Sep 1, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver Kenny Bell (7) reacts after catching a pass against the Michigan Wolverines during the first quarter at Cowboys Stadium. Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
The still first ranked Crimson Tide again returned to the practice field this afternoon amid the unfortunate news that senior receiver Kenny Bell was leaving the team, as we reported earlier. Bell obviously was not at practice this afternoon and Coach Saban addressed the situation at his press conference following practice. In an odd twist Saban said that he and Bell spoke today and that they “ironed out some issues.” He said Bell was given a personal day (excused from practice) and he will be back tomorrow. Saban’s full statement regarding Bell is below:
“Kenny Bell, I gave a personal day today, he should be back to practice tomorrow. Kenny’s a fifth-year senior. He’s done a great job in this program. He’s played a lot of good football for us. He’s made a lot of big plays. He’s been a good teammate to a lot of guys on the team and is certainly somebody that I have a tremendous amount of respect for as a competitor. Sometimes we have personal things we need to get ironed out and today he had a day to do that.”
“He came today and we had a discussion, I don’t talk about what we discussed publicly, and there were some personal things he needed to iron out, I think he talked to his family about. I talked to his mom and we talked again today. I want Kenny to be happy. I’d love for him to be a part of the team if he can be happy doing that relative to any other personal responsibilities that he has.”
Fellow senior John Fulton spoke after practice with the media and said that the team is “fully behind Kenny.” He said that Kenny Bell was like his brother and said that he did speak to Bell during the day. He said that Bell was “very strong minded and very strong willed” and he had confidence Bell would make the best decision for himself.
Jalston Fowler was again with the running backs during the media’s viewing period. We don’t what if anything that means for his spot at h-back.
The backs could be seen working on blocking during their drills.
Formerly suspended cornerback Geno Smith has returned to Nick Saban’s group of cornerbacks. During every practice Saban works with a group of corners that is usually the starters and experienced players that are likely to see the field. Since Geno’s arrest he has been working with a separate group of mainly walk-ons and younger players.
The offensive line remains the same with no shuffling, at least not during the media viewing.
Senior linebacker Tana Patrick has a lot of tape on his left ankle.
Saban feels like the last two days of practice were positive and in regards to the offense against Virginia Tech he called it inconsistent and said that it “sputtered a lot.” He said that the preparation for the game wasn’t what it should have been and put that on him and the rest of the coaches. He feels that the game was a wakeup call for some players in regards to paying attention to detail. Saban then ranted about players being obedient and saying that if there are guys that won’t buy into the process then they probably shouldn’t play.
Saban got irritated with continued questions about young players and it started when the very first question he was asked what it would take to get young receivers like Chris Black or Raheem Falkins on the field. Sabin quickly snapped back asking “who would you like me to take OFF the field” to get those younger guys on it. He said the young guys have to develop chemistry with the quarterbacks like the older receivers have. Saban said that two of the obligations the coaches have to players are giving them the opportunity to play and the other is not playing them before they’re ready.
When the very next question was about young players again you could see Saban’s frustration growing as he began tapping on the podium. The third question was again about young players and at that point Saban said there were a lot of players like CJ Mosley who played every snap on defense as well as special teams, and was even running down the field beside Christion Jones on a TD yet no one is asking about him. Saban asked what’s wrong with the media asking a question about a fantastic player like CJ Mosley and then Saban went back to talking about the young players he was asked about.
Then his irritation became full blown anger when another question about AJ McCarron’s “mobility” in regards to his foot was asked. Saban said, “I’m sort of sick and tired of talking about this BS, alright, because it’s nothing.” Saban said how AJ or the team played had nothing to do with his toe and if the players around him played better he would have had a chance to play better as well.
Saban said the most important thing for an offensive line is communication and that even when the line had good communication maybe there wasn’t trust in each other yet because they haven’t played together. He said that those are both things the line has to do a better job of and they have to have faith, trust, and confidence in what they are doing so they can play with confidence. He said it would take time to develop but they are capable of doing it much better than they did on Saturday.
He said that preparations for Texas A&M will begin on Thursday, all focus is about getting the team better now. He said they have a lot of work to do to get better to give them a chance to be successful against Texas A&M.
Alabama returns to the practice field tomorrow.