Kalen DeBoer talks Alabama's 'LANK mentality' ahead of 2024 season
During the Nick Saban era, there wasn't really a mantra that was widely known throughout college football to associate with the program.
The head coach just wanted players to work hard and win championships while staying within the culture of the program. However, in what turned out to be his last season as a coach, Alabama went viral for a mantra that turned out to be a personal brand of quarterback Jalen Milroe and corner Terrion Arnold known as "LANK". Milroe defined the acronym to ESPN's Reece Davis as "Let All Naysayers Know."
Something that when Davis shared went insanely viral, as while it does make sense that wasn't the true meaning. Not that Milroe lied to Davis, but more so because the true explanation doesn't apply to him. Regardless, the program has adopted it as its mentality, and while speaking at the SEC spring meetings it was evident that new head coach Kalen DeBoer has as well.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer
Alabama Athletics
DeBoer talked about just how excited he was about the buy-in that the team has, and went as far as to credit it to their viral mentality.
“I’m excited about the hunger that these guys have," DeBoer said via BamaOnLine. Today was our first day officially back with workouts. But like you said, they’ve been doing a lot. And I know that that’s been actually something, again, when you talk about workload and all that, we’ve been conscious in telling guys that they need to make sure that they refresh for a few days. And I love that that hunger is there. I was on a thread this morning, guys wanted to get together on our leadership group to make sure that the mindsets are in the right place. That’s what it’s all about, is having a player-led team that can lead themselves, lead the rest of the guys around them and want to do something special together.
“So I just try to facilitate that as the head coach. I know our staff does the same thing. These guys are hungry, whether it’s to prove people right or prove people wrong, I don’t know, because some people are excited about what it looks like, and others are casting some doubts on them. And so it certainly applies to the LANK mentality that they have. And I’m excited to see what this summer brings about as far as their progression and building on what we did this spring.”
With DeBoer at the helm, the Tide are looking to show that there is no drop-off in what is a new era of Alabama football. They are still considered to be one of the better teams in college football, but programs like Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas are now viewed as the teams to beat in the SEC.
Alabama opens the season against Western Kentucky on August 31.
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