Why Alabama decided against an onside kick in the final minutes of the Vanderbilt loss

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – From the opening drive of the game, Alabama’s defense struggled to stop the Vanderbilt offense and stayed behind the entire time. The Commodores led by as many as 12 in the second half. The closest Alabama lead was two points early in the third quarter.

The Crimson Tide cut the deficit to five points on a Ryan Williams touchdown with 2:46 left. Vanderbilt had had the ball for nearly 40 minutes at that point and scored on six of eight drives.

Instead of executing an onside kick to get the ball back to Jalen Milroe and into the hands of the offense, Alabama opted to kick it away to Vanderbilt, hoping the defense would get a stop with three timeouts and the two-minute warning remaining could achieve. Once again, Vanderbilt shredded Alabama’s defense and secured the 40-35 victory.

After the game, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said that there was “a lot of effort” put into playing an onside kick.

“Once I understood everything with the timeouts and the two-minute warning and all that, I really felt like we were going to be in a good spot,” DeBoer said. “Even if they got a first down, depending on when that was, we would still have plenty of time to be on the field. I don’t think it was about whether we could find guys. It was just about getting the ball back.”

And that was true. Alabama had moved the ball well on offense except for two turnovers. But when it mattered most, the defense was unstoppable.

“If things don’t go the way you want them to, of course you always look back and think about it again. Maybe we should have tried to handle it from the start, but I felt good about the decision at the time, and honestly I’m still doing it right now.”

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe was confident the defense would be able to stop the ball and give the ball back to the offense. He said the offensive players talked among themselves and worked out a game plan whenever they were back on the field. However, they didn’t get a chance.