With the upcoming week being a bye for the Alabama Crimson Tide, head coach Kalen DeBoer didn’t hold his usual Monday press conference.

Instead, he made an appearance at the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham earlier today and spoke to the media there.

It was only brief, but there was some good soundbites for the second year coach, as he continued to hammer home that the Week 1 loss to Florida State was the best thing for his program.

You used to hear the term “rat poison” a lot while legendary coach Nick Saban was at the helm in Tuscaloosa, and for those who don’t know, “rat poison” is another term for “outside noise.”

While DeBoer isn’t as metaphoric as his predecessor was, the message was the same, but in a different way.

“I’m just really proud of our guys and the way they’ve handled any outside noise,” DeBoer said to a handful of media members. “They’ve understood that it doesn’t mean anything. It really matters what we think and what we do, and they’ve really channeled their focus, channeled their energy in the right things. And that’s their preparation. It’s probably added a little fuel to a fire in some cases for individuals, but I think as a team as a whole, they’ve really been forced to stick together on another level.”

He then continued, “I hope that the edge that it’s created the last couple of weeks stays. It needs to. I’m going to keep reminding them of that, and it’s just let to a lot of positive things in our football team. You hate to go through it, but right now, the adversity, we’re better off because of it.”

DeBoer also touched on senior running back Jam Miller’s availability, who missed the first three weeks of the season with a dislocated collarbone.

“I think with any injury, there’s a volume increase that has to happen and a progression… This week, we’ll keep building on a few of the things he did last week. I don’t know what that would be yet at this point… but I don't anticipate that he’ll be able to just play a full game at the number of snaps he would’ve if he were healthy.”

Given that Miller was a game-time decision for the Wisconsin game, it seems likely that he’ll make his season debut in two weeks against Georgia.

However, based on his comments, don’t expect him to take a full load like we’re used to seeing.

Week 5 will be pivotal for the Tide, as kickoff against Georgia will be 7:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 CT.