Nick Saban said two important things Saturday, after the second Alabama football scrimmage of the spring. In an overall assessment of the Tide offense, Saban used the words “inconsistency” and “spotty.”
Nick Saban is a wordsmith and any communication that could be described as full disclosure is carefully avoided. But he does not misrepresent, other than when praising upcoming, lesser opponents.
Putting ‘inconsistency’ and ‘spotty’ together equals what most Tide fans believed before the scrimmage. The Tide defense is ahead of the Tide offense. All of us want to conclude that means the Tide defense will be far better than last season. That may prove to be correct, but it is too soon to know.
Based on Saban’s comments and reports from a few Alabama football insiders, the spotty offense culprits on Saturday were receivers dropping passes, a leaky offensive line and penalties. Without any released stats, insiders say there were four or five interceptions. At least two, as Saban explained, came from balls being mishandled by receivers. Those two were thrown by Jalen Milroe and not only did Saban state the INTs were not Milroe’s fault, he complimented the sophomore QB’s play.
Saban said the offense allowed “too much pressure in the pocket.” One interception came from a rushing Brian Branch, who tipped the ball to himself and took it to the house.
Apparently, some of the defensive havoc on Saturday came from the Tide’s dime rabbits package. There have been rumors about that package this spring. It matches six defensive backs, with one defensive lineman and one inside linebacker. The other three guys are Will Anderson Jr., Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell.
Alabama Football Dime Rabbits
That specific lineup for third and long situations could make any offense in college football perform ‘spottily’.
The drops by receivers are troubling. While Jermaine Burton had another strong scrimmage, no other wide receiver performed consistently well.
Kendall Randolph’s name was mentioned by Saban, who said Randolph was not working at tight end this spring, to give him every chance to win an offensive line starting role. Alabama insiders say Randolph and Amari Kight are pretty much 1A and 1B at left tackle. Javion Cohen is drawing praise in his left guard role. JC Latham apparently has a solid hold on the right tackle position.
The most unsettled spot on the defense is the ‘other’ inside linebacker. Reports are both Jaylen Moody and Deontae Lawson are doing very well.
Nick Saban’s complete comments are available below.
Watch Coach Saban's Spring Practice Scrimmage Press Conference https://t.co/UF8aaC0xNd
— Alabama Athletics (@UA_Athletics) April 9, 2022
Fans will probably not see the dime rabbits package used in the A-Day game. With touches counting as tackles against the quarterbacks, blitz calls are avoided in the spring game.
The Crimson Tide will have two more practices on Tuesday and Thursday, before Saturday’s A-Day spring game.