Crimson Red Sports

It was a beautiful day with sunshine and mild temps, perfect for spring football. The players were very energized and eager to hit somebody and it showed on both sides of the ball.

As is the case in most spring scrimmages the defense looked to be ahead of the offense but I'm not taking anything away from the offense but giving the defense some praise. They looked like they just picked up where they left off in the National Championship Game. The offense was doing what most offenses do in the spring, a lot of experimenting with players.

I was very impressed with the defense as they were swarming the QBs and stuffing most of the running plays for short gains. This is not taking anything away from the QBS and running backs but the defense is just that good. One thing is for certain, when the offense can get where they can handle the defense, there are some teams in big trouble when they come to play Bama. By the way, Tony Brown did practice with the 2nd unit and was very active when he was in there.

The QBs didn't do a lot, there were a few nice long passes for big gains and a couple for touchdowns but the emphasis today seemed to be on the short passes and there is work needed there. The passing game looked really ragged as there were many dropped passes and lots of just badly thrown passes. The battle of the QBs didn't happen today and I think it was by design of the coaches with their play selection. I will say though, Jalen Hurts took a lot of snaps today, maybe more than any of the other QBs. His style of play is nothing like the other QBS as he's more of the run option type quarterback and he has some good wheels. I think he will be given a good look at some future playing time. The other QBs had a normal practice day as none of them stood out to me and that is normal for this time of the year. I did notice that work is needed at the center position, the deep snaps to the QB looked like hand grenades being thrown, just lobbed. This sometimes caused the QB to get very rushed by the defensive line as they were almost beating the ball to the QB. Also, the team is strictly playing a no huddle offense as they did at the end of last season.

The running game had it's moments during the game but mostly against the 2 defense. All of you that are wondering about Scarbrough, well don't because he will get the job done. He had the play of the day on offense with a run of 97 yards for a touchdown. He faked a couple of defensive players out at the line of scrimmage then ran over one in the secondary and did the Derrick Henry trick then, just flat out ran everybody to the end zone. As I stated in another thread, he has lots of abilities but he's got to learn how and when to use them and that takes a little time. Harris played with a lot of enery as well but he's like Scarbrough, he's going through a learning curve as well but both should be okay come the start of the season. All they need is lots of practice.

The defense just showed out and was having a lot of fun on the field. Ruben Foster had the play of the day on the defensive side with a pick 6 of about 50 yards. The secondary was doing a good job on the receivers, it was tough trying to catch the ball in the secondary.

Now the ugly. The kicking game wasn't as good as I was hoping. Scott made some decent punts and Patrick made some field goals but he missed some too. In all fairness though there was a stiff wind circling on the field. The bad ugly was the kickoffs. I don't think there was one kickoff that made it to the end zone and I'm hoping it was just a bad day for the kicker. I'm not even sure who was doing the kickoffs but it's something that needs to get better before the season begins.

I did see one injury, Richie Petitbon was carted of the field with a leg or ankle injury to his right leg.

A Day should be a fun day for everybody and I just hope the weather is good and a big crowd shows up. Get the wife and kids and head for Tuscaloosa on the 16th, the tickets are very affordable, it's all free. ;)

Thanks for the report, J. Great info and e-cred worthy. This is very much like the last 2 years, where the D dominated and the QB race is far from being decided. I'm reading between the lines here, but it sounds like maybe the O line has a ways to go to be good, and there is no consistency yet with any of the QBs.

Bravo, Jamos.  Excellent report.   #+ #+

I read all of the sports coverage, including what Coach Saban said, and none gave the insight you gave.  Thanks mucho!

I'm hearing very good things from other sources, too, especially about our D.

And NOBODY is saying which QB seems to be the leader or a leader!

I'm hearing "not so good" things about our boy Barnett.  :(

:facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :facepalm: :wall:

The defense made it very tough for the qbs to do much at all but still when they had a chance to make a play it didn't happen that often. I was really surprised to see Hurts get as many snaps as he did. All of the qbs except Hurt should be well versed on what is going on out there by now but they all looked like freshmen. it was the first scrimmage and I'm sure CNS/Kiffen will address what they saw yesterday.

You're right, J. Sounds like they are in about the same situation as this time last year.

Pretty much so. One thing is for sure now though, we have someone on a daily basis to help with the defense of the spread offense and scrambling qb, Hurts. I think we might have a better answer for those teams than what we have had in the past. 

... and the year before!   :dunno:

Yeah, I had thought about that. That is a real plus, for sure. Hurts is quite an athlete.

I think it will be very interesting to follow his career here at Bama.

Thanks for the report J.   #+


If it was as windy in Tuscaloosa as it was in Huntsville yesterday, I can see why the kicking game, and maybe the QBs, were impacted.  We had an Arctic Blast here, especially in the morning.

Well thanks JAMOS for a great report. I feel like we had a regular CNS scrimmage. He shows nothing except maybe what every team in the nation knows is we have a good defense. CLK does what he has for the last 2 years it seems show nothing just work on simple stuff. I think that is what CNS likes is the work on the very details short passes, and runs and if something breaks everybody thinks well it was a mistake on somebody's part. Nothing special about a player or whatever. So, nobody learns anything except our coaches themselves. I wondered how CJP did with his defensive calls and such? RTR!

Thanks for the details Jamos!

Thanks for the report, Jamos!

I was looking forward to this report J and you didn't disappoint.  Thanks.