Alabama Defense Press Conference December 29, 2017
2018 Allstate Sugar Bowl – Alabama Defensive Coordinator Jeremy Pruitt Quotes - 12-29-17
COACH PRUITT: I just want to say, first of all, we're excited to be here to be a part of the Allstate Sugar Bowl. A big thank you to everybody that's involved in the City of New Orleans.
We've had a week of practice back in Tuscaloosa. Our kids have prepared hard. They really studied tape. I think we've learned some lessons from last year's game the last couple years' games. Our guys are excited to get another opportunity.
Clemson is a very good football team, very wellcoached. Got four starters on the offensive line that have played a lot of football. Probably over a hundred starts between those four guys. Got a quarterback that's extremely athletic. Several really good runners and obviously the guys out there on the edge are playmakers that can make plays in the screen game but can also beat you over the top. So with that, I'll take any questions.
Q. How difficult was it, with the early signing period, to balance your duties at Tennessee with what you do at Alabama?
COACH PRUITT: The first thing, I just want to say this: I'm excited about being the head football coach at Tennessee. It's a tremendous opportunity, a great university and I'm thankful to have it.
But right now I'm working as a defensive coordinator at Alabama, and I'd like for these questions to be targeted toward this game and the players that are associated with this game.
Q. Jeremy, people have come to you at Alabama. Has anybody reached out to you about how to balance the fairness process?
COACH PRUITT: I'm going to say it again, I want to talk about this game.
Q. But what about the responsibilities?
COACH PRUITT: When I was at Tennessee, I worked on getting ready for that class. And it was easy going back and start focusing on getting ready to play Clemson. The recruiting part was over with on Wednesday, the signing day.
Q. Did it feel like when you got back with the staff, did you just kind of roll right back into it? Was there some process that you had to kind of go through?
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Alabama Defense Press Conference December 29, 2017
COACH PRUITT: No. I mean, working for Coach [Nick] Saban, this is the eighth year I have worked with Coach Saban. We have a tremendous staff in Tosh Lupoi, Karl Dunbar, Derrick Ansley. So we're all not only we work together. We're all really close, very good friends. And we've done it for a while together, and it wasn't really that hard.
Q. How have your injuries at linebacker, starting with the first game, how much adjusting and everything have you had to do this season? And, also, could you talk about the loss of Dylan Moses? Is Christopher Allen likely to play this week?
COACH PRUITT: You know, we've had an unfortunate run of injuries this year. We lost several guys at the beginning of the year. Lost Anfernee Jennings. Lost Rashaan Evans. Lost Christian Miller. Lost Terrell Lewis. Some of the guys were out all the way up to the Auburn game. Some guys missed three to four games.
It's been an unusual year with it. We've had to move guys around. And it's probably hurt some of the young guys' growth and development because you're going to develop as you play the same position because of the injuries. We had to move guys around, and it says a lot about the leadership of our team trying to help the young guys to develop. And the guys have been bought in all year and willing to do and sacrifice to play any position that they needed to.
So we've got a lot of those guys back now. We did unfortunately lose Dylan [Moses] last week. And it's a shame because he had really played well the last two games. And that was another guy that had changed positions. So we'll just have to next guy up, that's kind of been the philosophy of our guys all year.
Q. What are the things that make Kelly Bryant unique? We've heard so much about how great Deshaun Watson is. He's had a pretty good year, too. What are the some of the challenges he possesses?
COACH PRUITT: First of all, he's a big man. He's a big man. He can run, great athlete. He understands our offense. He's been in their system. He's been behind Deshaun Watson, so I'm sure he learned a lot.
These guys do a great job spreading the ball around. They stretch you with their RPO game. When he's running the football, it's a lot like wildcat, lots of lead blockers. And it's almost like he's the 12th man. He has really good arm talent. He's got playmakers on the outside. He can make all the throws. So if you decide to defend him and you are running with him down the field mantoman, you have got to be able to control him because with his feet, he can create explosive plays. But he also will scramble and look to push the ball down the field. He's a very talented individual.
Q. What does Christian [Miller] being back with you guys, how does that help your team?
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Alabama Defense Press Conference December 29, 2017
COACH PRUITT: I think all the guys that are back, we're excited to have everything back, not just Christian. First of all, it provides us depth and we've got guys who are now kind of playing the positions that they played over the last couple years.
That's the one thing, you sit there and guys have kind of waited their time. As a football player, you get better the more you do something. And these guys that set here for the last couple years and played behind some really good players, it was unfortunate that we lost some of them. But having them back, it gives us a little bit of experience over some of the freshman.
Q. What do you think of Mack [Wilson] in recent weeks? How important will he be in this matchup, especially with Dylan [Moses] gone?
COACH PRUITT: Mack has played the entire year really with a foot injury. So we've had to limit what he could do at practice. He had the surgery after the LSU game. The fact he's been back obviously will help us, especially with Dylan being out. We're excited to have him back. We need him back. He was playing really well until he got hurt. So we'll see how he plays in this game.
Q. What kind of sacrifices have you had to make from sending pressure from the secondary? And how do you think that's affected your ability to defend on third downs?
COACH PRUITT: The one thing is, if you're going to bring pressure, you're putting you're going to put pressure on the back end. So if you are going to bring five or six guys, somewhere there's going to be pressure. The big thing defensively is you want to be able to hide the pressure. So that's the one thing you got to do. If you're going to do it, you've got to be able to disguise and it bring it from different spots.
But we have some guys in the back end that can play mantoman. And for us to this win this game, we'll have to play mantoman just because of the quarterback. The guy can hut you with his feet and their run game. So we'll have to get up there and put some pressure on the back end.
Q. What was that first meeting like with the players after the break? And then how long did it take to get back to, I guess, normal?
