Alabama football coaches on adjustments vs. Oklahoma: ‘Not good enough’

Alabama football couldn’t find any answers for Oklahoma in its 24-3 loss on Saturday. The Crimson Tide got dominated on both sides of the ball, and watched its College Football Playoff dreams wither in the defeat.

On Monday, Crimson Tide coaches were asked about their in-game adjustments throughout the loss. Offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan said he wasn’t pleased with how he and the staff had handled the game.

“Not good enough, right?” Sheridan said. “I think that that’s a fair assessment. And so, like I mentioned before, none of us did a good enough job to put our team in a position to win, and that certainly starts with me, and we need to do a better job.”

The offense stayed stagnant throughout the game, only managing a field goal in the first half. On the other side of the ball, Kane Wommack’s defense got better after halftime, but still not good enough to stop the Sooner run game that torched the Tide all night.

Wommack said he thought the defense adjusted well after halftime. Still, he said after looking at the film that there were “two or three” calls he would have liked to change.

“I think you’ve got to be critical of yourself first in terms of, OK what could I have called to put ourselves in a better position?” Wommack said. “Quite honestly, the explosive plays that we gave up, probably one of those calls I would have liked to have had back. The other two really didn’t hurt us, but I thought I could have called something better in the moment.”

Wommack pointed out that consistency was a problem for the Crimson Tide in the game, an issue echoed by Sheridan and head coach Kalen DeBoer. DeBoer also discussed the in-game adjustments on Monday.

“There was probably a few more adjustments in the game plan as it goes on,” DeBoer said. “But those are usually part of the game plan itself. You’re just going to Plan B, Plan C, and that’s, to me, what adjustments are. You know what the possibilities are each and every week from the film that you watch.

“And it’s just a matter of going to the next level and next set of plays that either attack offensively or adjust to what you’ve been seeing defensively, and you call more of this rather than that. So I think, yeah, it evolved, but I think it’s different for each side of the ball.”

Alabama will face Auburn in Tuscaloosa Saturday. The Iron Bowl is scheduled to kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT and will be aired on ABC.