Alabama Football Daily Insider: Daboll Speaks At Coaches Clinic and Players Comment On Scrimmage

Alabama football fans have a big appetite for information and we’ll be serving up healthy portions of hot food for thought with a side of seasonal inside information every morning this Spring.

There was a time when getting to the Waysider early on a weekday morning was the best way to learn what was really going on with Alabama football.

In the compact dining area, all you had to do was listen. Most conversations included tidbits of information about the University and the football program.

These days there is more to be gleaned by surveying the digital landscape of multitudinous sources. The problem with this wondrous abundance of information is in separating the sense from the nonsense.

That’s where we come in. This column will endeavor to guide that process of discernment.

We’ll peruse message boards, podcasts, tweets, talk radio and numerous digital communication platforms. We’ll ferret out the most worthwhile information and offer our take on what it means.

The Daily Insider: April 8

Saturday, April 8 is the first scrimmage of the 2017 spring season. The Alabama football team will compete in front of hundreds of coaches attending the annual Alabama Coaches Clinic.

It will be a controlled scrimmage, rather than a game scrimmage. Other than the QB’s and injured players, like Bo Scarbrough and Shaun Dion Hamilton, it will be full contact. The video below from  rolltide.com shows the players are looking forward to the full contact.

The scrimmage will be structured by situational categories: red zone; two-minute; four-minute; short-yardage; goal-line etc. The first teams will go against each other along with other matchups allowing second and third team players to compete.

Here are the most recent practice notes:

• Brian Daboll spoke at the coaches clinic. He referenced the use of two-back sets, throwing to running backs in the flat and getting the backs into space.
• The offensive line battle continues to concentrate on four or five players competing for a couple of starting roles. Cotton, Womack, Lashley, Leatherwood and Baker are the players most likely to earn a starting role at right guard and right tackle.
• Newcomers Ben Davis, Dylan Moses and Najee Harris are so physically gifted they should see playing time. Harris may break through into a big role before the season ends.
• Good news for the defensive line that Raekwon Davis is looking much improved. Once considered raw and clumsy, he is now expected to be in the regular rotation. Saban said early in the spring the defensive front had the necessary resources to refill the open slots. Add Davis, Quinnen Williams, and Josh Frazier to the established mix of Da’Ron Payne, Da’Shawn Hand and Isaiah Buggs and the Tide’s front four can become formidable.
• True freshman Major Tennison has impressed at tight-end in the last few practices. Saban has even compared him to O.J. Howard.

The first scrimmage begins the gradual winnowing out process leading to precious practice reps in fall camp. Players are given ample opportunity. In this, Nick Saban is patient.

Some position battles, especially for second team slots, may go into September. Nonetheless, by April 23, there may be many “or” designations in the unpublished depth chart, but it will no longer be a rep chart.

Next: Five Favorites for 2017 National Championship

Check in with us Sunday morning for updates from the scrimmage. As always, we would love to hear from you on Facebook or Twitter.