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? 1 Quotes provided by Caption Northwest, Inc. – 425-343-4946 www.captionnorthwest.com 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? 2 Quotes provided by Caption Northwest, Inc. – 425-343-4946 www.captionnorthwest.com 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. 3 Quotes provided by Caption Northwest, Inc. – 425-343-4946 www.captionnorthwest.com 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.