Kalen DeBoer, Kane Wommack Provide Early Look at Florida State

This season's Florida State team looks much different on paper than the 2024 roster. Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer opened up about the challenges of preparing for a team with so much turnover, as he had to endure this after taking over for Nick Saban in January of last year.

"Yeah, you walk in from my shoes, you walk into the offense and defense and special teams, especially offense and defense and you see a lot of different film being shown for different reasons," DeBoer said on Thursday. "Personnel, scheme, what they were last year and then the same thing on offense. More probably scheme in what they were a year ago, as far as their talent returning.

"So there is a lot, but you’ve got to make sure you’re not chasing ghosts and you’re trying to keep things simple for us and we can do what we do. We have enough stuff that we see from each side of the ball that we see a lot of variations of our offense. We see a lot of variations from our defense.

"There are certainly some things that we expect that are different than what we do on offense or defense. Whether it’s a style of quarterback that they have or what they do defensively as a system. There certainly are some differences. So we’ve got to be ready for anything and everything."

The quarterback DeBoer is referring to is Boston College transfer Thomas Castellanos. The senior added bulletin board material to the season opener on June 23, as he said that the Crimson Tide doesn't "have Nick Saban to save them" and " I just don’t see them stopping me."

Alabama captains Deontae Lawson and Tim Keenan III both said on July 6 during SEC Media Days that they " won't forget what he said" and that "all disrespect will be addressed accordingly." Nevertheless, Castellanos reaffirmed his viral take on July 23, stating, "We stand on what I said."

That said, Castellanos thrives off an attribute that Alabama struggled with last season: neutralizing quarterbacks who can run. Some examples include then-Oklahoma q uarterback Jackon Arnold, who rushed for 131 yards, South Florida's Byrum Brown (108 yards), Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia (56) and then-Tennessee's Nico Iamaleava (44).

Three of those four examples resulted in losses for Alabama and it'll first be put to the test against Castellanos. He was limited as a rusher last season due to injury, but he ran for over 1,000 yards in 2022 and 2023.

Providing running lanes and time in the pocket for Castellanos on Aug. 30 is, of course, the Seminoles' offensive line. Four members of the expected starting front five are transfers and Florida State hired former Auburn and UCF head coach Gus Malzahn as its offensive coordinator this offseason.

Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, who has a longtime relationship with Malzahn, opened up about the preparation for him, the revamped offensive line and Castellanos on Wednesday.

“Well, I mean, there's give and take to that, right? There's things t hat we've got to figure out," Wommack said. "There's things that they've got to figure out. And so that's ultimately, you kind of go back and you look at these guys, what they've done in the past.

"You try to mold that with what Gus has done, with what [head coach Mike Norvell] has done in the past at Florida State. And so you're kind of trying to anticipate a little bit of everything that they do.

“And knowing that ultimately, you're going to see something that you didn't work on in practice. And so certainly we'll carry a relatively heavy game plan, right, to be able to, if they want to go this way or that way, we'll be ready for it. But at the end of the day, right, you get 11 bodies on the field and you get ready to adjust.

"To me, that's the job of a defensive coordinator and defensive staff, is to find ways to adjust as the game goes. And that's something that we've always taken great pride in, our ability to do that at a high level defensively.”

As previously stated, Alabama has eight more days to prepare for Florida State. The Crimson Tide will face the Seminoles in Doak Campbell Stadium on Aug. 30 at 2:30 p.m. CT in Tallahassee and on ABC.