JessN: Five positions to watch as spring football nears

JessN

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Five positions to watch as spring football nears
by Jess Nicholas
TideFans Editor-In-Chief
February 20th, 2012 03:29 AM

By Jess Nicholas, TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief Feb. 20, 2012   Alabama’s basketball tournament hopes might be the top topic of interest at the moment – with the health of the Crimson Tide’s baseball program running a close second – but it’s never too early to talk spring football.   Alabama lost seven starters from its 2011 [...]

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GrayTide

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Good read Jess thanks. Lots of talent and lots of combinations that will have to be sorted out. Just thankful we have the talent to make this process competitive.
 

BamaMoon

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If you look up the term "reloading" in a football dictionary you'll find a picture of this Alabama team.

It's hard to imagine losing a player like Mark Barron and realizing there is a clone waiting to step in to replace him.

Exciting times!!!
 

kayakerjess

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Jess,

There's been some speculation among TideFans posters that Fowler may be the answer to the H-Back question, especially given how many players will be competing for carries at RB in 2012. IMO Fowler could likely still fill the role of short yardage RB, even if the majority of his snaps are as a blocker. I have no idea what type of hands Jalston has, or even if he would fit anywhere in the conversation at H-Back, but I'm curious what your take is on that possibility.
 

bamakeeb

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Bump on Fowler. His hands and ability to slip coverage are my questions. I would not normally think of a FB/LB type as elusive and with great hands. But, I honestly don't know much his ability in this area.
 

TiderJack

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Bump on Fowler. His hands and ability to slip coverage are my questions. I would not normally think of a FB/LB type as elusive and with great hands. But, I honestly don't know much his ability in this area.
He has good hands. In his HS highlight video he makes a sick one handed catch. I also think his speed and elusivenss for a bigger back is very good. I'm not sure if H-back is his postion but I think he will give us excellent depth at RB.
 

JessN

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Jess,

There's been some speculation among TideFans posters that Fowler may be the answer to the H-Back question, especially given how many players will be competing for carries at RB in 2012. IMO Fowler could likely still fill the role of short yardage RB, even if the majority of his snaps are as a blocker. I have no idea what type of hands Jalston has, or even if he would fit anywhere in the conversation at H-Back, but I'm curious what your take is on that possibility.
Fowler seems an obvious choice now that Yeldon is on campus. If Yeldon develops on a natural arc, Hart is healthy and Sims continues to work hard -- to say nothing of Kenyan Drake, who I personally think could be better than Yeldon -- Fowler is going to have a hard time getting snaps. Fowler knows the offense and will hit someone, plus he's a guy you can hand off to, which never described either Dial or Smelley.

The only issue is that Saban has never had an H like Fowler. Every H he's utilized has been a smaller tight end, a guy who could flex to the WR position and run a route out of the bunch formation. If this was a discussion simply about fullback-tight end combo players, the list of candidates could literally fill a page. You could bring Undra Billingsley back over from defense (he spent his RS freshman year at tight end) or move William Ming, who played TE in high school, over. But what Alabama's H position is, more than a TE/FB, is a TE/WR. Where Smelley became so dangerous was that he had the athleticism necessary to run routes from H, Y or even X or Z in our offense, yet he was 6'3" and 240 pounds. Find me a cornerback who likes to jam that. And LBs couldn't run with him.

I don't see Fowler as that kind of guy. If Freitag was going to be here for spring, I'd say he would have an excellent chance to enter fall as the starter.
 

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