What Kalen DeBoer said after beating Georgia

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer met with the media after the Crimson Tide beat Georgia 41-34 on Saturday night. Here are the highlights from what DeBoer had to say.

"Tip of the cap to Georgia. They're a heck of a football team. We pushed each other to the very end. Proud, again, can't say how proud I am of our guys. We talk about you get what you deserve. And these guys come to practice every single day. They're in the weight room. Any opportunity where we're asking them to do something, they're all over it and they're doing it to an extremely high level. So we expect to win games, these games. And so, of course, the locker room is full of excitement. But I also want to make sure that we understand that's the expectation. And there's a lot of season left. And so I want to make sure we don't blow all our energy into this win, and make sure we can handle success, and get ready for next week."

On throwing out of empty formations and catching Georgia off guard: "Yeah, well, we hit the one to Ryan (Williams) in the third quarter. He made this kind of, the circus catch. And yeah, there was more of that. I mean, we've done it throughout the season. But there was certainly a heavier dose of that. And I thought, I really felt like when we went empty, Jalen (Milroe) did a good job of seeing the space, seeing the coverages. And that's what I love because we have a lot of playmakers out there and sometimes just getting the ball in their hands. So there's adjustments going back and forth. They did a nice job with some things. And then we had to counter back as well."

On the "emotional roller coaster" of this game: "Yeah, when you face a really good football team, you know there's going to be a strong push. That's what I would expect from us if we were ever in a spot. We're going to fight until the very end. And I expect our guys to go make plays. Sometimes when they're in their situation, really on their heels and really just throwing it up and kind of that urgency that they needed to have and a couple plays go your way, those are the sparks. And that's what happened. And they did a nice job converting on some fourth downs. I think that was really the story in the second half is those fourth down calls, fourth down plays. And we get one or two of those and really the game looks different, I think, in the second half. But yeah, those are the battles. We know that that's what each and every week is going to be. Just people are going to bring their best shot to us. And that's the SEC. So again, proud of our guys and the way they kept responding. It wasn't like, oh, the next play was, or the next drive was always perfect. But we did play team football and I thought covered for each other. We got some takeaways. You know, got a field goal, special teams did a nice job there. Of course, there were some let downs. And we all saw what some of those were, too."

On the thought process heading into Alabama's final drive: "Well, Jalen and I have talked a lot. This isn't just this week. It's been since day one about never having regrets, and so competing till the very end. And really, that's what I want our team to do. But we talk about that a lot and staying positive and keep fighting. And then sometimes it doesn't bounce your way. And it doesn't mean you lose the game, but sometimes just a play doesn't end up the way that you wanted. You've got to keep fighting. When it comes to the concept, a lot of our plays have opportunities where you find that one-on-one. And if you like the match-up, you go after it. And so he liked what he saw, obviously, and delivered, and Ryan did the rest for him. But a lot of our concepts have shots built in, but also some other elements to the passing game where you're looking still to have a high completion percentage.And I think that's the one thing that jumped out at me. I don't know what 27 of 33 is. It's got to be 80-plus percent. So that's what I love to see. If we can be over 65, that's positive steps."