Alabama OL coach compares Kadyn Proctor's return to Christmas morning

Christmas came early in Alabama. At least that’s the way first-year offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic felt when he received news that five-star offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor would be returning to the Crimson Tide after briefly transferring back home to Iowa.

“You remember when you were like 5 or 6 years old and it was Christmas Day and you woke up and saw there was presents under the tree?” Kapilovic said during a Wednesday appearance on Tide 100.9’s “The Game with Ryan Fowler. “That’s what it felt like.”

Proctor signed with Alabama as the top-rated offensive tackle in last year’s recruiting class. He then became the first true freshman to start at left tackle for the Crimson Tide since Cam Robinson in 2014. However, a difficult first season followed by news of Nick Saban’s retirement saw the Des Moines, Iowa native transfer to his home-state Hawkeyes in January. Proctor then changed his mind in March, announcing his plans to transfer back to Alabama. From there he officially joined the team on April 16 after the spring transfer window opened up.

“He came back here ready to work,” Kapilovic said. “He’s getting after it in the weight room and on the field. He’s been, I almost want to say, humbled a little bit by the experience or appreciative to be back here. There obviously was a strong brotherhood in that room of the guys he came in with that he wanted to be back here with, so that’s been great. He’s been good to work with and just install the offense with him, and he’s picked up things quickly. Really inserted himself as a player that he can be and is just kind of growing daily.”

With Proctor absent for Alabama’s spring camp, Elijah Pritchett took the majority of the first-team reps at left tackle while redshirt freshmen Wilkin Formby and Myles McVay split first-team reps at right tackle. While Proctor is expected to work his way back into the starting lineup, the Tide’s prodigal tackle will have to earn his job back.

Wednesday, Kapilovic revealed that Proctor is currently working with Alabama’s second-team offensive line but is rotating back into the starting unit at times. That being said, the offensive line coach was quick to state that the Tide’s depth chart is somewhat fluid at the moment as players are experimenting at different positions during the summer.

“Everybody here’s very competitive, everybody wants to be the starter,” Kapilovic said. “From myself to our OC Coach [Nick] Sheridan we talked to these guys and said, ‘We’re going to move y’all around quite a bit, and then when we get going into fall camp, the five best are going to be on the field. And if there’s more than five that warrant playing time, we’ll get you out there.”

Proctor struggled in pass protection last season, giving up 12 sacks — tied for the most among all Division I offensive linemen, according to Pro Football Focus. That being said, he showed signs of improvement toward the end of the year and was one of the highest-graded players during Alabama’s SEC Championship Game win over Georgia.

While Proctor was listed at 6-foot-7, 360 pounds on Alabama’s roster last season, sources have indicated that he played well over that weight last fall. During an exclusive interview with Tide Illustrated earlier this month, first-year Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said Proctor had trimmed up his physique from when he first saw him in January.

“He didn’t have spring ball, so he really put himself into workout mode,” DeBoer told Tide Illustrated. “He knew that he was coming back here and wanted to put himself in a position where he could have a really productive summer. I think he did that to the point that where June and July, it’s not just trying to get back into shape, it’s trying to focus on the things that can really take him to the next level.”

DeBoer and Kapilovic aren’t the only ones who are encouraged by Proctor since his return. Earlier Wednesday, Alabama co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard praised the tackle for the athleticism he has displayed on the field.

"I think when you see a 6-foot-6, 6-foot-7, 375-pound offensive lineman that looks like he's ready to do backflips on the football field and spinning around and touching his toes -- usually those [big] guys, they stink usually, because they can't move," Shephard told Tide 100.9. "But when I saw Kadyn Proctor doing things like that, I said, 'Oh my goodness.'"

Proctor wasn’t the only Alabama lineman highlighted by the Tide’s coaching staff Wednesday. During his interview, Kapilovic also spoke positively about returning starter Tyler Booker and Washington transfer Parker Brailsford as well as Formby.

On Tyler Booker’s leadership

“He’s pretty special. Just off the field, he’s a great kid, and he’s a sharp individual. He’s pretty polished. You listen to interviews, and we used him in some events in the community. When he speaks to people at some recruiting events and he talks to parents, it’s really impressive how he handles himself.

"He’s a knowledgeable guy, and his work ethic is second to none. When your best player in the room is your hardest worker, that should make your job easier. There’s no excuse for anybody else not to give everything they have when the best player is working that way. He wants to be coached and he wants to be pushed. So all those things are things that you love as a coach that you want to have from your best player. He’s been an unbelievable player for me to be able to coach him to this point.”

On Parker Brailsford

“First of all it starts, he has a good knowledge of the offense, which is good. There’s some familiarity there. I came in probably a month after they started installing the offense. There’s things about the offensive scheme that the quarterback coach or the receiver coach know, but us O-line guys, we got to know every detail. And it was great having Parker to be a part of that system. And there were some things that we’re doing that I had to learn and transition to, and he gave me a good knowledge from there.

“He’s extremely athletic. You know, he’s very fluid. People talk about his size (6-foot-2, 275). He’s really strong in the weight room. He’s usually in the top five of those guys in the weight room. He brings all that to the table, but his knowledge of the offense was big for me in my early transition.”

On Wilkin Formby

“He had a good spring, really made some strides, and he’s been working hard this summer. I think he’s really starting to kind of grasp and understand the offense, which is good. Once you’re not sitting there thinking too much processing everything, I think that’s going to be huge for him. I’m excited about where he is, and he’s definitely one of the guys in the mix for one of those spots.”