Alabama HC Kalen DeBoer references a 'lack of reps' as reasoning behind defensive struggles

At this point in the season, the Alabama Crimson Tide should know who they are as a football team.

Or at least you would hope given we have reached the halfway mark and the team is ranked seventh in the nation with a win over the 5th ranked Georgia Bulldogs .

But ever since the second half of that game, something has been missing with the Tide's defense.

Well, according to HC Kalen DeBoer, that would be reps.

Defense Needs More Reps?

"I think the key in any game plan is to try to have, really almost everything you have in the plan as far as your adjustments," said HC Kalen DeBoer when asked about in game adjustments on defense. "Now, when you’re on defense there are some things that will pop up that you haven’t seen on film that you’ve got to refer back to something you’ve done with calls in the past. You try to really minimize that as much because the things you practice are the things the guys are comfortable with. Especially, week five, six, still as a new team, with a new defensive scheme...

"...We don’t have a lot of these banked reps from a year ago with all our guys or even 10 or 11 games worth. It’s new things that pop up and we try to make the simplest adjustments to where our guys can still play fast. Down the road, this will all continue to bank as far as the reps that we have, the experiences that we have. We can recall on something that we did as an adjustment in the past, hopefully in the future and execute quicker and better in the games ahead."

I appreciate the point that DeBoer is trying to make, but similar to when DC Kane Wommack came out and said that Vanderbilt showed things in game that they had not on film , it all sort of falls on deaf ears.

Football is a read-and-react kind of game. You are constantly adjusting, sometimes by the play, if not the drive, and certainly by the quarter and a half. So to suggest that there is still cohesion needed at this point of the season is selling the roster short. Of course, the players can execute at a higher level, but the coaching staff should be adapting to the personnel, not the other way around.

And as far as this week in Knoxville goes, the Tide's defense already received a taste of what's coming from Tennessee when they played USF earlier this season given the similarity in scheme and philosophy.

So at the halfway mark of the season and with plenty of prep at the ready, it's now or never for the Tide and their defense.

Related: Alabama could be calling upon a recent opponent to prepare for huge matchup against Tennessee