During Nick Saban’s press conference Thursday evening, he opened the press conference speaking about progression, “It’s really, really important what kind of progress you make from the last scrimmage to the next scrimmage.”
Today, we’ll provide what we feel are five key points of emphasis headed into Alabama’s second scrimmage of fall camp.
1. Continued progression of the back-up quarterback
While Alabama enters the season with their prized quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who’s looked very polished during fall camp, none of the back-ups on the roster have seen meaningful game-time action. Now while Saban has said that back-up quarterback Mac Jones looked very good last weekend, this second scrimmage will be more game-like.
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“We’re trying to expose our players to as many different situations as we can as we prepare them for the season,” said Saban. Last season, the Crimson Tide had the luxury of having Jalen Hurts on the bench and only time will tell if Jones or Taulia Tagovailoa who has looked to be the team’s number three quarterback will be effective leading the offense should their number be called.
2. Building defensive line depth
If the season were to start tomorrow, the Crimson Tide would be without two starters on the defensive line. Defensive end LaBryan Ray just returned this week to practice this week after suffering an ankle injury during the summer and DJ Dale returned on Friday after dealing with a sprained knee, neither of the two is 100% entering the second scrimmage of the season, which will provide an opportunity for younger members of the defensive line to get experience.
“We have a lot of young players at that position who need to develop and need, you know, to really pay attention to the fundamental details of how they need to play their position and understand what it’s going to take for them to be successful because we certainly need depth at the defensive line,” said Saban.
Repping with the first-team defensive line this week was Raekwon Davis and true freshman Justin Eboigbe and at the tackle, the position was Phidarian Mathis. The second-team defensive line included: Antonio Alfano and Christian Barmore at the end positions with Tevita Musika at tackle.
