2015 Spring Practice Thread

Safety really concerns me more than CB. I know that has been said before.
But all of our CBs return and Tony Brown should really begin to have a big impact. Maybe Humphrey too. We will have both talent and experience at the position.
But, we are losing a ton of talent and experience at safety. And who do we return? Geno and Maurice Smith and Hootie Jones are our primary returning safeties, I think.

So, I'm curious to what our RB situation will looks like. I think we'll see Drake as no. 2 and Scarbough as no. 3... Wow... Imagine Scarbough on field with Henry or Drake in some of the plays...

agreed on the situation at S. We're very, very thin on quality depth, especially with clark moving over to RB now. Geno is serviceable. Mo smith was completely out of sorts last year. Hootie barely got any defensive reps. I think we'll have to go back to using 3 CB in the nickel instead of three S like the last few years. That's helpful against the pass I suppose, but opens up some weakness against the run.

TIDE-HSV said:

Saban actually teaches his methods for DB play at clinics and the like. Shelby's (4-B) analysis of Kines' remarks are very close to what he teaches. "In phase" simply means that the DB is stride for stride with the WR. However, if the DB is even slightly out of phase, looking back is simply fatal. Saban teaches, as do other competent coaches, that the defender loses at least a half step at the point, making it an exercise in futility. That's just the way it is. Unfortunately, if your DB is several inches shorter than the WR, he's usually beaten at that point. I really think that we just haven't had the talent level we've had in the past. Throwing Brown and Humph to the wolves would have cost us at least a couple of more games, IMO. In fact, Brown had to be pulled because he was getting burned regularly. He should be a different corner next season and Humphrey should have a year in the weight room and at practice under his belt...

Click to expand...

Alasippi said:

Brown and Humphrey, two Olympic capable track stars, over and injured Eddie Jackson, and a converted wide out in Cyrus Jones? In less than a heartbeat I would. I wouldn't hesitate for two seconds.

Click to expand...

Hmmm... Guess which opinion I'm going with.

JustNeedMe81 said:

So, I'm curious to what our RB situation will looks like. I think we'll see Drake as no. 2 and Scarbough as no. 3... Wow... Imagine Scarbough on field with Henry or Drake in some of the plays...

Click to expand...

I think we will see Henry and Drake each split the playing time 50/50 unless in mop-up duties. I am so excited to see Drake back, as I believe his absence was a huge factor in our offensive struggles at times last season.

we'll see both on the field at the same time as well, maybe even more than last year because we can use drake to create mismatches without changing the grouping. Slide Henry up as an H back and drake is the RB then shift and henry is the RB and Drake is a wideout. what package and situation does a DC got with. stay in base and risk having to cover drake with an LB? Shift to nickel pr pass alignment and leave yourself exposed to Henry coming at you downhill with fewer folks in the box...

markenk said:

I think we will see Henry and Drake each split the playing time 50/50 unless in mop-up duties. I am so excited to see Drake back, as I believe his absence was a huge factor in our offensive struggles at times last season.

Click to expand...

Could very well be correct, however, I wouldn`t be surprised if they`re not both on the field at the same time a fair amount as opposed to one replacing the other. Provided he comes back whole (and it looks like he`s well on his way to doing that), KD`s just too much of a weapon not to have on the field a lot. IMO we`ll see him in the slot, running wheel routes, all sorts of stuff.

gt beat me to it !

On the three safety thing I really think Saban prefers to play three corners and two safeties more than the other way around. Problem is that for two seasons we haven't had the corners to do it. I think Geno is a solid talent who will be the foundation next year. I think Eddie Jackson struggled last season similar to how we saw Hightower struggle in 2010 but I'm hoping for a bounce back year. That leaves the question of Brown, Humphrey, and Selve. I'm still actually ok with Selve after his Iron Bowl performance.

What we might see opposite Geno is anybody's guess but I expect three corners to play most of the time and I'm betting Jackson willl be one of the three. Brown and Humphrey will get their chances to prove themselves during this next season. How well they do with the small tasks will dictate how big a roll they play once the meat of the schedule arrives.

