Alabama Football: Practice 3 observations including Ish Sopsher

Alabama football completed session No. 3 of fall camp Monday. Players were in pads for the first time. Full contact comes next. It will be a rude awakening for some freshmen.

Alabama football fall camp is a major wakeup call for summer arriving Crimson Tide freshmen. Even those who arrived in Tuscaloosa in good physical condition and worked through the heat of mid-summer, don’t know what lies ahead.

After three practice sessions, they still don’t know. Monday was the first day in shoulder pads. Full contact work looms ahead. For a few of the late-arriving freshmen, mostly those at what is known (mostly inaccurately) as the skill positions, the first college full contact session is less daunting.

For the young men in the trenches, the first taste of college full-contact can be brutal. Their manhood will be challenged by coaches and teammates. They will be pushed in physical challenges that may exceed their level of conditioning.

For some of the youngsters, almost nothing about it will be any fun. Some will wilt in such a setting, others stubbornly hang on. A few will dig in and fight hard.

Rushing to judgment after only three sessions is unwise, but so far Ishmael Sopsher is not close being able to contribute to the 2019 Alabama Crimson Tide. Listed at 334 pounds, Sopsher should not be much overweight at 6-foot-4. Conditioning is apparently the greater problem. He has been observed being “gassed” at every practice session.

Though unverified, there were rumors he got up to as much as 360 pounds in his high school career. If he did, arriving in Tuscaloosa almost 30 pounds lighter is an achievement. But to put his weight in perspective, Raekwon Davis is 6-foot-7 and is expected to play at around 315 pounds this season. D.J. Dale, who is getting strong praise from the Alabama football staff, is an inch shorter than Sopsher and will play at about 310 pounds.

Either way, Ish must lighten up or toughen up or both. Also in need of better physical preparation is fellow freshmen Byron Young. Not as much as Sopsher, but Young has had to miss reps from being physically overstressed. Young is listed at a svelte 295 pounds.

Better news on Monday in T-Town was the absence of a few black, no-contact jerseys. The QBs still had them of course, but the five Alabama football players who wore them Saturday did not have them on Monday.

Our projection, explained in the link above, was for second-half of the regular season depth. Byron Young is key to that depth. We hope Sopsher can contribute by then as well.