TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Coming out of Alabama’s sixth practice of spring camp, head coach Nick Saban knows more or less what the Crimson Tide has heading into next season. He is now ready to dig a little deeper with his players.
During his news conference Monday, Saban challenged his team, stating now was a time to really start paying to attention to the finer details during practice.
“Probably a lot of guys are focusing on what to do, trying to struggle through how to do it, but they also got to understand why it’s important to do it and we got to pay attention to detail in what we’re doing,” Saban said. “Most of the time when you don’t have success, it’s not because you didn’t have the ability to do it or get it done correctly, it’s because you had a mental error or you didn’t do it exactly right or you weren’t focused on it. Then we end up not playing together as a unit, whether it’s offense, defense or special teams.”
Eliminating those mental errors has always been a staple in Saban’s philosophy, another part of the process that is engrained in every member of the Crimson Tide upon joining the program.
During weeks like this one, as Alabama prepares for its first scrimmage of spring camp on Saturday, those lessons are taught ad nauseam. So far, Saban said the focus during camp has been installation. However, with the Tide’s first real progress report just around the corner, the head coach is taking more of a hands-off approach this week.
“We have to give them some space now to kind of get them ready for the scrimmage, to see how exactly how they do when nobody’s there sort of looking over their shoulder making sure they do it right,” Saban said. “That takes a little bit of maturity, but that’s the thing that we’re looking to do to get them prepared for the scrimmage.”
Perhaps no player’s improvement will be scrutinized as heavily as quarterback Jalen Hurts, who returns as the SEC Offensive Player of the Year after passing for 2,780 yards and 23 touchdowns with nine interceptions as a true freshman last season. Hurts also added 954 yards and a team-high 13 touchdowns on the ground, giving him 36 combined scores to break the school record of 35 set by former quarterback Blake Sims in 2014.
Despite Hurts’ stellar freshman campaign, the young quarterback drew criticism, especially in his downfield passing game. Hurts tallied less than 150 passing yards in each of the Tide’s last three games, including a season-low 57 yards through the air in the Peach Bowl against Washington.
While Hurts will be counted on to improve on those numbers this season, Saban said, for now, he’s more concerned about the sophomore’s ability to perfect his fundamentals at the position.
“I think decision-making, getting the ball out of his hand more quickly, not looking at the rush, not drifting in the pocket, reading and having his eyes in the right place relative to the coverage and read that particular play has,” Saban said. “I think those are the things that are fundamentally what we're trying to get him to improve on and I think he's doing a much better job in that regard. He still has the ability to run and make plays with his feet, but that's not what we want to focus on right now. I think he's kind of bought into that and done a really good job with it.”
Ultimately it will be up to Hurts to correct some of those freshman errors and refine his mechanics at the position. Saban believes the same is true for every player at every position this spring. That’s why the head coach is keeping things simple and sticking to the basics right now.
From there the players with the keenest eye for detail will emerge.
“When the scrimmage comes, basically I want to see who can do the fundamental things well,” Saban said. “Who has the toughness, who’s a good tackler, who can block people and move people on the offensive line, who can hold the point and get off the block on defense. So, it’s not going to be like some schematic escapade in what we’re doing.”
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