Alabama Football: Good and bad from Crimson Tide A-Day game

Alabama Football ended its spring season Saturday afternoon with a game and a celebration. It was a wonderful spring day to see tens of thousands of fans back in Bryant-Denny. And, as always, a tribute to an Alabama Football National Championship is special.

The game had some good as well. Bryce Young looked sharp, earning the game’s Most Valuable Player Award. Young connected on 25-of-44 passes for 333 yards and a touchdown. His White team, first-team offense beat the Crimson, first-team defense, 13-10. Young connected with tight end Cameron Latu on a 59-yard touchdown.

Alabama football fans shouldn’t act like Auburn and Georgia fans and claim Young as a top Heisman contender. At this point, it is enough to be confident the sophomore has what it takes to lead a National Championship contending offense.

Alabama Football might have a big-play receiver ready to step up

Another big plus from the game was Agiye Hall. Hall caught four passes for 72 yards from Paul Tyson. The freshmen showed outstanding skills making a couple of tough catches. Speaking about Hall after the game, Nick Saban said,

"He’s someone we think has a lot of potential. He makes a lot of contested catches. He’s got great size and he’s got really some explosive speed. … He had a really good spring."

Paul Tyson was not great but was good enough to build confidence, that all is not lost if Young goes down. Tyson was frequently forced to throw passes away because of defensive pressure.

Other plusses came from nine receptions by Traeshon Holden and seven catches out of the backfield by Jase McClellan. The first-team defense was credited with three sacks and three quarterback hurries, along with seven pass breakups, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis performed well in coverage. He broke up three of the seven passes and also made three tackles. In addition to Armour-Davis, freshman Ga’Quincy McKinstry showed his potential to become a great Alabama Football defensive back.

The major ‘bad’ for the game was that 20 players were not able to take part. COVID restrictions limited many of them. Nick Saban said 12 of the 20 were guys in competition for fall two-deep roles.

Surprisingly, another negative was the field goal kicking of Will Reichard. The ‘perfect kicker’ from last season missed three of five field-goal attempts. He connected from 19 yards and 22 yards. Chase Allen also made a 48-yard field goal for the Crimson Tide.

One throw is not a fair sample. Nonetheless, while Slade Bolden might be a running threat as a Wildcat QB, based on Saturday, he is not a passing threat.

One more ‘bad’ goes to ESPN. With about eight minutes to go, the network moved the game broadcast to streaming only. It was replaced by a filler that could air at any time. It was an odd and rather tacky programming decision.