What Alabama Players, Kalen DeBoer Thinks About Moving Practices To Morning

Shortly after 9:05 a.m. Wednesday in Dallas, Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer delivered his opening remarks in the main room at SEC Media Days. He talked about camp and gave some updates on the schedule.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on the field in two weeks at this time,” DeBoer said. “We’ll be at practice, which is exciting.”

The schedule news, which puts the start of preseason camp on July 31, a month before the Crimson Tide’s season opener, confirmed a major change from the Nick Saban era. While Saban had Alabama practice in the afternoon, DeBoer will start things early in the morning.

Later in the day, DeBoer discussed how to integrate the team into the new setup.

“I think our guys have embraced that idea,” DeBoer said. “Educating them, again, isn’t necessarily the only way to win, but it’s one way I’ve been successful and I think they’re very open to that, I appreciate our guys being that way.”

Alabama players also said in Dallas on Wednesday that they were totally fine with practicing earlier in the day. Offensive lineman Tyler Booker said practicing earlier in the morning freed up more time for other important things later.

“We really like it,” Booker said. “It’s definitely going to give us a lot more time at the end of the day to hang out with our teammates, review video, hang out with our coaches, review video, take care of our bodies, eat more if we need to.”

In theory, the move to morning workouts could allow for cooler practices. In reality, it still gets hot in Alabama during the summer, even in the early morning, as defensive end Malachi Moore pointed out in Dallas.

Still, Moore said he welcomed the change and that most of the team felt the same way.

“I actually like it,” Moore said. “It gives us the opportunity to get up in the morning, work and have more time to get treatment and do any extra work we have.”