Execution was generally good, however.
Happy Monday, Gumps and Gumpettes.
We’re going to put a fancy bow on the A-Day game here (Spring still has two more practices though, which is a bit odd. So we’re not quite done with Claritin football just yet.)
First, the obvious concern: Freshman Najee clone EJ Crowell’s absence — yes, it put him behind, as we feared. Second, NCSU transfer Noah Rogers, who had damn near played himself into a starting job at WR2 left the field with a lower body injury and now must have an MRI. No, we don’t know how bad it is either.
DeBoer on EJ Crowell, who did not scrimmage…
“With EJ, just not a lot of reps in the first couple of practices and really nothing since. It is. You are going off of what you saw there and you have optimism. There is a lot to learn for him. Even just the contact, the physicality that comes along with the next level up. From an athleticism (standpoint), speed, has got good strength. You are optimistic. There is a lot of promise. It’s going to be pedal to the metal for him to learn the schemes, getting comfortable with the guys around him. Obviously, there is pass protection which is highly important for a running back as well.”
DeBoer on Alabama WR Noah Rogers being carted off…
“He will have to get evaluated. Unfortunate with him getting dinged up. We’ll kind of see what that looks like. He will go get the MRI and all of that kind of stuff and see what happens. We’ll have more information here as we go through the spring and summer.”
But, reading between the lines, the fact KDB is making it sound as though this will be a process that endures through Summer is not encouraging.
I told one of you earlier this week in relation to the Tide’s historical injury woes, “at Alabama, it can always get worse.”
It just did. Sorry for the Nega Gump.
If you missed the box score, AL.com has the complete stats for you here:
Receiving
Cederian Morgan: Three catches, 74 yards, one touchdown
Derek Meadows: Five catches, 63 yards, one touchdown
Trae’Shawn Brown: Five catches, 60 yards
Ryan Coleman-Williams: Three catches, 59 yards
Tyler Henderson: Three catches, 33 yards
Kaleb Edwards: Two catches, 26 yards
AK Dear: Two catches, 15 yards
Marshall Pritchett: Two catches, 10 yards, one touchdown
Keep an eye on Marshall Pritchett at TE in particular, as as well as how Derek Meadows responds to this unexpected opportunity. Rogers’ injury, and Ced’s ability to be moved inside to slot, could open up some playing time for him. Meadows looked great this weekend.
Following Saturday’s scrimmage, DeBoer highlighted something I did: Effort and tackling.
The backup secondary were losing too many 50–50 balls, especially in tight zone / man assignments. And then there was some rather disappointing tackling. The linebackers in particular did a poor job of driving it home, as did the passive pursuit from the D-line when Russell would get loose. That is not true for everyone, the Wolf units were active and filthy, and VT transfer ILB Caleb Wilson seems to have a genuine love of the ole’ ultra-violence. He’s not the most polished player, but he is an enthusiastic one.
This is why DDR5 is $900 for two sticks
Some of the defensive problems could be players learning their assignments, and the odd scrimmage contact rules. But those have nothing to do with whether you can lace ‘em up and put someone on their ass, or whether you’re going to hand-fight with a wideout to prevent a goal line catch. You have to want to impose your will.
Defense is about the sheer love of punishing another human being.
And KDB wants to see improvement:
You’re always going to work on tackling. You’re always going to work on pursuit. The effort stuff has to happen. That has got to be a must. I don’t think we have ever really had issues with that.
Our guys are accountable to it, so now it’s about execution on the blitz pattern. The execution on base stuff. We want Coach Wommack to have everything at his fingertips that he needs to be successful. We are taking those steps daily to do that.”
Better effort, better fundamentals, stop overthinking. Accountability begins with you.
We did see incremental improvement in the offensive line over last year’s craptacular unit though — in effort and fundamentals, if nothing else. To that, we can also add cross-roster experimentation that was a bit surprising (Michael Carroll moved to LG, for instance.)
Mississippi State transfer Jayvin James played most of the game at RT, and honestly, he looked like the weaker link there — pressure from the Wolves was almost always coming from that right side.
We don’t have a firm idea of who’s actually going to start on the right side…and much of that seems to be because of communication:
On the offensive line, DeBoer said that they are still a work in progress from a communication perspective. Michael Carroll was at left guard on the first unit next to Jackson Lloyd, with Racin Delgatty at center, Mal Waldrep at right guard and Mississippi State transfer Jayvin James at right tackle. There was plenty of rotation, though.
I’m also not sure that Waldrep is the answer at RG going ahead either. James had some miscues for sure, but Waldrep surely graded out poorer than everyone else. He was better in run blocking than trying to contain extra men coming through the line. And he has excellent lateral movement. But still, this is definitely where you want to attack the offense, that side of the line… Just as it was last year.
Hey, I guess the upside here is that the left side of the line is potentially much better than it was last year? Glass half-full, bros. Glass half-full.
Elephant Droppings
- No. 9 Alabama baseball blew two games at home to No. 22 Arkansas, and were blown out in a third. Horrid sweep. I did warn you last week that the Hogs were dangerous. More disconcerting was that the pixie dust completely evaporated around the Tide’s bullpen, as ‘Bama was able to generate just one decent 5-inning start in a weekend that otherwise saw them bite the curb.
- The women fared better on the Plains, as ‘Bama swept the hated Auburn Tigers — and Coach Murphy picked up his 500th win along the way. He’s the first SEC coach to do so, and obviously the dean leads all SEC coaches in dubs.
- We have been blessed for thirty years, no matter how stubborn Murph may be or how he’s arguably underachieved. He’s our Bobby Cox, for good and ill.
- Have we seen the worst at Alabama from Kalen DeBoer? I certainly think so, and I’m not alone either.
The dynasty may be dead, but annual title relevance is not.
- Look at how out of control this shit is. There’s bag chasing, then there’s just grotesque, cynical whoring. This kid does not care one whit about basketball — he’s in it for the cash. Of course, he also gave us a trio of smart plays in the final 10 seconds of the Duke Final Four game, so he is a baller. But $6m? For a shooting guard who’s not a great shooter — a below-average 33% from the perimeter and a genuinely shitty overall 42% floor shooter…by a guard.
- The worst part is that someone will pay this
Last week, Hodgson and Nate were on the Field of 68 podcast and said that not a single player has approached them and demanded less than $1m. Now other coaches are excoriating the ridiculous demands as well, which mirror CNO’s experience:
Finally, your moment of levity: I’m feeling a bit seen here on this one. Always. Trust. The. Data.
Downside is that he has turned me into a January 12 truther. We need a Part Two.
That’s it for this morning, you guys have a good day, and take care.
We’ll be back later today with some recruiting and portal news and analysis.
Row Tahd
