December 29, 2019
THE MODERATOR: Once you guys set settled, Coach, we’ll have an opening statement from you and then we’ll open it up for questions.
PETE GOLDING: First off, I hope everybody had a merry Christmas. Obviously, we’re excited to be in Orlando. The Citrus Bowl and the City of Orlando have obviously done a great job of hosting us. We had a great week of preparation in Tuscaloosa prior to Christmas. The kids got three days off for Christmas and they have been working extremely hard since we have been here. So I think it’s a great opportunity, especially defensively, to end the year on the right note.
Obviously, we’ve had a lot of young players playing for us that we think have progressed throughout the year. But I think it’s very important for us to finish this year on the right note, play extremely hard and play to the standard of Alabama football.
Q. Pete, earlier this year, Nick kind of highlighted how difficult your job was this year because of the linebacker situation, having to kind of lead those guys. One, how challenging was that for you? And, two, how much did you learn about yourself coaching this year?
PETE GOLDING: Yeah. I think, obviously, you’re at Alabama, so I think you’re coaching some of the best players in the country, with some of the best staff in the country, for the best coach in the country. So I think it’s not as bad as people think it is.
Obviously, those two freshmen that came in are really good players. I think the struggle for any young player in any system coming into college football as a freshman is adjusting to the speed of the game. And then I think as many shifts and motions and things like that that they see when the picture changes, those guys being able to having to make a call in a split second, you know, and then all 11 guys are waiting on them to make the call, you know, because they’re the signal call of the defense, I think that was a struggle early for them.
But I think both those guys in the middle of our defense love football. They’re extremely smart. They prepare the right way. And I think, obviously you know, Xavier could talk about that. But they’re in there all the time, and I think they got better throughout the year. They had their growing pains. I had my growing pains. It wasn’t always perfect, by any means, but it was a situation that we were put in. But I’m extremely proud of how they handled themselves and the preparation they put forward.
Q. For Xavier, we’ve heard a lot about this team having something to prove and wanting to make a statement. What exactly is the statement that this team wants to make in this game?
XAVIER MCKINNEY: Just that we’ve got it, just that we can still compete, we can still play hard, you know, that we still have the ‘Bama factor, something that we talk about a lot. So I know in a lot of the games that we play, we haven’t really played our best, but we just want to come out here and show that we still can play and that we still can show that we are ‘Bama and that we can go out and dominate.
Q. For Pete, is there something, maybe outsiders, people who aren’t in the program, who don’t understand, what do they not understand about the process of these young guys coming in and learning the defense kind of on the fly if they have to?
PETE GOLDING: I think, obviously, a lot of programs play freshmen. I think a lot of it has to do with the position that they’re playing and who’s around them. I think it was a unique deal this year that you lost two guys at the same position, to where you have two 18yearolds that have never been in the system side by side. And I think a lot of times they’re looking for confirmation, and they’re looking for confirmation and the guy beside them that doesn’t really know either. And I think that’s been the big difference.
In the past, it’s not like freshman haven’t played at the University of Alabama or freshmen don’t play at every other school in the country. That happens. It’s going to happen. But I think the big thing, the big difference is, that guy having to make the calls, set the front, set the blitzes, and then having validation beside them, to where if he’s secondguessing himself, ‘No, hey, it’s Ringo, Ringo, Ringo, Ralph, Ralph, Ralph,’ just to confirm what he was thinking.
I think that was probably the difference this year, of having two 18yearold kids side by side in the middle of your defense that are responsible for making the calls. So I think that was the unique part of it, to where you can look across the board, people play freshman. Alabama’s going to play freshmen. We’re going to have great juniors that go out to the draft. That’s going to happen. So you’re going to have to replace those guys and develop the bottom of your roster. But it’s unique in those guys having to be the signal caller and having to be side by side.I think that was kind of the difference.
