Crimson Tide turns to Washington after postseason layoff
The University of Alabama football team hasn’t had much of a chance to take a break since the season started on Sept. 3. Its nearly two-week layoff since the SEC championship game on Dec. 3 has been the best chance players have had to catch their breath this fall.
If they hadn’t recovered their wind by then, it wasn’t going to happen on Friday. Alabama returned to the practice field for the first of seven practices before it disperses for Christmas.
“Whenever you take such an extended break, you have to get back in the swing of things,” sophomore running back Damien Harris said. “That’s what we’re going to try and do. We have a couple days of some hard practices to try and prepare for this upcoming game. We’re trying to get back in game shape. A week isn’t that long, but at the same time, you can lose a lot in a week.”
Head coach Nick Saban said he was pleased with the effort and enthusiasm in practice as the Crimson Tide turns to face the Huskies. Alabama worked in shells and elected to practice at its indoor facility in preparation for playing the Peach Bowl at the Georgia Dome.
Players were still catching up on film study of Washington. But Saban told them what he saw from their next opponent.
“This is the best team we've played this year, by far,” Saban said. “Hands down. And anybody that doesn't have the proper respect for this team and what they've accomplished this year... I hear a lot of people talking about Ohio State and Clemson and all that. I don't want to hear anybody talking about anything in our camp, one of our fans or our supporters thinking about anything but this game.”
The time off did give starting cornerback Marlon Humphrey time to heal. He missed most of the SEC championship game with an unspecified leg injury suffered against Auburn but was a full participant in practice on Friday.
Defensive back Tony Brown, Alabama’s starter at star in the second half of the season, did not practice. He pulled a muscle during workouts last week. Reserve defensive end Dakota Ball was not at practice after shooting himself in the finger while hunting.
The defense has its own set of challenges in facing Washington, which ranks fourth nationally with 44.5 points per game. It hast only been held under 31 points once this season. Saban said the defense will need to sharpen up its tackling skills for the game.
“When defensive players haven't played for a long time, they really have to practice the right way and really work on thudding, getting themselves in position to tackle,” Saban said. “If you notice, a lot of times in bowl games, the tackling is not very good. The type of team this is, sort of a perimeter, RPO team, this is going to be very, very important to how well we play in space and how well we tackle on the perimeter."
They still have work to do, but it began on Friday. Saban said it’s difficult to carry momentum from the regular season into a bowl game being played four weeks later. Instead, they’re starting over.
“Honestly, I didn’t think it was as bad as everyone was expecting it to be,” junior left tackle Cam Robinson said. “Your first practice back, you expect to be kind of gassed and kind of tired. I honestly think it was a good practice. We were able to get a lot of stuff done today.”
Reach Ben Jones at ben@tidesports.com or 205-722-0196.