When LSU football coach Brian Kelly, a Massachusetts native, was introduced in Baton Rouge during a Tiger basketball game, he famously used a cringe-worthy southern accent when saying the word “family,” a move that has prompted years of internet ridicule. A native of South Dakota, new Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer won’t be making the same mistake.

During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show Wednesday, DeBoer was asked if he planned on putting on a southern drawl. He laughed and said he doesn’t plan on it.

“I think that would go wrong for me,” DeBoer said. “I just know who I am and there’s some South Dakota in there and that’s who I am, so we just gotta live with that. You got me for who I am.”

DeBoer’s southern bonafides were questioned by some upon his hiring. He’s never coached in the SEC’s footprint, coming to the Tide from Washington after stops at Fresno State and around the midwest.

After DeBoer was introduced as the Crimson Tide’s new head coach, athletics director Greg Byrne emphasized that the staff will include people who are familiar with “sweet tea and grits.”

The new coach agreed.

“I understand there needs to be some SEC ties, some southeast ties that can help bridge the gap of maybe my experiences here,” DeBoer said at the time. “There are experiences, having been West Coast and Indiana and some of the recruiting. But it’s not, I don’t want to lead you on that there’s not every coach’s phone number in my phone right now. Just gotta put myself where the right people are around me.”

He’s followed through on that, bringing in staffers like new defensive coordinator and former South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack.