Alabama HC Kalen DeBoer Calls Out 'Emotional Maturity' After Dijon Lee Jr. Foul Call in Georgia Loss

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer cited "emotional maturity" as an area where his team was lacking late in Saturday's 20-17 loss to Georgia.

The Crimson Tide's comeback attempt ended when defensive back Dijon Lee Jr. committed a personal foul by shoving Bulldogs receiver Craig Dandridge in the helmet. The automatic first down allowed Georgia to run off the remaining time.

"We preach emotional maturity, and I really feel strong that across the board we had that with our team and would've never expected that to happen," DeBoer said, per ESPN's Alex Scarborough . "You got to give yourself a chance.

"You're out there giving everything you got. You just got to give yourself a chance. And so, emotional maturity is what it comes down to. And we've been pretty good at that going on the last two years. Obviously, the moment comes up like we had just now, we didn't respond the right way."

The ESPN broadcast caught DeBoer giving Lee an earful as the sophomore ran toward the sideline.

Safety Bray Hubbard, one of the team captains, effectively echoed his coach's postgame sentiment.

"We just got to stay locked in, all across the board. We talk about having no foolish penalties," he told reporters . "That's kind of a crucial penalty. What was it, going to be third down? We hold them there, they have to punt the ball and give the ball back to our offense. Instead, they change move and as soon as the ref blows the whistle, the clock starts ticking, and we go into the two-minute timeout. We basically gave them that."

Inside the final two minutes, the score might've looked much different if Georgia had been flagged for pass interference on a 2nd-and-10 for the Tide with 3:28 left.

Addressing the no-call, DeBoer downplayed its impact and said, "We can't put the game in that situation where the officials come into play."

Alabama can't afford to dwell on the loss for too long. A road trip to No. 15 Tennessee awaits next Saturday.

A win would obviously provide a big lift to the locker room and help the players put the Georgia game behind them.