How dumb is the shotgun formation on the goal line in college football? I dove into its touchdown rate vs. QB under center, and it was even worse than I thought. Spent a good chunk of the offseason on this research. Hope you enjoy 👇 tuscaloosanews.com/story/spo…

Making sense of the daylight between Alabama OC Ryan Grubb’s run game vs Tennessee, and what he said Monday about the importance of one. Column 👇 tuscaloosanews.com/story/spo…

Here's the direct quote from Ryan Grubb on the running game, since I paraphrased initially. "I think if you look at our best performances and the games that we played really well, that's exactly how it went. The run game set it up. They go to close coverage. They put a seventh hat in the box, and then we're throwing play action. Play action happens. They get the extra hat out of the box, and you hit them with the run game. So, I think those things certainly are complementary. That's not, you know, rocket science. Everybody in the country knows that. But when you can't establish and consistently maintain drives, you got to find ways to get the little wins, get the quick game, get the inside zone duo, all the little hits to get yourself in second and four and call another run, get to a first down."

Haven't looked at the Tenn sacks yet but vs UGA, was more an issue of blitz pickup/recognition (RB/TE/QB) than an OL issue.

Kalen DeBoer on injuries, says everyone who's hurt - named Delgatty, RCW, Green, Z.Brown, Crowell specifically - will be limited or unavailable for practice early in the week, with hope for more participation later in the week.

Kalen DeBoer on play calling vs Tenn: "Everything comes down to execution. ... When you're in third and extra longs like we had a number of times early in the game, you don't want to make a bad situation worse. ... It's OK to punt the football once in awhile ... Our mistakes early allowed Tennessee to play the game they needed to play."

On several questions that didn't specifically have to do with defending screens, Kane Wommack took his answer there. Pretty clear that nothing about UA's defensive effort bugged him more.

Kane Wommack responds to Tenn QB G.MacIntyre saying UT knew coverages would be soft, and took advantage.

Kane Wommack on the secondary coverages Alabama ran vs Tennessee

Kane Wommack: "There were plenty of good things you could point toward that were good in the first half. In the second quarter, we played some really good football. ... but you've got to do those things consistently throughout the game. This was the first game where we were inefficient in the perimeter screen game. ... In the fourth quarter we had guys who started pressing."

Ryan Grubb acknowledges Alabama's best work offensively this year has come off the run game and working play action as defenses adjust their numbers in the box. "Those are things we'll be talking about."

Ryan Grubb says he'd like to have gotten Noah Rogers more snaps vs. Tennessee, said short drives contributed to that.

Ryan Grubb: "The sacks have been really adding up. That's something we've got to fix. ... You can't average 3-4 sacks a game and expect to be a championship team."

Ryan Grubb on trying to get the best out of Keelon Russell:

Ryan Grubb on the Tenn game plan: "Is this clean enough for the guys? Clearly, it wasn't. Two weeks in a row, no points in the second half is pathetic."

Ryan Grubb: "I think Keelon Russell is the best quarterback in America, period."