TUSCALOOSA -- Judging from his sweat-soaked clothes and a raspy voice, Nick Saban had just gone 12 rounds with his players.
More than anything else, Alabama's head football coach was the judge of various individual battles all across Bryant-Denny Stadium's grass ring Saturday afternoon. Select boosters were given access, but the general public and media were not invited to observe.
So for the second straight week, Saban's voice and statistics provided by the media relations department were the only tangible items to help construct just how much progress has been made after three weeks of spring practice.
By Saban's assessment, the defense redeemed itself somewhat after a lackluster first scrimmage.
The quarterback battle between redshirt sophomore AJ McCarron and redshirt freshman Phillip Sims remains tight, junior running back Trent Richardson and senior wide receiver Darius Hanks were solid, and linebacker Dont'a Hightower continued to motor.
"I was really more pleased today," Saban said. "We made a lot of improvement from last week to this week in terms of our ability to sustain the kind of effort, play with the kind of toughness, had a little bit better execution, a little more consistency, probably made less mental errors."
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