Alabama football was reminded of what the standard was when the Crimson Tide least expected it during the home opener against University of Louisiana-Monroe .
When Dre Kirkpatrick Jr. made a helmet-to-helmet hit on ULM receiver Tyler Griffin, strong safety Keon Sabb recalled after the 73-0 shutout that members of the secondary on the sidelines were "enthused" to see the physicality.
On Tuesday, Sept. 9, safety Bray Hubbard reflected on the moment with media, finding the collision to not only be a wakeup-call for playing more carefully, but most important, the effort that's expected of the Alabama defense.
"That's the standard around here. I don't wanna say 'knock people's heads off,' " Hubbard said. "But to fly around, play with tremendous effort like he did, hit people hard and play physical, I mean, that's the standard."
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Hubbard said he loved the hit, but acknowledged he and his teammates can't lead with their heads. Once the scoreboard showed the review of the play, the secondary knew that Kirkpatrick was "gone," according to Hubbard.
From Hubbard's vantage point, he saw Griffin "kind of falling down" during the fourth-quarter play, which made the call a "hard one." Hubbard saw the ULM receiver go to catch a glance ball and Kirkpatrick turned, going full speed ahead, but Griffin "cut right back into" Kirkpatrick.
"I guess he was falling down at the same time, and Dre went to go freaking kill him," Hubbard said.
Kirkpatrick's takedown resulted in his ejection from the game, as well as being ruled out for the first half of Alabama 's Sept. 13 game against Wisconsin , which will kick off at 11 a.m. CT.
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: How targeting penalty vs. ULM reminded Alabama football of the 'standard'
