Alabama Football: Final Crimson Tide fall camp scrimmage nuggets

Nick Saban was careful with several Alabama football players but open to experimenting in Saturday’s last scrimmage of the Crimson Tide fall camp.

The Alabama football will get a short break now that fall camp scrimmages are behind them. Finishing up mid-afternoon on Saturday, the team will get more than 48 hours of rest before returning to practice Monday night.

The break has been earned. For more than two weeks the team has battled heat, fatigue and injuries. As Nick Saban said after Saturday’s scrimmage, no one is 100 percent right now. The admission did not carry with it any reduced expectations. Saban was clear in demanding 100 percent effort applied to whatever percentage was in their bodies.

The Alabama football head coach was also careful in Saturday. Several players were held out for precautionary reasons. Most noticeably missing on defense were Terrell Lewis, D.J. Dale and LaBryan Ray. On the other side of the ball, Matt Womack and Miller Forristall did not participate. Added to that list missing were the three guys out indefinitely, Trey Sanders, Josh McMillon and Nigel Knott.

Saban’s caution almost paid off with no new injury issues. Running back, Jerome Ford did injure an ankle. In the post-scrimmage review, Saban said Ford should not have a serious problem and could be expected to return in about a week.

All was not caution, as Nick threw out a dash of boldness in true freshman, inside linebacker Christian Harris. In a surprise move, Harris was paired with Dylan Moses in the first-unit defense. The change has Alabama football fans buzzing.

As we explained a couple of months ago, in a Christian Harris profile, the young man has considerable potential. After the scrimmage, Nick Saban sounded like a man ready to roll the dice with an unproven, late enrolling, inexperienced youngster.

Saban pointed out C.J. Mosley, Rolando McClain and Donta Hightower were all allowed to learn on the job as freshmen. Those are lofty comparisons. One reason Harris was never rated higher than a 4-Star was he played wide receiver and defensive back in high school. Before coming to Tuscaloosa he had never played linebacker. LSU, Texas A&M and many other schools agreed with Nick Saban that Harris was best suited at inside linebacker. So despite not actually being one, Christian Harris was rated as the No. 6 ILB in the 2019 class.

It is too early to predict Harris will win a starter role. If he does, Alabama football could start two Baton Rouge, LA, inside linebackers against Duke.

Some other players we hear stood out in the scrimmage are Mac Jones, Will Reichard, Brian Robinson and another true freshman, summer enrollee, outside linebacker, King Mwikuta. Saban praised Jones and said Mac was way ahead of the QBs behind him.

The primary format on Saturday was the ones vs. the twos, meaning Mac Jones was looking good against the best available defenders. It sounds like QB1 and QB2 are locked in.