As for running back I think Henry showed us something late in the season and he's proven to be a tough runner. Drake will play as much as his body will allow but I don't see us handing off to him that often. The door is wide open for a younger runner to get on the train. Tyren Jones was sitting in the catbird seat before he got suspended. It's possible Damien Harris could storm in here and take that job. It depends if he can block or not.

bamaslammer said:

On the three safety thing I really think Saban prefers to play three corners and two safeties more than the other way around. Problem is that for two seasons we haven't had the corners to do it. I think Geno is a solid talent who will be the foundation next year. I think Eddie Jackson struggled last season similar to how we saw Hightower struggle in 2010 but I'm hoping for a bounce back year. That leaves the question of Brown, Humphrey, and Selve. I'm still actually ok with Selve after his Iron Bowl performance.

What we might see opposite Geno is anybody's guess but I expect three corners to play most of the time and I'm betting Jackson willl be one of the three. Brown and Humphrey will get their chances to prove themselves during this next season. How well they do with the small tasks will dictate how big a roll they play once the meat of the schedule arrives.

As for running back I think Henry showed us something late in the season and he's proven to be a tough runner. Drake will play as much as his body will allow but I don't see us handing off to him that often. The door is wide open for a younger runner to get on the train. Tyren Jones was sitting in the catbird seat before he got suspended. It's possible Damien Harris could storm in here and take that job. It depends if he can block or not.

Click to expand...

I wouldn`t sleep on Bo. If he has the mindset " Going to be the best blocking RB we`ve ever had", watch out. Pretty sure he`s got the running and catching thing down.

I have felt the last couple of years that height, or lack of, with our DB's has been a big factor. Seems like too many times the big play was hit against us missing our guy's finger tips by an inch. I am in the camp that they are taught the very best fundamentals, but you can't do anything about height or wingspread except play bigger players.

Corners will always be shorter than receivers, otherwise they would be receivers.

on the S v CB, I think that was certainly the case early on with Saban at 'Bama that he wanted a CB out there, but as the spread and read option offenses have become so much more common I think he's shifted to wanting a S out there due to the amount of run support that is now required out of that star position.

A lot of teams playing against the read option will stay in a base 4-3-4 alignment, with one of the LB's being a smaller faster LB than normal. We play it as a 4-2-5, but our 5th DB has been a 215+ S so it's essentially the same approach. In a 4-3 it's called a SAM LB, in the 4-2-5 it's a Star, but the player profile looks very similar. It will certainly be interesting to watch to see how we get all the positions filled out this year for the various packages we run.

I've been as frustrated with the dB situation as anyone but we were still the number one seed. With the dl talent I think we will have, slightly better dB play will make us a challenge for anyone. A large improvement and we will be elite. Many Saban dB have had massive improvement from year one to two of playing time, have to hope that trend continues.

I really believe we'll see some big leaps of improvement this year at DB. Eddie Jackson should be close to 100% now. Cyrus played pretty good and should only get better. Throw in the young guns Marlon and Tony and I believe we'll see better play. But we do have a pretty big hole to fill back there at safety. We are going to really miss Landon Collins.

RTR91 said:

Do you mean Cyrus?

Click to expand...

yes, I meant Cyrus, For some reason I get Cyrus and Geno mixed up in my head.

One note on the roster released. As per the last two years they did not release new weight figures on veteran players. they are almost all identical to the pound which of course is Bull. I did make one observation however on a younger player. Last season Ronnie Clark started at safety and moved to RB where he promptly tore his Achillis (I think). During the offseason the rumor mill chewed on him some and made him this 230 lb monstor who was going to be the new "Fowler". Last season he was described as having eaten himself out of the safety corps at a published 221 lb weight. Now defying the rumor mill (shock!) they sent his weight out as 215 lbs which is probably ideal for his 6' 3" frame to play safety. Yet the press still lists him at RB.

What is up with this. I don't see him playing RB at 6' 3" 215.

I know it's AlabamaIntel, but there is talk that Grant Hill may not be returning this year? That would be a blow, IF true...