Alabama Football: Spring Practice No. 6 showed some player adjustments
By Ronald Evans
Alabama football went through session No. 6 of spring with some personnel adjustments due to player injury or player rehab from injury.
Alabama football was back to work on Tuesday in full pads as the Tide worked outside on the Thomas-Drew practice fields. Afterward, Nick Saban spoke to the media. The next media session for Saban will be after Saturday’s scrimmage.
Saban confirmed Terrell Lewis will see little work throughout the spring. Lewis is recovering from an ACL injury and according to Saban, the Tide medical staff decided to go in and “clean his knee up.” Lewis is expected to be fine by fall camp.
Other than Ben Davis, the Crimson Tide has no serious injuries keeping players out of spring practice. Shyheim Carter is working in a no-contact situation while he fully recovers from a sports hernia. Matt Womack is a little dinged up. Josh Jobe might have a minor ankle problem.
With Carter and Womack limited, other players were plugged in for first unit work. Carter, who can play all the secondary positions has worked with the safeties this spring. Trevon Diggs has been the guy, shifting back and forth from corner to star and money. With Diggs gaining experience in the other roles, Josh Jobe has had a chance to stand out at cornerback.
When the first unit moved to blocking drills on Tuesday, as Womack watched, Emil Ekiyor moved into the right guard slot and Evan Neal worked at left guard. While discussing the offensive line on Tuesday, Nick Saban complimented all the presumed starters (Leatherwood, Ekiyor, Owens, Womack and Wills) and also mentioned Evan Neal and Darrain Dalcourt. Saban actually said he “feels pretty good about that (position) group.” That is glowing praise so early in the 2019 cycle.
Saban is still looking for leaders to step up,
"I want to see people take leadership roles every day. You don’t turn leadership on and off. You don’t do it during a scrimmage and not do it every day. You do it on the field, you do it off the field. The first part of that is you have to set a good example. You have to be somebody that somebody wants to emulate. To be quite honest with you, we haven’t selected a leadership team yet because I told the players on the team you’re going to have to earn your way on that by what you do"
Here is a full video of Saban’s media review, compliments of Bama OnLine.
Alabama football will practice next on Thursday afternoon. Saturday afternoon will be highlighted by a ‘not open to the public’ scrimmage.