JessN: Five Questions as Spring Practice Nears End

[JessN]

Five Questions as Spring Practice Nears End
by Jess Nicholas, TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief

While Alabama won’t be playing a traditional A-Day game in 2025 – indeed, Alabama might not ever play a traditional A-Day game again, nor might any other school – there will be a public practice to close the spring, non-televised.

Given the way the 2024 season ended for Alabama, there is significant fan interest regarding exactly how Kalen DeBoer plans to avoid some of the pitfalls that led to a four-loss season, and especially regarding the way Alabama played in at least two of those losses (Tennessee and Oklahoma). The following are five questions – and some potential answers – regarding those changes as spring practice winds up.

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Five Questions as Spring Practice Nears End

While Alabama won’t be playing a traditional A-Day game in 2025 – indeed, Alabama might not ever play a traditional A-Day game again, nor might any other school – there will be a public pract…

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[BamaMoon]

Good questions...as important as the QB race is, assuming the winner is competent in the passing game, the WRs and RBs have got to be better, but they all probably depend on the success of the OL.

Thanks for touching on all that!

 

[Tideflyer]

Good questions...as important as the QB race is, assuming the winner is competent in the passing game, the WRs and RBs have got to be better, but they all probably depend on the success of the OL.

Thanks for touching on all that!

Agree. As is often (always ? ) the case, getting a gelled and competent interior 5 on the O line will be the ultimate key to success.

 

[CaliforniaTide]

I'm not an expert at all, so this be wishing more than expected, but I think a big part of the RB question will be answered by the starting QB making better reads. Like what JessN said, the offense last season evolved (devolved?) into how successful Milroe was, and more often than not, he pulled the ball and tried to run it himself. As successful as it was against LSU, I got the impression that the RBs were used as decoys+blocking FBs more than actual RBs.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I found this intriguing and wonder why Jess believes this about Simpson.

 

[mlh]

I found this intriguing and wonder why Jess believes this about Simpson.

View attachment 50203

I have the same question. I don't think TS will be ready for the next level after only 1 year as QB1. If he had lots of playing time last year and really did well, then maybe he would be 1-and-done. But that wasn't the case.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I have the same question. I don't think TS will be ready for the next level after only 1 year as QB1. If he had lots of playing time last year and really did well, then maybe he would be 1-and-done. But that wasn't the case.

Yeah, unless Jess knows a little something we don't (which very well could be the case), I'm not ready to jump on the bandwagon of he's going to perform so well he's only going to be here one year. Now, he may only be here one year and transfer to another school because of Russell and the staff not wanting to lose him to the portal. But if Simpson goes to the NFL after one year of starting, and considering the strong QB class already coming out next season, it means he had a helluva season.

 

[gtgilbert]

I have the same question. I don't think TS will be ready for the next level after only 1 year as QB1. If he had lots of playing time last year and really did well, then maybe he would be 1-and-done. But that wasn't the case.

Mac Jones says "Hi!", and I was one of the ones thinking that BY would start over MJ, if not at the start of the season, mostly likely by halfway through. Couldn't have been more wrong.

Nothing would make me happier, though, than TS having an MJ type season and blowing through a few season passing records on the way to a first round draft grade.

 

[mlh]

Mac Jones says "Hi!", and I was one of the ones thinking that BY would start over MJ, if not at the start of the season, mostly likely by halfway through. Couldn't have been more wrong.

Nothing would make me happier, though, than TS having an MJ type season and blowing through a few season passing records on the way to a first round draft grade.

Yeah, but the Mac Jones deal was a perfect storm, so to speak. He did start several games as Tua's backup after he got injured, so he had that experience. And the WRs he was throwing to were very good, not to mention a Heisman Trophy winner in the group.

But I do get your point. Personally, I never thought MJ would be anything more than a perennial backup.

And there is a chance that TS would transfer after 1 year, but I think that's unlikely if he's the starter next year.

 

[BamaMoon]

I'm guessing that Jess may believe that TS has the goods and will bring them. He's a Sr. with 2 years eligibility left, but if he orchestrates a very good year the draft may be his next move.

One good year could get him drafted.

FWIW, in view of the young superstar Russell, it would work well for this to happen if KR is everything the recruiting experts think he'll be.

 

[tusks_n_raider]

I’m pulling for Ty to have a great year and be a 2 year starter and I don’t care at all about what happens behind him.

