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Alabama OL talks culture change after 2024 season: ‘You can’t be late to workouts’
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Alabama offensive lineman Roq Montgomery knows all too well that the 2024 season wasn’t up to the Alabama standard that is talked about so much in the Crimson Tide football community.
Alabama started the Kalen DeBoer era with a bang in September, capped by that electrifying victory over Georgia. But then October hit and the team struggled, losing at Vanderbilt and at Tennessee. The November loss at Oklahoma turned out to be the dagger to the Crimson Tide’s College Football Playoff chances. Then a listless loss to Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl finished off a forgettable season at 9-4, well below that Alabama standard.
Montgomery recently went on a podcast fittingly called The Bama Standard Network to discuss what happened and why the 2025 season will be different. The work has already begun on getting back toward that point this coming fall.
“You can’t be late to workouts no more,” Montgomery said. “No more jewelry. No more necklaces. None of that. It’s not a fashion show, it’s football. Shoutout to Coach (David) Ballou, our head strength coach. He’s not playing that s—. Excuse my language, but he’s just not. If somebody late — like we had a few people late, I’m not gonna throw nobody under the bus — if somebody (is) late to workouts, everybody got 15 up-downs on Ballou’s whistle. And then whoever late got to push a plate and do their work out. No jewelry, no nothing. Any team that has won before us, nobody was doing none of that.”
Now it’s a matter of taking those words and translating them to the field, starting in spring camp.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
