Kalen DeBoer takes a shot at Alabama fans after they were heard booing a player who has struggled as of late vs. Eastern Illinois
Kalen DeBoer had a message for Tide fans after the game.
The Alabama Crimson Tide may have won 56-0 on Saturday, but the game was far from mistake-free. In fact, Ryan Williams continued to struggle, Ty Simpson was up and down, and the execution of the simple things was off.
That included, for the second time in as many weeks, the kicking game. After a viral outburst that saw kicker Conor Talty lambast his long snapper, Kalen DeBoer came to his defense.
But then there was another miss this week. Alabama fans didn’t like that much, and DeBoer didn’t like how the Crimson Tide faithful responded.
Kalen DeBoer calls out Alabama fans for booing Conor Talty
“I wish they’d have his back, like, I know our locker room has his back,” said DeBoer after the game via the Alabama Crimson Tide YouTube Channel. “He’s working hard, and he had a great week at practice. I don’t think he missed one all week, and [we] put him all over the place. So, you know, it’s [about him continuing to] plug away, and [I] just want everyone to support him. He’s just like every other player on our football team, giving everything he has.”
The miss elicited the reaction it did among fans for a few reasons. For one, the last kicker at Alabama, Will Reichard, was nails. He was a finalist for the Lou Groza award and was drafted in the sixth round by the Minnesota Vikings, where he is making over 90% of his field goals (which would probably be higher if not for a wire issue). Before Reichard, Adam Griffith helped the Tide win multiple national championships.
But it’s not just the standard; it’s that Talty rubbed people, and surely his own teammates, the wrong way last week when he missed a field goal (that would have won Alabama the game in the end) and blamed his long snapper. Maybe that was partially why DeBoer made a change at kicker after Talty’s miss.
“We were maybe thinking we get another chance with some field goals and things like that,” added DeBoer when asked why he made the change at kicker. “We want to try to get number of guys opportunities. You saw we had multiple, I think, four kickers out there that all got their chances. And, you know, we’re probably hoping that we could get another chance to get him out there.”
Whatever the case, Alabama will need Talty to be locked in come the Iron Bowl and beyond.
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The struggles continued for Williams against Eastern Illinois.