Q. Pete, you mentioned you’ve had your growing pains this year. Where have you learned and grown the most as a play caller, and do you have an example of maybe a situation later in the season that you did differently?
PETE GOLDING: Yeah. I think it’s always tough as a coach. I think obviously when you prepare and you’re seeing when the opponent does and you’re trying to take away their bread and butter and give them different looks and all those things to take away some of their top plays, I think you’ve got to be careful of asking your guys of doing something that maybe they can’t do.
And I think at times as coaches we always want the answer and we always want walk the chalk glass and, schematically on the board, we want to look like we’ve got the extra guy, we’re fitting this the right way. And I think, at times, we put too much on those guys to where they’re thinking instead of reacting. And I think, especially for young football players, to be able to get lined up, set the front, keep the coverage the same and be able to adjust out what you’re in, helps those guys. And I think sometimes, as coaches, we can think too much. I think we’re too damn smart at times and then you try to put them in certain situations to where they start changing a picture and we change a coverage because it’s what’s best to do. However, if you can’t execute it, it doesn’t matter the call. You know, we’ve got to be able to execute. Obviously, the call, whatever we call.
The big thing is obviously trying to keep it simple; however, be sound and be multiple because, obviously, we’ve got good offensive coordinators, good quarterbacks. So if they know what you’re going to be in, obviously they have a play designed to beat it.
So I think obviously for us, from a picture standpoint, having the ability to change the picture but keep it simple for our guys to where the rules stay consistent and they can play fast. I think, obviously, that was something throughout the year that we kind of improved on. We’ve still got to get a lot better at.
Q. Xavier, I wanted to ask you about your teammates that you came in to Alabama together with, what’s it been like the last three years in practice going against DeVonta Smith?
XAVIER MCKINNEY: Oh, man. It’s tough. You know, he’s one of those guys that makes you better. The first time I came against him, like, when we first came in, we didn’t really go against each other that much. But during the past two years, I’ve had a chance to go oneonones against him when we’re doing twoandtwo drills. It’s tough. It’s hard to guard him. He’s a guy that can run. He’s physical. He doesn’t look, you know, super physical because he not really a big guy, but he’s definitely a guy that’s very physical. He’s not really afraid of anybody and he definitely makes sure he competes every time.
So he’s one of those guys that’s tough to guard either way it goes. So I try to do my best. And I know every time I go against him, I try to give him my best shot because I know he makes me better every time. So it’s definitely fun going against him because I know if you’re competing against him, I know that he’s going to make me better.
Q. Pete, I wanted to ask you about two guys who look like they could be potentially in line to play a little bit more in this game than they have. That’s Josh Jobe and Chris Allen. With Josh, we know he’s a passionate player. How have you kind of taught him to harness that and still play with that passion but be disciplined? And, then, what kind of growth have you seen out of Chris this year?
PETE GOLDING: Josh had a really good week of preparation, both in Tuscaloosa and here. He’s an extremely competitive kid. Obviously, he’s got the skill set and the length that we want at that position and I think he’s done a great job over the last two weeks, and Coach Scott and Coach Saban, obviously, coaching him, locking in and focusing on his job and just controlling what he can control. Finishing on the ball, on the deep part of the field, is something that he’s been working throughout the year that I think he’s improved on. But he’s been very good at the bottom of the route. He is an emotional kid but he’s learned to control his emotion and not play emotional, and I think that’s something that coach talks about a lot that’s kind of showed up early. But he’s maturing. Obviously, he understands the role he’s in. He’s got some great players around him. Xavier does a really good job with them. And, you know, those guys in the back end of a very close group, so they kind of help lead themselves.
But I think the last two weeks has really been focusing on his job, obviously controlling what he can control but playing with emotion but not getting emotional, which Coach talks about all the time, and I think that’s something that he’s starting to do.
Q. Coach, what are you seeing from Shea Patterson on film? Why has he been so successful his last couple of games, especially the last three games?
