Druid City Online's unique coverage of Alabama football brings you up close and personal with players and coaches after every Alabama football home game, including the 2003 A Day Game!. Click below to read pieces of post-game interviews ...

The Crimson stomped the White 47-0, but head coach Mike Price says the game created
some good tape for his team to study until August

Mike Price (Alabama Head Coach '03 ... '02 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year finalist, head coach Washington State '88-'02 ...)

These comments came during post game interviews with Alabama Crimson Tide players and coaches ...

Mike Price - How are y'all doing?

Press pool responds, "Good."

I'm getting pretty good at this aren't I? Umm ... first of all, I'd like to say how much I appreciate everyone coming to this game ... showing the support for this team. I know the weather wasn't all that great, so that was probably a hindrance to a lot of people. But there were a lot of festivities. A lot of the former players came back. I really appreciate that. A great basketball game last night George Teague did. Gosh, there were like twenty guys on the sideline and in the locker room. It was wonderful. I think the ceremony before the game with the captains was real emotional and really nice. I really like the way we treat our former players, and we're going to continue to do that. It just shows that if you've busted your tail around here for four or five years, then you're always welcomed back. It was great to see so many pros come back, and so many former players come back with the A Day Club and all the festivities. It really was a great weekend.

I also thought that considering the weather we looked pretty good the first half. We looked fairly crisp offensively and defensively. Defensively, I thought Mark Anderson (#47 So. WLB) played real well. I also thought Cornelius Worthington ... Cornelius Wortham (#16 Sr, SLB) played well. On a screen pass he played it real good. Was is Jones that got the pick?

Media chief Larry White says, "Yes."

That guy is amazing. Where ever that ball goes, he goes and he's been playing real well all Spring. Defensively, they got the one turnover early. They backed up and stopped the offense and that was good. On defense, I think a lot of guys played real well. On offense, I think Luke (Triandos, #84 Sr. SE) played well. Shaud Williams ran the ball real well. I thought Brodie Croyle was real good. He looked like he had just come away from a concentration camp there at halftime. His skin was white and he had big, black, dark rings around his eyes. I thought, "Oh man, that guy!" He had lost 12 pounds from the flu, and he really sucked it up. Not only did he suck it up, but he played well. I thought our team speed looked good. Particularly in the first half. Offensively and defensively, the Crimson team anyway. And we got everybody a chance to play. Everybody got in there and got a chance to play ... and got a chance to play a lot! So that was fun to finish with. It might be some of these guys' last chance to get in there. But it was great to see the walk-ons and the veteran players get in there together. They all really worked hard for us, and got a chance to perform in front of their family and friends. Questions ...

Press Pool (inaudible)

The kicking game ... Bostic, I think, did pretty good. And we had a couple of punters who kicked pretty good. We got lots of opportunities to look at all the punters. You might look at that and say, "Hey, the kicking game wasn't good because not all of them kicked well." But that's not the idea. We trying to find out who can kick, and who can't kick. Who can punt and who can't punt. We're just trying to separate some of the players from each other through this scrimmage experience. It's easy to kick when there's no one in the stadium. But you put 35,000 people in there and it makes all the difference in the world.

Mike, there were a lot of "1s" on that Crimson team. Can you talk about your thinking in that?

I wanted to get some continuity with our offense and our defense. We played 1s versus 1s just about every play every practice. So it's been a competitive things. But it's not going to be like that next year. It's going to be 1s and 1s on the same team. You're going to have to do that eventually. So I just wanted to see what it looked like with all the 1s on one team. That's why we did it like that.

Did you see a big improvement from the start of the Spring 'til today?

Vast improvement from the start of the Spring until today, no doubt about that. Those of you who have covered us on a daily basis have seen that. We're not where we need to be, and we're not where we're going to be. We've got to get better. I told the team that it's not where you are right now. But anything they want to accomplish is up to them. Right now, it's up to them until August 1st. I'm not going to be there to help them. I won't be there to coach them. They're going to have to continue to work, which they have. It's just nice that we've put our plays in so they know what we're talking about, and they'll be able to go out on their own this summer and do the job. So how many games we win will depend on what they do between now and August first.

Coach, having said that, is a lot of what involved with that mental?

