Chris Kapilovic knows depth at the center position can vanish in a snap. Puns aside, the first-year Alabama offensive line coach experienced a shortage of snappers earlier in his career when he lost three centers in a week during his time at North Carolina. Since then he’s made sure never to be short-handed at the position.

In the spring, Kapilovic told reporters he hoped to have 8-10 of his Alabama linemen take reps snapping the ball at times during practice. So far, he’s well on his way to achieving that goal.

Washington transfer Parker Brailsford has served as Alabama’s first-team center during the opening week of fall camp. Behind him, Roq Montgomery and Michigan State transfer Geno VanDeMark have both snapped on the second team. True freshman Joseph Ionata served as the second-team center this spring, working behind James Brockermeyer, who has since transferred to TCU.

Saturday, Kapilovic revealed that true freshman William Sanders, redshirt freshman Olaus Alinen and even preseason All-American guard Tyler Booker have all snapped at times this offseason as well.

If you’re counting at home, half of Alabama’s 14-man offensive line unit has taken part in some degree of snapping. That’s a solid start, but Kapilovic expects that number to grow in future seasons.

“I learned my lesson, you can’t have enough of them,” Kapilovic said. “I lost three in a week at North Carolina and I thought I was really good with four, and I wasn't, so I said that's it, from now on I am training 8-10 guys. Plus for them and their futures, it's huge.

“It’s one of the first questions I ever hear from NFL scouts, ‘Can he snap?’ I can say yes. Even if they’re not doing it in live scenarios, they can grab them in their pro days or whatever and it’s nothing for them. It’s good for all of us.”

While Alabama is looking to get plenty of linemen snapping experience, the spotlight will be on the exchange between Brailsford and starting quarterback Jalen Milroe.

Last year, Alabama was plagued by poor and mistimed snaps, as Milroe and then-starting center Seth McLaughlin failed to build a good sense of communication at the line of scrimmage. Entering preseason camp, Milroe said he’s put an extra emphasis on building a bond with Brailsford to eliminate similar problems this fall.

“As a whole, the foundation starts with the offensive line, but the offense goes between the quarterback and the center exchange,” Milroe said. “It’s been very important to get the run checks down, get the passing game down as whole because all we want to do is just keep building and improving. No. 1, it starts with communication, so between me and him it’s very important. To have this opportunity to have these reps in fall camp, that’s going to lead to when we have to play Game 1 or whenever that happens.”

With three preseason workouts in the books, Alabama still has 17 practices to sort out its snapping situation before it enters game week for its season opener against Western Kentucky on Aug. 31.