COACH PRUITT: It was normal the first day I walked back in. I've got a very close relationship with the players here. These guys are excited for me just like I'm excited for them. So wasn't anything any different.
Q. Do you think you will have a hard time with Tennessee being a rival?
COACH PRUITT: No.
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Alabama Defense Press Conference December 29, 2017
Q. Does Minkah [Fitzpatrick] ever surprise you at this point with what he can do?
COACH PRUITT: Minkah surprises me every day. Yesterday I'm sitting there looking we bus over to the stadium, and I'm just kind of looking around. The first person on the field, the first person dressed out there is Minkah Fitzpatrick. And he's down there talking with Coach [Nick] Saban. And I know they are talking ball. I can see it. I can tell both of their mannerisms. He eats, sleeps, and breathes it. He's probably as good a competitor, as tough, an instinctive guy that I've been around.
Q. Do you think these hybrid players like Minkah are becoming more the norm of what you need to have as part of your elite college defense?
COACH PRUITT: Yeah, I wouldn't call Minkah a hybrid player. I would call him a complete player. He can play corner. He can play safety. He can play star. He can play wide receiver. He can be our punt returner. He probably could play quarterback for us. I mean, he's that type of guy.
Q. As far as playing down in the box, also being able to have that ability?
COACH PRUITT: There's not many of them out there like him.
Q. How has Deonte [Brown] come along this year?
COACH PRUITT: Deonte is a guy that, I think, when he got to Alabama he started off as a wide receiver. I remember the first time I saw him was in, I guess, bowl prep in 2015. I'm just watching him and the guy flashes because of the way he's got some range about him in the back end. The guy loves to practice. He loves the ball. And when he's had an opportunity to play this year, he's played well for us. He's been a really good special teams player for us. He'll get some opportunities the next game.
Q. When you lose the two guys that are the two linebackers that are good at coming off the edge in game one, how much does that change what you do going forward? And are you kind of back to the defense you envision coming out of camp now?
COACH PRUITT: You know, the reality is, we lost a lot of good players at that position from the year before. So it wasn't like the guys that got hurt in the first game had played a whole lot of ball.
Ryan Anderson and Tim Williams had been playing that position for a while. So these guys were kind of excited about having an opportunity. And they played really well the first half against Florida State. Unfortunately, they got hurt.
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Alabama Defense Press Conference December 29, 2017
So the one good thing about them being back, they've had a chance to practice really in bowl prep, which we kind of go back to a camp practice. So these guys have had an opportunity to kind of get back to used to the routine and probably gain confidence in the injuries that they had. So it's we're thankful for sure that they're back.
Q. The linebackers may be brilliant. Do you find yourself wondering more about how the linebackers coalesce with the DBs, the line?
COACH PRUITT: Our guys have played they have been really productive this year, whoever we've had in the game. We probably limited some of our calls based off the lack of experience and guys playing positions.
I mean, there was a couple of weeks there we just took guys and completely moved them from inside backer to outside backer or vice versa, from inside to outside, guys playing the wheel. It's really not the same.
So we put a lot on these guys. And sometimes that's part of it. And our guys have done a really good job of trying to prepare and have an opportunity to execute in the games.
Q. How big were those linebackers, Christian [Miller], Terrell [Lewis], and Mack [Wilson], at Auburn compared to where they are now? How much of a stride have they made in terms of development from that game?
COACH PRUITT: Since it's been a month since we played Auburn, I'm sure they've got to be a little better now than they were then
Q. Were they at full strength for that game?
COACH PRUITT: Sure. We wouldn't played them if they weren't.
Q. When you look at Ronnie Harrison and how he played this year, what does he bring to?
COACH PRUITT: Ronnie has experience playing the position. He's played a lot of ball for us. He's got really good range in the back end. He makes a lot of the calls back there. He kind of quarterbacks the defense. To me, defensively you got to start from the back end and work forward. He's really done a good job with that.
He's a confident player. He's improved his tackling and mantoman this year. So he's probably one of the better guys out there. And I know from my standpoint, he's a guy that the other guys respond to. He has leadership skills about him and our players kind of gravitate and kind of feed off Him.
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Alabama Defense Press Conference December 29, 2017
Q. How long did it take you to master Nick's [Saban] coverage schemes and stuff with the pattern matching, backing off players, et cetera? How long did it take you to hit that from not just the secondary level but also the linebacker level?
COACH PRUITT: I still have not mastered it. Coach, he's probably right now in there figuring something else out that he'll want to install when I get back.
I was very fortunate, the guys that I played for in Coach [Gene] Stallings and Coach [Bill] Oliver, the background that we had years ago in the mid '90s, a lot of the things that I learned as a player, we actually still do today. So that kind of tells you how far these guys were ahead of the game. Especially the teaching progression conceptually. I had a really good foundation from working with those guys. It was really easy for me to learn it when I started working for Coach.
Q. The numbers Clemson has at receiver and running back, how has that secondary challenged you guys with what you face with all those guys in and out?
COACH PRUITT: These guys play a lot of running backs. I think between their toptwo guys, it's almost like they have identical carries, like 103 carries. And then Ryan [Carter] actually has more carries than anybody. So that's probably their three dominant runners. They got guys that they can spread the ball with. Every run they have, they have an RPO built in. They will make you play the width of the field, and they have the ability to stretch it down the field. We're going to have a tremendous challenge slowing these guys down.
Q. (Question about coaching at Tennessee.)
COACH PRUITT: I'm employed by Tennessee. I am recruiting for Tennessee every day. But when I got here, I owe it to these guys that I help recruit to Alabama.
We always talk about you want to finish what you start, and I'm excited to help give these guys an opportunity to get what they want. That's what we talked about when we recruited them. So I owe it to these guys to do the best I can to help them, and there's plenty of hours in the day to balance it.
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