in all ways. Yes, I know we went down and scored first drive, pieced some plays together and found a way to put in the end zone. But just the next couple series, both sides of the ball, we got to do a better job. We got to do a better job.
And we had opportunities there in the second half, but we gave them life. We gave them life. We gave them hope and confidence in the first half there. And then what it does is it puts you in a spot where you got to be perfect. You’re playing from behind, and you got to be perfect. And the stress on the guys to make every play becomes greater and greater.
I choose to believe we got a good football team. But, you know, we can’t play on our heels, like we’re not going to be what we think we can be, what we want to be, if that’s the case. And that falls on everyone. I don’t just put the point the finger at the players.
Both sides of ball, you kind of know what you’re going to see going into the game, but with new coordinators, but we talked in the locker room, there’s no excuses about what happened. We step on the football field. They step on the football field, and we got to play ball. We got to play our style of ball. Last year isn’t this year, and it’s going to be an uphill climb for us, but you can’t think of it the big scope of things. You got to focus on the moment. And the next moment is, is what happens tomorrow. And we’ll find out. We’ll find out.
We’ve talked all along about chemistry on this team and talked about how how close we are and how hard we’ve worked doing a lot of the right things. We’ll find out. We’ll find out if that sticks.
On Ryan Williams
Yeah, he got a concussion.
On FSU’s ability to run the ball
I mean, you knew going in with the quarterback runs, it was going to be a challenge. They did a nice job, I thought, in the first half of keeping some drives alive, even on passing downs, ones that weren’t called runs. And they did a nice job getting going sideline to sideline. They did a lot of things with those fly sweeps that we worked on, prepared for. Guys get one on one, you get in space, and you got to find a way to get them on the ground. You got to use your leverage, and you got to find ways to trust your buddies around you that they’re in pursuit. And they were piecing together first downs. They kept on on the field, and they hit the explosive, down the sideline in the first drive. They’re going to make plays, too, and I can live with that, but we’ve got to respond.
And, you know, just coming out in the second half, I thought we settled in other than the one play. And it really felt, third quarter going in the fourth quarter, I thought defensively, we kind of got our feet underneath of us, had kind of an idea of what they’re really trying to — the rhythm of what they do offensively and how we call plays. They do some funky things with the snap count and all that kind of stuff, and it kind of keeps our guys kind of wondering what’s next and not in our own rhythm. I think we got through that after the first half. But then we give them the run, we give them the play, and we kind of let them out with the penalty at the end, you know, the late hit. And, you know, we can’t live in the gray area. We’ve talked about that all season long. We can’t live in the gray area. It isn’t just about that play. It’s other things, you know, that we got to do. But that certainly adds to it.
On their inability to finish drives
That’s probably, from a frustration standpoint, that’s the thing that is frustrating. And so you win the game and you look at those drives, and you’re saying, ‘Hey, there’s first downs you’re piecing together, you’re giving yourself chances.’ But when you lose the game, you look at it and you gotta understand that there’s got to be a competitive stamina. It was a long drive, the first one, and it was hard work. You had to execute. You had to make some big plays. You did it. Now you got to go back out there and you to do it again. You got to stack play after play after play. We’d have a negative play or that missed opportunity. There are some opportunities out there that we either didn’t give ourselves a chance to make or just missed. And so, not going to live in regret, not gonna live in regret. We gotta go fix it and be better because of it, and evaluate the film and move on.
On Ty Simpson’s first start
He’s gotta just trust his reads and just cut it loose sometimes. Just let it fly. You know, he can make the throws. Just let it fly. And throw on rhythm, throw on time. There might have been at a time or two where they got in his face little quick. That’s going to happen. That’s football. But just, just let it fly.
And then, you know, just some decision-making there in certain critical moments. That’s the things he’s going to learn from. He’s given everything he has. I know he’s in the locker room, you know, wanting, wishing that there was some things he would have done different.
But there are other guys too. So we got to catch the ball for him once in a while. It’s a full team sport. It’s a whole offensive unit that has to move up the ball up and down the field. Yeah, the quarterbacks the trigger man, but everyone’s got to do their part to help the guy out.
On their freshmen
I mean, at tight end Kaleb’s the next guy up. It’s really what it’s about. So you got Josh and Danny’s been down again here the last a little bit. You know, do go through the depth chart, another ding or two in the tight end room that pulled some guys out for some plays. Some guys that have been out during camp, Marshall a little bit limited. So that’s where we’re at the depth chart there. And so, yeah, there’s gonna be young guys. It’s the world we’re in right now. And so we got some older guys, and then all of a sudden there’s a gap, and younger guys got to step on the field and play.
Yeah, we go down the depth chart further on the defensive tackle interior list. And London’s done some nice things as a freshman for us in practice, and some consistency there. We trust him. You got to go out there and get thrown to the wolves, whatever you want to call it, yeah, that was certainly the case. But that’s where we’re at in the rotation.
On their rushing attack after the first drive
You know, trying to think of the first the runs in the first half, or the first quarter, the first drive. I feel like they were very similar to the some of the ones that we had in the fourth quarter as far as the holes and the seams and getting through the first level. I think there were hard yards in the first quarter that we did have. We were able to stay ahead of the chains and continue to to do that. And then the game kind of going in the third quarter for sure, you know, you’re trying to be patient but you know those possessions are counting down on you. But again, I thought we did a good job staying committed to it as we went into the fourth quarter. There again, hitting some plays up the middle.
So there needs to be a better consistency. We didn’t have any explosives like we need to have. It’s hard to put drives together, as we saw, when you don’t have chunk yardage plays. And you know, they hit their explosives at times, the reverses and things like that, the ball down the field there in the first drive. We had some explosives too, but most of them were in the air.
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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: What Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said after losing to FSU
Reporting by JD McCarthy, FSU Wire / FSU Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
