Alabama Football: Summaries of last SEC spring games for Tide oponents

Alabama Football and 11 other SEC teams have had their spring games. Florida and Kentucky chose to not have an open to the public spring game this year. On Saturday, the Aggies, Vols and the Rebels-Black Bears-Landsharks had their spring games. The South Carolina spring game was moved to Sunday. The Alabama Crimson Tide does not play South Carolina this season, so we’ll skip a review of whatever happened in Columbia.

Alabama football fans were disappointed when so many Crimson Tide players had to miss the A-Day game. A similar situation occurred in College Station with around 15 players missing the game. Double that number, around 30 Ole Miss players had to miss the spring fun in Oxford. It is suspected at both schools, COVID restrictions were the primary reason players could not participate.

Three Alabama Football Opponents

Ole Miss Spring Game

Matt Corral was sharp on Saturday, especially when throwing to Braylon Sanders who had 135 yards in receptions and a touchdown. If the spring game is a good indicator, Lane Kiffin cannot afford to lose Corral at any point during the season. The backups did little well. The offense Kiffin paired with his first-team defense only produced six points.

The heir apparent to Corral is supposed to be early enrollee Luke Altmyer, though it was Kinkead Dent who took most of the snaps for the second-team offense. Dent had a horrid game, going 7-for-25 and throwing three interceptions. Altmyer was 3-for-9 and got his team its lone touchdown.

In fairness to Kiffin and his offense, none of the five, Ole Miss, scholarship running backs played in the spring game. A walk-on senior was the game’s leading rusher with 75 yards, plus two pass receptions.

Texas A&M Spring Game

The Aggies are coming off a strong 2020 season. Aggies’ fans are filled with optimism after last season’s team had its highest finish in the AP Poll since the 1939 season.

Job one for Jimbo Fisher is choosing a new starting quarterback. The guy who will replace Kellen Mond will be behind a less-proven offensive line than last season. The O-line was short-handed Saturday and should be better in the fall. Still, Jimbo’s new starting QB will need to be mobile. That is why the job will likely be won by Haynes King, but some pundits, including Greg McElroy, think Zack Calzada will compete for the starting job into the regular season.

Jimbo claimed after the game, that while he might be concerned for the guys around them, he is not concerned about his quarterbacks. The Aggies are fortunate they will not have to encounter a much-improved Alabama Football defense until Oct. 9 when the Tide travels to College Station.

The Aggies’ QBs threw for over 460 yards on Saturday. That’s a lot of yards but the output came from 71 pass attempts. Clearly, the Aggies have a way to go in offensive efficiency.

Tennessee Vols Spring Game

It is both hard and fun to follow all the goings-on in Knoxville. As we discussed recently, Vols fans are desperate for any sign of hope. They are convinced Josh Heupel is an offensive wizard. Perhaps they are correct.

Heupel currently has three guys competing for the Starting QB job, opened by Jarrett Guarantano’s transfer. Harrison Bailey is the leader in the clubhouse, over Brian Maurer and Hendon Hooker. Two more quarterbacks may join the competition by fall camp.

Bailey had success on Saturday, but even a Tennessee fan can admit most of his completions were from easy throws. They were also against a defense that is not expected to be in the top half of the league next fall. We will be uncharacteristically kind to the Vols and say the defense has plenty of room for improvement. The 79 points scored in the spring game is proof.

At some point when the transfer frenzy settles, Bama Hammer will go into detail about every fall, Alabama Football opponent.