Former No. 1-ranked Alabama’s shocking 40-35 loss to Vanderbilt this past Saturday turned the entire college football world upside down. But one major story to come out of this was when the game was nearing its end.
Alabama graduate senior and permanent captain Malachi Moore slammed Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s head into the turf after the whistle, before exploding on his teammates and then ultimately drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for kicking the ball after it had been spotted. In addition, he refused to come off of the field for fellow safety Bray Hubbard shortly after by waving Hubbard and the coaching staff off.
It seemed like these final moments were as talked about as the historic upset itself and on Monday morning, Alabama co-captain and left guard Tyler Booker opened up about the hot topic and provided some aftermath of it on The Next Round.
Malachi, he’s so prideful about the University of Alabama,” Booker told The Next Round. “I’ve learned so much about being an Alabama football player from Malachi and it means so much to him. Yeah, he had an emotional moment at the end of the game but when he got into the locker room, he was the leader he needed to be. Just having a conversation with him, we just talked about how bad both of us wanted it because Malachi has won a National Championship as a freshman, and he wants to go out the right way, just as I do and just as everybody else on the team does. We all understand where his frustration was coming from.”
Booker mentioned that Moore spoke to the team and that they’ve “all had conversations with him” and that they “all know where he’s coming from” as a fifth-year. However, Booker understands that Moore didn’t handle this correctly.