 

[gtgilbert]

on point 5, I'm not sure our defense has an overall preference for smaller/faster DL down in that 280 range. All the younger guys playing the two interior spots bulked up a lot, and the interior guys are around or over 300. I do think we are seeing a new type of player for the 3rd DL spot that is more of a true DE and that those guys are a smaller than what Saban used. Those are the guys in that 260-280 range that are mentioned. We never had that type before because saban would either use 3 bigs and an OLB, or 2 bigs and 2OLBs instead of having that 'bandit DE' type (other than pettiway for a couple of years). We don't have a ton of depth on the 'bigs' side, but do have a lot of depth at the bandit spot, so I wouldn't be shocked to see some of the bandits slide inside to some degree depending on down/distance/tendancy.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

on point 5, I'm not sure our defense has an overall preference for smaller/faster DL down in that 280 range. All the younger guys playing the two interior spots bulked up a lot, and the interior guys are around or over 300. I do think we are seeing a new type of player for the 3rd DL spot that is more of a true DE and that those guys are a smaller than what Saban used. Those are the guys in that 260-280 range that are mentioned. We never had that type before because saban would either use 3 bigs and an OLB, or 2 bigs and 2OLBs instead of having that 'bandit DE' type (other than pettiway for a couple of years). We don't have a ton of depth on the 'bigs' side, but do have a lot of depth at the bandit spot, so I wouldn't be shocked to see some of the bandits slide inside to some degree depending on down/distance/tendancy.

Do you see DeBoer and Wommack building our defense into more of a "PAC 12" size defense, or trying to get a hybrid between an SEC size defense and Pac 12? No matter how pass happy the SEC gets, defenses still have to be big enough to stand up to the run and just sheer size of the SEC offensive lines.

 

[BamaMoon]

I don't think we can ever get so small that we can't stop a good running attack.

If so, teams will adjust and go run heavy like a CNS 2009 type team to control the ball and shorten games.

So I think we'll have to have some balance there too.

 

[gtgilbert]

Do you see DeBoer and Wommack building our defense into more of a "PAC 12" size defense, or trying to get a hybrid between an SEC size defense and Pac 12? No matter how pass happy the SEC gets, defenses still have to be big enough to stand up to the run and just sheer size of the SEC offensive lines.

I think they defied the myth of the pac-12 size defense at UW. This is the 2 deep of the front 6 at UW in 2023:


Only one of the interior guys was less than 300 and that was almost a co-starting situation with the #2 guy playing as much as the listed #1.

This is actually a bigger lineup than we used for the last several years of Saban's tenure, as we more often than not were only running 2DL and then 2OLBs (combo of Anderson, Turner, Braswell) who were a little smaller than the small UW edge guys. Before we had those guys we most often played with 3 bigs and 1 OLB. It was good and bad, as often teams would scheme to expose the big that we were playing on the edge.

That first edge player in the UW lineup is the type we've not had on campus in Saban's scheme, and the reason we lost a lot of pure DE types in recruiting as they just didn't fit - too big to play OLB but not big enough to play the DL spots like we wanted them too. Having that type player I guess makes us a little smaller than much of Saban's tenure other than the last few years I described.

This really aligns us with what a lot of SEC teams run with an even front, and probably strikes a better balance between size and speed than we were able to do with the groupings Saban ran.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Wow....I don't envy the UDub radio team having to pronounce all those names!

 

[Cruiser]

"Washington transfer Austin Mack was so highly thought-of by the DeBoer staff that they moved on from Julian Sayin"
Not sure that's exactly how it went down??

 

[BamaMoon]

"Washington transfer Austin Mack was so highly thought-of by the DeBoer staff that they moved on from Julian Sayin"
Not sure that's exactly how it went down??

No, that's not how it went down. This has been mentioned/posted multiple times.

We DID NOT encourage Sayin to move on. Sayin wanted to play in a traditional pro set type offense like Saban ran and like Day runs.

The CKD offense is his own version of the old air raid concept.

The most stupid thing CKD would ever do is "encourage" a 5 star QB to leave. It was Sayin's decision.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

No, that's not how it went down. This has been mentioned/posted multiple times.

We DID NOT encourage Sayin to move on. Sayin wanted to play in a traditional pro set type offense like Saban ran and like Day runs.

The CKD offense is his own version of the old air raid concept.

The most stupid thing CKD would ever do is "encourage" a 5 star QB to leave. It was Sayin's decision.

Yeah, I have no idea who started the rumor that CKD "encouraged" him to leave. When taking over a new team, you don't encourage 5-star QB's to leave. Sayin left because he wanted to, not because he was "encouraged".

 

[cdub55]

No, that's not how it went down. This has been mentioned/posted multiple times.

We DID NOT encourage Sayin to move on. Sayin wanted to play in a traditional pro set type offense like Saban ran and like Day runs.

The CKD offense is his own version of the old air raid concept.

The most stupid thing CKD would ever do is "encourage" a 5 star QB to leave. It was Sayin's decision.

"Pro style offense" means something a lot different than it did 20 years ago. As you look around the NFL, what Deboer will run isn't an exotic or niche offense. Spreading the ball around and being wide open has become the norm. The NFL is typically the last place to evolve (high school is first and college second), but when Sayin is ready to attempt his try at the NFL, you are much more likely to see something similar to what Bama will be running than you will a team trying to pound the rock with the fullback and QB under center.

Ultimately, I think Sayin wanted to play for Saban and he may not have been sold on playing for someone who didn't recruit him. Ohio State probably was a close second in his recruitment and he felt more comfortable playing there.