PETE GOLDING: Yeah. I think offensively what they did, Coach Gattis and those guys do a really good job. So, schematically, they make you account for all 11. They’re going to run the quarterback. So, obviously, your structure on defense, you’ve got to be able to account for the quarterback and the run game. And I think on third down, he does a really nice job of extending plays. So when things break down in the back end, they’ve got guys covered, he can step up or out. And he does a really nice job, based on the coverage, whether he’s going to scramble at the back stretch in a twoman principle or he does a nice job in the zone of keeping his eyes downfield.
Their receivers do a really good job of breaking off the routes. And a little of their explosive plays come on third down when the play broke down and it wasn’t designed to be that way but it became an explosive play off the scramble. You know, in a man principle or a zone principle, you know, the scramble rules and he hits a deep shot.
So I think the big thing is accounting for him, obviously in the run game. He’s very athletic. They do a lot of unique things to be able to run the quarterback, for you to use all 11 guys. And I think on third down, it’s going to be pivotal, obviously, to keep him, make him be a pocket passer and use our hands. Obviously, I think, the flight of the ball, we’ve got to do a good job upfront getting our hands up but we’ve got to be able to contain him and keep him in the pocket.
Q. We talk a lot about those freshman linebackers, but you guys have had to play some freshman upfront, too. How has that added to the challenge this year and what have you seen from that group?
PETE GOLDING: Yeah, I think, obviously, Justin Eboigbe, Byron Young, we’ve had several guys up front as true freshman that play. They’ve played extremely hard. They’re very coachable.
I think, obviously, you want to have an eraser. You know, so normally if you’ve got a young guy up front, and then you want a veteran guy behind him, to where I’m a secondlevel guy, he makes a mistake, he’s in the wrong gap, then we can make it right. I think at times we end up in the same gap a lot.
So, you know, that’s a challenge. But I love just the way they work. You know, they come to practice.They’re eager to learn. They play extremely hard.
Obviously, we’ve got to improve in our gap integrity, you know, striking coming out of our hips. And we’ve got to do a better job at the second level of making those guys right. You know, that’s the bottom line of playing linebacker, to be able to fix things and erase things, and we’ve got to be able to help those guys.
Q. Pete, what are the challenges of going up against a guy and Josh Gattis, a guy that was in your building? And what have you seen out of his offense, whether it be similarities/differences from his time to Tuscaloosa to Ann Arbor?
PETE GOLDING: Yeah, I think obviously the unique thing is, anytime you’re playing an opponent, you know, whatever you struggled with on tape you’re normally going to see. All right? Obviously, they go through that. And things that you struggled with throughout the year normally end up showing back up.
I think what’s unique about him having been here, you know, regardless of whether it’s been on tape or we’ve been put in that position this year, he knows, having been here in practice, things, obviously, that make us adjust certain ways and certain calls and things like that. So I think, obviously, that does give him an advantage because we haven’t put everything on tape.
So most guys that play us, hey, what you struggle with on tape, you’re going to repeat and you’re going to see again. And, obviously, he knows our system, you know, and he knows, obviously, some of the rules of the system.
But you’ve got to execute. You know, I think, as coaches, you call the play. The players got to execute the play. You know, it ain’t always perfect. So I think we’ve got to do a good job of extending disguises, some fronts and some coverages. But the bottom line is it’s going to be about our execution and our players playing extremely hard.
Q. Coach, Chris Allen, how much growth have you seen from him not only this season playing, but also just knowledge of the game, sitting out last season with an injury?
PETE GOLDING: Yeah, I think Coach Sark has done a really good job with him. And then, obviously, having been in the system a couple years, getting banged up and coming back, he’s a smart football player. He understands the system. Obviously, he’ll have an opportunity in this game to be able to showcase that a little more.But we’re extremely excited about his potential. Coach Sark, you know, does a good job with him. I think the kid understands the system, understands what we’re asking him to do. So he’s developed. He’s come a long way. So I think he’ll play well.
