TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Don’t call it fall camp. No one would mistake the temperatures of Alabama’s preseason workouts as classic “football weather.”

Saturday’s scrimmage inside Bryant-Denny Stadium saw players suit up in full pads under a heat advisory. That’s challenging enough for Alabama’s skill-position players, but for a 300-pound lineman, it’s especially brutal.

“It’s really whatever you make of it, but it’s definitely something,” said Alabama right tackle J.C. Latham, who currently stands in at 6-foot-6, 360 pounds after bulking up 25 pounds this offseason. “I make sure I eat twice before I go out there, so breakfast and lunch. … Different fluids going through your body, but it needs to be the right stuff. Just making sure that when you’re out there, you’re prepared. You can’t just go out there on one sandwich for the whole day, because you’ll die. Just making sure you’re eating what you’re supposed to eat and fueling up your body."

Latham, who is entering his second season as the Tide’s starting right tackle, has stepped up as the anchor of the offensive line this offseason. However, things haven’t been as easy for all of Alabama’s offensive linemen. Following Saturday’s scrimmage, Nick Saban challenged his offensive line stating that he needs to develop more players who are capable of playing “winning football.”

Lately, Alabama has seen some struggles on the left side of the line where redshirt freshman Elijah Pritchett and true freshman Kadyn Proctor are competing for the starting left tackle position. While some of the growing pains have come from the young linemen’s inexperience at the college level, sources close to the program said that the duo has struggled with conditioning at times throughout camp.

“I think it's always important for players to self-assess and say, 'OK, I played this many plays today. I would play this many plays if we had a game. I'm not in good enough condition to be able to sustain the level of effort, toughness, ability to stay focused and do my job for this many plays and yet I know I'm gonna play more later on,’” Saban said following Saturday’s practice. “So every practice, every opportunity you get is not something that you want to endure in the practice, but you want to push yourself so you could get to the next level of where you need to be to stay focused for longer and play with more consistency for longer in every game that you play.”

Despite the early struggles, Alabama’s big uglies believe the current adversity is helping them build up the necessary mental toughness to withstand a grueling regular-season schedule over the next three months.

“I think we’ve grown as a team, as a unit,” Latham said. “It’s 105 out there some days, and we’re in full pads, but we’re not going to change what we do. We’re out here, so we might as well get something out of it. Previously, there were guys on past teams, individuals, trying to step up and be that voice, but now, it’s groups and whole units, like the whole defense.

“The whole defense comes together, rallies, and says, ‘Let’s do this, let’s go.’ The offense does the same thing. We’re all out here, whether it’s 105 or not. We’re all ready to go.”

Alabama defensive tackle Jahem Oatis, who is listed at 6-foot-5, 328 pounds, says he’s actually enjoying the challenge.

“Camping in the heat is real, real good,” he said. “That heat is something different but we do the work in this heat to get better every day and just get everybody on the same level.”

Alabama should get a brief break from the heat Monday as it will practice under the lights beginning at 7:30 p.m. However, there will still be three more afternoon practices this week before the team heads over for another mid-day scrimmage inside Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.