Three things learned or confirmed in first fall scrimmage
With the first fall camp scrimmage taking place on Saturday, Alabama fans have clamored for any pieces of information they can get. While stats and full-scale video footage won’t be made available, highlight clips and whispers leaking out of the scrimmage have fueled a lot of conversation.
Alabama enters 2024 with a new coaching staff, new approaches on both sides of the ball, and a lot of new players. As a result, we won’t really know what the team looks like until the season kicks off.
Still, the glimpses we can get from preseason scrimmages in combination with our prior knowledge of the team allow us to form educated guesses. Here are three things we can glean from Saturday’s scrimmage.
1. Ryan Williams is an explosive play machine
Williams might be the one player on the roster fans are most excited to see this fall. The 17-year old true freshman wide receiver is the highest-ranked receiver Bama has signed since Julio Jones in 2008, and that’s after skipping his senior year of high school.
Though we understand the responsible thing to do is temper expectations and give him some room to acclimate, us Bama fans can’t help but to think about how good he can be. Williams only fanned the flames by catching a 50-yard bomb for a touchdown to open the scoring in the first scrimmage of the fall. He just keeps impressing the coaching staff and continues to show that he is ready to be a playmaker in this offense as a true freshman.
2. Multiple weapons will key a balanced offensive attack
It is well known that Alabama has a multitude of weapons on the offensive side of the ball. Coach DeBoer’s assertion that Bama spread the ball around to a variety of playmakers has been taken as coachspeak or a clever way of answering a question without divulging any valuable information. Of course, Coach DeBoer was wise to choose his words carefully, but, by all accounts, he also wasn’t being dishonest.
Receivers such as Ryan Williams, Cole Adams, and tight end Josh Cuevas made big plays in Saturday’s scrimmage, as did running backs Jam Miller and Justice Haynes. Add in more known commodities such as Germie Bernard, Kobe Prentice, and Kendrick Law, and the Tide should be able to spread the ball all over the field this season. With a dynamic threat like Jalen Milroe directing traffic, this offense will be tough to stop.
3. Alabama has at least two capable quarterbacks
It is well known that Jalen Milroe enters 2024 as one of the top quarterbacks in the sport, and Bama fans have felt good about backup Ty Simpson for a long time. The former 5-star led Alabama to a win in tropical storm-like conditions at USF last year in his first significant career snaps. Though he didn’t do anything spectacular, he managed the game well in the second half, made a big throw to tight end CJ Dippre, and rushed for the game-clinching score. Afterwards, he showed several flashes throughout the season. He ran for a big two-point conversion against Ole Miss after Milroe took a hard hit, and then had good showings in extended minutes against Kentucky and UT-Chattanooga.
Simpson continued to show significant progress throughout the spring, even prompting factions of the fan base to propose that a QB competition was in order. Though Simpson won’t be jumping Milroe any time soon, he has shown that he is ready if called upon.
He further displayed his talent and preparation in this weekend’s scrimmage, throwing a beautiful touchdown pass to Josh Cuevas. For perhaps the first time since 2020, Bama fans can be confident in the depth at QB and rest assured that an injury at the position likely wouldn’t be cataclysmic.