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Alabama tight end Josh Ford told the media following the 49-18 win over South Carolina that he was "punched multiple times" by South Carolina defensive end Dylan Stewart, while also noting that "he's a great player" in his response when asked about it. "We had a lot of fun today," Ford continued. "I think he punched me three times, but it was awesome. It was a good battle. Man, I was just like, 'Man, you're good. You're a great guy.' He didn't like that. I remember a few plays today where me and Dylan Stewart were making eye contact before a play. I told him, 'I'm swaying back.' I'm coming for you. It was a lot of fun." MORE: Everything Kalen DeBoer said Monday before No. 7 Alabama's road game at No. 16 Mississippi State MORE: Alabama OC Ryan Grubb details walk through, in-game moment when talking growth from quarterback Keelon Russell The 6-foot-6, 266-pounder added that he didn't know what Stewart said back to him, noting that there were "a lot of hits, so I probably forgot what he said" with a smile on his face. The most notable punch came during a touchdown run by Daniel Hill in the fourth quarter of the game. Since then, Gamecocks' head coach Shane Beamer has suspended Stewart from the team indefinitely. "I'll make the decision on what his future looks like beyond this week here in the next day or so," he told the media on Sunday. "Still having some meetings and talking with him, but he won't play his week versus Kentucky. There's a standard of how we do things in our program and that was not it last night. It's beyond the punch. The punch is unacceptable. He's not the first person to ever throw a punch in the football game and he won't be the last. But it's some of the other stuff. that isn't how we do things in this program. Accountability is a core value in this program and we are all accountable to the standard, so we'll see what that looks like here going forward." "It gets heated down there," he continued. "Dylan and a coach — players and coaches — there's intense conversations and things that happen during games," Beamer said. "And you know that you're in a competitive hostile environment. ... We're going to hold guys accountable for things. That's what we're doing here. That's what we do with all of our players. Dylan and South Carolina are not the first place that have had interactions that get heated on the sideline. It's a competitive environment and I've seen a lot of them over the years, whether it be at Georgia or Tennessee or Oklahoma or wherever else I've coached over the years." (Photo: Getty) Kalen DeBoer held his weekly press conference on Monday and was asked about entering a tough stretch of SEC play, particularly when it comes to intense environments on the road. And the Alabama head coach seemed to use the opportunity to address that situation. "Well, we take every opportunity that we see within things that happen to us in games and how our opponent responded," he said. "We look at college football, NFL. Showed multiple clips across the country of you know just things that we don't want to have happen within and what we don't represent. And so we use those examples to make sure we're always on top of it and don't take it for granted. I don't take it for granted at all. And so, just again, I think our guys have handled themselves very well. We have a group that is intense. They play hard, but we really take a lot of pride in doing it the way the game's meant to be played and that's between the snap and the whistle at the end of a play." "So, I like the the way our guys play, and you know I am sure with Josh, you know just his intensity has raised the level of a lot of other guys around him, and you couldn't have a nicer guy as a person, but just nasty on the football field, and you know we love that about him, but he knows how to keep it within the confines of what the the game's supposed to be played at, and the parameters with the rules," DeBoer continued. The Crimson Tide does have a big test on the road at Mississippi State this coming Saturday. "So we're going to get challenged here this next week against a very very good Mississippi State team," DeBoer said on Monday. "Coach (Jeff) Lebby has done an awesome job bringing these guys together. They're off to a great start. Going into an environment we know that, you know, will challenge us. So just got to continue to focus on our process, focus on us, and you know, I think our guys really believe and continue to evolve and continue to refine individually the things throughout the week that help them play at the highest level they can, and you know, it's just a hard reset and kind of some of the catchy tunes or phrases that we refer to, and you know resetting and starting over and just working through Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, Thursday, I don't care if it is meetings, practice, walk through, stretch, training room, nutrition sleep; it's all of it and I think our guys you know take care of them themselves and I think they also challenge each other to make sure that that those things are all taken care of." Stay up to date with the latest on the Bama247 VIP Boards.