Mental and physical. We kind of cut Ben Pollard, our strength coach, off because we started Spring so early. So they need to continue to regain strength. We're not as strong of a football team as we've been in the past, but we will be by August. You know what I mean? We tested them too early so they didn't get a chance to lift as long as they normally would. The mental part, at least we've got it in and they know what it is. They can go back and watch these practices now, and watch them over and over again. We'll cut up the plays, and put all of our zone plays on one tape, and all of our passing plays on another tape. So they'll be able to come in anytime and watch themselves (run the plays.) Until now, they've been watching Washington State run these plays. Now they can come in and watch Alabama. So it should help them.

How do you feel about the depth?

I feel good about the depth. If you break up the team, I think it improves your depth. In the beginning of the fourth quarter, we put a lot of young players in there and they moved the ball right down the field and made some plays.

How representative was the play calling today compared to a real game?

Pretty conservative maybe? (laughs)

Press pool laughs

You never know. I hope that you will not be able to tell. We chart all that during the season and put it in a computer. But it should be unexpected. I hope my play selection, and our play selection for the team is unexpected. Geez, why are they doing that ... Oh my gosh it worked! You shouldn't say, "Here they go again. First and ten, run. Third and long, pass." I don't think your going to see that from this football team and program.

Can you talk about your decision to switch Spencer over to the Crimson team in the second half?

Well, I looked at Brodie at halftime, and he'd about had it. And wanted Spencer to go out and play better. I'm disappointed for Spencer, I'm not disappointed in Spencer. He's going to be a player for us. Didn't have a particularly good day today. It's hard when things aren't kicking early, and then you get back with the first teamers and you have to turn it on. Sometimes it just doesn't click.

What could you tell about your staff as far as it being a game day setting?

I couldn't really tell much about it because when we were coaching, both sides weren't able to stop and make adjustments that you normally do when the other team has the ball. The other team never had the ball, we had the ball the whole time. So it wasn't as good for us that way. I love this staff. I think they're great. I'm really fortunate in who I selected. They're dynamic. We had an awesome recruiting group here. Probably the best recruits we've ever had on this campus came this weekend. 30-40 of the top ranked recruits in the South. And about a total of 175 total recruits we had for this scrimmage. Randy Ross did an awesome job, and well, I hope they liked it because we had some great players here.

What did you think of the condition of the field?

It was great. I was surprised and shocked because a week or ten days ago I was looking it going "Oh man!" But of course I know nothing about keeping grass green. The grounds crew really worked their tails off to get it right, and I appreciate them.

How did you feel about the passing efficiency (inaudible)

I think we're doing good throwing the football and blocking for the pass. The kids are catching the ball well. Everyone is improving. That part was obviously the biggest improvement with the offensive line and the pass protection. They like it. They're challenged. It's something new for them and they like doing it.

(players begin to enter)

These are the guys you want to be talking to, not an old man like me.

Can you comment on the Todd Bates situation?

No, not other than the statement I made where I said he's a fine young man and he just made a poor decision. He'll be back after one year. Very unfortunate to see that happen to him. I saddens me because he's a good person.

Can you comment on substitutions, play packages and penalties?

We didn't have any delay of game penalties. We didn't have any (missed) center/quarterback exchanges. We did have the clip on that one punt. That was not a real smart decision by the player involved in that. But it was a pretty clean game, not a lot of flags on the field. Offensively our play calling was a little hard because we don't have all our signals in. The guys looked like they were organized and they knew what they were doing. The plays got in smoothly and we got lined up pretty good. Didn't have a lot of alignment errors, and you might have that with so many younger players that were playing.

About how much of your offense has been installed now?

About two-thirds of the offense is in. There wasn't anything offensively or defensively that we held back because it was on television. I don't care (about that) They don't know what we're going to run. South Florida doesn't know what we're going to run. Hell, I don't know what we're going to run yet!

(The press pool laughs and the interview ends)

Thanks a lot for coming. I appreciate it.

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Click on the name for parts of their post-game interviews ...

Mike Price (Head Coach '03 ... '02 Bear Bryant Coach of the Year finalist, head coach Washington State '88-'02)

Joe Kines (Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach '03 ... LB coach Florida State '00-'02, Def Coord. Georgia '95-'98)

Brodie Croyle (#14 So. QB, 6-2 198 lbs. Rainbow City, AL - Westbrook Christian)

Dre Fulgham (#3 Sr. SE, 6-1 217 lbs. Montevallo, AL - Montevallo)