Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer addresses embarrassing first-time feat for his Crimson Tide this season during Week 12 blowout win over Mercer

Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer was excited for his Crimson Tide defense’s first touchdown this season during a 52-7 blowout of Mercer at Bryant-Denny Stadium. During the postgame press conference, he was animated discussing Zabien Brown’s 68-yard fumble return for a touchdown.

“Those are exciting. The guys talk about it, and when they come up short and they think they had a chance to score, they always hear about, ‘You should have kept along this sideline or cut back.’ And for us to get him in the end zone with that long return, it was something that’s exciting for the whole team because they have gotten the takeaways. We just hadn’t ended up with one in the end zone like that. I love the mindset. Again, going back to what the defense is doing. They’re attacking. Three-and-out is what they’re shooting for. But right now, the position they’re putting our offense in, getting points on the board now, too, it’s really good,” DeBoer said on November 16 (h/t On3).

DeBoer had every right to be excited. Nick Saban would’ve pointed out how this was the first non-offensive touchdown all season, though, and probably would’ve been disappointed. Different strokes for different folks.

The “Bama Standard” has changed. Scoring the first non-offensive touchdown of the season in Week 12 against Mercer is a sign of that.

Crimson Tide head football coach Kalen DeBoer addresses how his Alabama roster is upholding the ‘Bama Standard’

DeBoer addressed how his Crimson Tide will avoid a letdown in the final stretch of the season with less-accomplished teams like Mercer, Oklahoma, and Auburn standing in the way of a potential SEC Championship Game and College Football Playoff push.

DeBoer deferred to his leaders on the roster.

“As we get to the latter half of the season, we really have honed in on more leaders stepping up. Take care of yourself, own what you do and take care of that and then bring someone else with you. And the intensity in practice, it’s not like guys are flying off the walls and things like that, but there’s a focus that they bring, and there’s just a business-like approach where they know that they’ve gotta do this. They’ve gotta eat right, sleep right. Do all those things off the field. Take care of their business there, and it leads to the success that they had. But when they do those things right and you invest, that’s investing in improving yourself and improving our team, and that’s what I thought they did,” DeBoer said.

If his roster is strong enough, DeBoer’s trust in them will be a strong point in the season’s final month. If they’re not, DeBoer will be flamed for not being more involved.