Alabama OL Michael Carroll recaps Tennessee loss, previews Texas A&M

How's it going, Michael? I'm good. Vocal leader stepped up and told us his feelings on everything, and we all listened up, ready to attack this week, moving on to the next game. What's the intensity been like in practice this week, or maybe what's the team's response when a leader says stuff like that to you? Definitely an elite response from the guys all around as a group, taking this week extremely serious, and definitely an uptick in the tenacity from everyone and effort. I was just saying like y'all are already in the playoffs. Katelyn talked yesterday about, y'all kind of lived this last year with your back up against the wall to Florida State. Hey, what can y'all take from that last year you won eight in a row? Is that something that this team can do too? I 100% believe in this team. No, I definitely think that's possible. Like you said, playoffs start now, so we're ready for it. What's been the message behind, I guess, now over the course of these past two, it's obviously in a big position. What's been the message from the guys? Right, extremely proud of Mal, the way he stepped up, you know, was able to go versus Tennessee. So, the message has been next man up mentality and, you know, everyone ready to go when their opportunity arises. What is Grayson's kind of role right now in terms of being vocal? Is he still around you guys? What is up? Yeah, he's definitely around us, you know, picking us up, being a great leader in his role that he has right now. What can the O-line do to make things easier for Keelan? Yeah, that just comes back to, you know, practice like we had today. Great practice, you know, communication that comes down to the simple things, I feel like and then taking that over from practice to the games. What's been the response from Ryan Grubba after the last couple of offensive struggles? He's been like, we gotta take it back to the simple things, work our way back up. You gotta work hard. What was challenging? Obviously credit to them, extremely good defense, but we're just moving on to the next week. What stands out about that punching in the face? Extremely explosive, they make a lot of plays, great defense, really great players across the board, so great challenge. I know he's not going to be facing you. So, like, I see he's looking for you. It should probably be good to see him again. You know, he's a great player. I've said he's, you know, called to the offensive line to get fewer sacks. What does that look like, whether it's the message from Coach Clem or out on the practice field to call in on that? You've got to take pride in that, you know, full work, hand placement, and your technique. And I feel like doing that every day in practice needs to carry over to the game. You know, got to limit those sacks. The coaches have kind of talked about negative plays, whether it's penalties or, you know, for us taking y'all out of this group just has there been a focus on the opening driver I guess the whole game kind of eliminating those negative plays I would definitely say so myself I feel like we got to start extremely fast you know it's always great to start fast and you know get up on a team early last call okay I just want to ask you about where you feel like the alliance can do better after that game I feel like we can get better in every area run run blocking and pass blocking so coming back and having a good day today I feel like should carry into a great game coming up this Saturday. From a physicality standpoint, where do you think is the emphasis? Obviously coming in here, you know, working hard every day and also, you know, just kind of having a good mindset about it as well and then, you know, obviously being strong and physical. What was Coach Clavin's message to you guys after Saturday? I mean, the message was that was an embarrassing performance and we need to come together as a group and never let that happen again. Appreciate it.