Jumbo Package: Kalen DeBoer speaks on injuries, SEC Championship

Happy Monday, everyone. Alabama will face Georgia in Atlanta for the SEC Championship, the only way for the Tide to truly guarantee itself a playoff spot.

This, despite already beating Georgia in Athens this season to grab the top seed in the nation’s toughest league. If there was no game this week, Alabama would be the SEC champion and the committee would be considering them in that light.

But we just have to have this extra game, don’t we?

By the way, Texas A&M is sitting at 7-1 and didn’t get a crack at either Alabama or Georgia this season, so they have as good a claim to the SEC title as anyone. This is the problem with having a single title game in a 16 team league with disparate schedules. No, using tiebreakers doesn’t fix that issue, but if the game doesn’t fix it either, I’ll need someone to explain exactly what value it offers.

Were I commissioner, this week’s committee rankings would have come out yesterday as the final version, and Saturday would be a “play in” round to the inevitable 16 teamer that functions as round one, using the same venues and favoring the higher seed. Projected matchups, assuming Alabama stays at 10 this week as we all hope:

• Notre Dame vs Tulane, Indianapolis

• Alabama vs Virginia, Atlanta

• BYU vs Vandy, Arlington

• Miami vs Utah, Charlotte

The best part is that calling it a “play in” allows the losing teams to still have bowl trips. So, Tulane can make the field, go up to Indy and get smacked, then still have their fun NY6 trip where they have a great chance to beat some major conference team that has a bunch of opt outs.

But, I’m not commissioner and there is a game to play on Saturday, so let’s go ahead and win the damn thing, shall we?

Personally it’s what your goals are, come here to do. Wanted to be a part of here at Alabama. There’s so many great people, coaches, players that have built this program up to what it is with the expectations it has.

You’re here to carry that on. You’re here to honor those that came before you and continue to make this place special for someday down the road when players are gone and coaches are gone, whoever it might be, you want to carry it on, you want to continue to have that legacy of our program be what it is.

So conference championships, SEC championships, that’s the staple, that’s a staple in this program. Obviously there’s even a higher level to it with the national championships that have been won, too.

First things first: we got to have the opportunity to go compete for an SEC Championship. One of the top two teams in an extremely strong conference.

Both teams are set to be without key players.

Alabama football’s offense could be shorthanded for the SEC championship game on Saturday against Georgia. Kalen DeBoer said Sunday that he does not expect tight end Josh Cuevas to play.

Cuevas missed Saturday’s win over Auburn. He appeared on the sideline in street clothes, intermittently using a mobility scooter.

“I would expect Josh to probably not be with us for the weekend,” DeBoer said.

With Cuevas, along with Danny Lewis Jr., out, UA used a mix of backup tight ends for the Iron Bowl win. Jay Lindsey, Marshall Pritchett, Kaleb Edwards and Brody Dalton all got time on the field.

Toliver started in place of Bobo against Charlotte, when Bobo was dealing with a hand injury. Toliver took over in for the second half of the Georgia Tech win, but the results weren’t inspiring. After rushing for 145 yards in the first half, Georgia had only 45 yards in the final 30 minutes. What’s more is that there were a number of high snaps that Stockton had to reach to grab.

Toliver has never started against an SEC opponent. If he plays against Alabama, it would be a significant step up in competition.

“Yeah, like I said the other day, he did some good things,” Smart said of Toliver. “He’s got to continue to work and improve on some others, but I was really glad he got to go in the Charlotte game and play as much as he did and get the experience of that time and continue to grow and get better.”

Toliver dealt with an ankle injury earlier in the season, which prevented him from getting valuable playing time against Marshall and Austin Peay. Toliver has played in Georgia’s last four games, all wins.

Cuevas has served as a security blanket for Simpson, and his absence didn’t help the passing woes we saw on Saturday. DeBoer didn’t have any new information on Jam Miller, but it’s hard to imagine him suiting up a week after being on crutches. For Georgia, Bobo could be a massive loss. Besides the critical leadership element of having your starting center make all the line calls, Alabama fans don’t have to be reminded of the heartburn that inconsistent snaps can cause.

Statistically, Georgia’s offense was even more disgusting against Georgia Tech than Alabama’s was against Auburn. But, Georgia’s defense didn’t allow the two explosive plays that Alabama’s did.

Michael Casagrande has the ugly recap of what we saw on Saturday. Yes, for those who have mentioned it already, winning a sixth consecutive Iron Bowl is something to celebrate in spite of it all.

That was a truly awful Iron Bowl by any objective measure that somebody technically had to win. A game that wasn’t pretty and had a worse personality — proof that close scores aren’t always indicative of high quality.

Alabama 27, Auburn 20 was the final score. A sixth straight win over the in-state rival — three ugly ones in a row in this former house of horrors.

That can’t be totally lost in all this.

But seriously, what was that?

And what will Georgia do next week with this husk of an offense that steamrolled these Bulldogs in Athens back in September?

DeBoer said that there was no particular reason that Ryan Williams didn’t see the ball on Saturday.

“He was out there. There’s nothing to read into there at all. There were opportunities where the ball could’ve found him,” DeBoer said Sunday. “The plays that … it’s not like they’re designed specifically for him. That’s really not how a lot of our offense is. There might be screens and things like that that are intentionally trying to get (players) touches. But as far as pass concepts, we just didn’t get to him in the route, or things like that.

“We’ve got to be intentional because he’s a playmaker for us. The ball just found some other guys and they made plays, like you saw with Isaiah Horton.”

Alabama’s offense has been missing the deep ball, and YAC. Williams has shown the ability to provide both, but we haven’t seen much of it this season. It’s hard to imagine Alabama making any kind of postseason run without him making an impact.

Last, Jamarcus Shephard has indeed been hired as Oregon State’s head coach, but he plans to stick around for a potential playoff run.

“He really wants to be a part of everything that we do throughout,” DeBoer said. “There’s a couple things here right now early in the week that he’s got to take part in as far as obligations, getting things started there with his opportunity at Oregon State, which we’re super excited for.”

DeBoer said Alabama celebrated Shephard’s new job Friday morning before the Crimson Tide got into meetings.

“He’s a guy who pours everything into this program,” DeBoer said. “He has poured everything into me. It’s something our players know and feel. I’ve known Shep really since 2014. You can’t help but be excited for someone who wants to run their own program.”

He has already tabbed a few off-field staff to go with him and take promotions, one to GM and two more to on-field roles. Still think he could probably have done better, but congratulations to all.

That’s about it for today. Have a great week.

Roll Tide.