Alabama football conducted its first scrimmage of the spring Saturday. Check out what Nick Saban and others said about how the team performed.
Alabama football uses three of its only 15 spring practice sessions for scrimmages. The first one was Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Nick Saban met with media after the scrimmage and provided a review.
Nick Saban is a skillful communicator and anytime he speaks, Alabama football fans hang on every word. There are times when he pulls back the curtain a bit and opens up about himself and the Alabama football program. Like all coaches, post-practice review responses are more calculated and far from full disclosure.
Below are what we believe to be the most meaningful comments from Nick Saban on Saturday afternoon.
What Nick Saban said
- Over the last season and this one, Alabama football has experienced its “most turnover ever.” Nick was talking about the players but the same is true of the coaching staff.
- The two most noteworthy quotes from Saban
"We have some excellent players, guys that can play winning football… we don’t have enough.We have a lot of work to do."
- Asked how much new coordinators change from what has preceded them, Nick’s response was “not much.” Nick Saban has a system of play that any new ideas must fit into.
- Saban acknowledged Tua is the starter and Mac Jones is well ahead as the backup. He also said Taulia and Paul Tyson played some with the twos and both looked like “it was their first time out there.”
- Nick gave some props to the first group defensive line but said the second group was “not that great.”
- Asked about the young inside linebackers, Nick said, there were “too many mental errors.”
- Saban said the kicking game is ahead of last year.
- After a mini-lecture on special teams, Nick offered that Will Reichard kicked and punted well and the “other guy” was better. We assume the other guy was punter Skyler DeLong rather than kicker Joseph Bulovas.
Scrimmage observers
The scrimmage was closed to the public. As always, a few of the invited guests carefully share tidbits of information. Those tidbits can only be considered as rumors.
- Less experienced players who were noticed: Eyabi Anoma, Cam Latu (at tight end), D.J. Dale and Jerome Ford.
- As we have discussed before, the offensive line has plenty of competition for starters. The first unit will likely not get settled into fall camp but redshirt freshman Emil Ekiyor and true freshman Evan Neal could win starting roles. Both got work with the first group Saturday.
This post will be updated to add any other perceived to be solid rumors.
Henry Ruggs III missed the scrimmage to attend a family funeral. Ben Davis and Terrell Lewis did not participate.