How Alabama players, Kalen DeBoer feel about moving practice to mornings

Shortly after 9:05 a.m. on Wednesday in Dallas, Alabama football head coach Kalen DeBoer was giving his opening statement in the main room at SEC Media Days. He looked ahead to camp and dropped a bit of timing news.

“Looking forward to hitting the field two weeks from today at this very time,” DeBoer said. We’ll be in practice, which is exciting.”

That bit of scheduling news, which puts the start of preseason camp on July 31, one month before the Crimson Tide’s season opener, confirmed a major change from the days of Nick Saban. While Saban had Alabama practicing in the afternoons, DeBoer will get things started early in the morning.

Later on in the day, DeBoer discussed getting the team on board with the new setup.

“That’s something I think our guys have embraced,” DeBoer said. “Educating them, again, this isn’t necessarily the only way you win, but this is a way that I’ve achieved success and I think they’re very open to it, I appreciate out guys for being that way.”

Also speaking in Dallas Wednesday, Alabama players said they were totally fine with the shift to practicing earlier in the day. According to offensive lineman Tyler Booker, the move to mornings helped open more time for other important things later on.

“We like it a lot,” Booker said. “It’s definitely gonna give us a lot more time at the back end of the day to have time with our teammates, go over film, time with our coaches, go over film, take care of our bodies, eat more if we need to.”

In theory, the move to mornings could make for a cooler practice. In actuality, Alabama still gets hot during summers, even early, something safety Malachi Moore pointed out in Dallas.

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

“I actually like it,” Moore said. “It’s given us the opportunity to get up in the morning, get our work in and have more time to get treatment and get any extra work in that you have.”