After Friday afternoon’s Alabama Football scrimmage, Nick Saban served up large portions of praise, especially for the Alabama Crimson Tide offense. No one can ever accuse Saban of being a sunshine pumper, but on Friday his words indicated some sincere optimism.
Friday’s closed scrimmage was the eighth spring practice session for the Crimson Tide. It marked the halfway point in the Crimson Tide’s spring, leading up to and including the A-Day game on Apr. 22.
Note: Transcript of Saban’s post-scrimmage remarks provided by Katie Windham
Nick Saban Comments on Alabama Football Spring Scrimmage
- ” … from a scrimmage standpoint today, I thought there was a lot of good things out there. I thought the intensity was good. There was a lot of good hitting. Tried to play more physical on the line of scrimmage. Offensively, I thought we were pretty consistent in terms of what we did. We moved the ball effectively and with balance, run and pass. Both quarterbacks played equally well. Both of them got opportunities, and both of them, I thought, did a nice job out there managing the game.
- (On the running backs) – “All guys have done well. All four guys have had really, really good springs. They’re all very productive players. All those guys can contribute to the team in some ways. They’re doing really, really well. As long as we can stay healthy at that position, I don’t think that’s an issue on our team.” Saban also mentioned Roydell Williams has recovered from his injury and is back at full speed.
- (on new OC, Tommy Rees) – “Offense was great today. Tommy does a great job with the players. Players like him. He’s taken our system and pretty much used our system that we use, added some things to it. I think the offensive line has done a good job. We’ve got a few more multiples in terms of how we can run the ball. Does a really good job with formations and how to use formations to create advantages for us on offense. I’m really pleased with what we’ve been able to do on that side of the ball and how we’ve developed.”
One reason the Alabama football offense gained an upper hand on Friday was the makeup of the first unit defense. Dallas Turner and Deontae Lawson are both missing spring practice. Chris Braswell is also out. Justin Eboigbe has fully recovered from his neck injury and is cleared medically, but was used only on third downs in the scrimmage. Kool-Aid McKinstry did not participate due to attending to some “family circumstances.”
Nothing against any defenders who did participate on Friday but in total, the first unit on Friday was nothing close to the first unit of Crimson Tide defenders expected next fall.
From multiple Twitter reports, it was also learned the first unit safeties on Friday were Malachi Moore and Caleb Downs. Earl Little II worked at Star. It is not yet known who filled in for Kool-Aid at cornerback.
No stats were released from the situational, rather than a game-like scrimmage.
More scrimmage information will come out over the weekend and Bama Hammer will pass along each important tidbit that is discovered. Yesterday, I posted eight questions to which I hoped the first scrimmage would provide some clues. I will revisit those questions again after learning more about what happened Friday afternoon.