Coach Nick Saban officially announces departure from Alabama crimson due to...

Alabama has all of the pieces in place for another potential run to the College Football Playoff, including the leadership of a CBS Sports/247Sports Preseason All-American in the defensive backfield with Malachi Moore returning to the starting lineup. Despite all of the talent across this roster, though, the Crimson Tide enters the 2024 season with more question marks than it is used to. With Nick Saban retired and Kalen DeBoer in place as his heir, the program has much to prove.

Doubt from outside of the program serves as motivation for the Crimson Tide players as they seek a playoff berth and national championship contention, Moore said during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show.

I think the mentality of the team since the transition and since the change has been that we have doubters out there,” Moore said. “I think that’s something that we take with us through the offseason, and we’ve had that chip on our shoulder since the end of last season.”

Camp has been great. Each day, everybody comes to work trying to go 1-0 and really win the day. That’s what Coach DeBoer preaches. We’re just trying to come out here and be better, and I think that’s something that the team understands. We really take pride in coming out there and giving it our best each and every day, each and every play, going 1-0 on the rep and really trying to maximize our opportunity.”

‌I think the mentality of the team since the transition and since the change has been that we have doubters out there. I think that’s something that we take with us through the offseason, and we’ve had that chip on our shoulder since the end of last season. I think that’s something that we always remind ourselves about when we’re at practice and when we’re going through workouts, that people are doubting us and we still have everything to prove.”

Last year was a year for us where we really had to band together as brothers. Losing to Texas early in the season and that USF game, it was a time for us to really just lock in and figure out what we want to do, what the destiny of this team, what we want it to be at the end of all this. All last year, no matter how hard we fought, it seemed like we weren’t moving up in the polls. So we just stopped worrying about the polls, like don’t even look at them, just go out there and do our job, try to be as dominant as we can.

At the end of the day, we’re going to give it our all and look up and we have to accept the result that’s out there on the field. I just think we’re all competitors, and we always want to be the best at what we do. If you’re the quarterback, if you’re the center, the long snapper everybody on the team wants to be the best at what they do. So that competitive edge just drives us each and every day. That feeling that we had at the end of the year last year is something that is steady on our mind each and every day.”

As a defense as a whole, Coach Wommack has preached from Day 1 of him being here that there’s no better time to be a defensive player than right now. Everybody wants to see what the Alabama defense is going to be when Coach Saban left, and this is the best opportunity to show that. When you lose Kool-Aid McKinstry and you lose Terrion Arnold and a guy like Caleb Downs, it’s hard to replace those guys.

But the guys we have in right now, I have complete faith in them. We’ve gelled together in the offseason, and we hold each other to a very high standard. We call each other out when the other one is not living up to that standard, and we really try to just get on the same page with the little time that we’ve had with each other. I feel like we’ve been very intentional about that this offseason. It’s been great for us.”

It’s all good every time I run into Coach Saban. Since he stopped coaching, it’s been nothing but smiles and laughter every time I see him. It’s been good to see him in a lighter headspace and a more relaxed position as opposed to what I’m used to. It’s always great seeing Coach.”

I would say Coach DeBoer is definitely a players’ coach. One of the first things he said coming in to us was he wants a team that’s player-led. He really does a great job of allowing the players to kind of take the bull by the horns, and we check stuff rather than coaches checking stuff. I think that’s one of the most important things about any successful team, is to be player-led.

Coach DeBoer, he’s a winner, and he’s super competitive, and I think we take on his competitive nature as a team and as a whole. He wants to win every play. He wants to win every game. And that’s what we’re here to do. We all have the same mission, and we all have the same goals, and it’s been a blast so far getting ready for camp and getting ready for this season. It’s going to be fun.”

NIL has been a great aspect for us college athletes. I think it has a lot of positives. From just being able to use your platform in a positive way, whether that’s raise awareness for a certain organization that you feel strongly about or using your name to have a back-to-school drive or anything of that nature. Also putting money in our pocket so we can help ourselves and help our families if we need to. I think it’s something that’s evolving each and every year, and it’s something that’s been a positive in college sports…

That’s a credit to our culture here. We kind of just keep the main thing the main thing. It’s great to be able to get paid of our name, image and likeness now and using our platform in ways to make money for ourselves and be able to live comfortably in college. Sometimes it’s hard to go find something to eat, but now since NIL, most of the time you’re straight to go have something to eat or send some money home to your people if they need it. It’s been a great thing.”

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