TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nick Saban spoke to reporters Monday following Alabama’s first practice of spring camp. Here’s a transcript of what he said as well as my takes on what it means.
Opening statement
“I was very impressed with the way our team went about the offseason program, the progress that we made not only in conditioning but also in simulated training and guys learning and understanding a little bit about what they need to do. Some of the reason for having a later spring practice was having 26 midyear guys who haven’t been in the program again. It gave us a little more opportunity to acclimate them to what it takes to get in condition, learn a little bit about what you need to know to go out there and be able to execute and do your job and have a little better chance to do that.
“Because the No. 1 focus of spring practice is on your development. Every player, we want you to focus on your development. Not what team you are, not where you’re at, not the reps, but take advantage of every opportunity that you get to be accountable and responsible to do your job and take pride in paying attention to detail so that you can do your job well. A lot of opportunity. Everybody has an opportunity. Everybody has an opportunity to compete for a position. You guys love depth charts – we don’t really have a depth chart right now. We wanna give everybody reps and everybody a chance to show what they can do and see how each and every individual might be able to contribute to the team next year.
Tony’s take: Earlier this month,
Alabama updated its roster, revealing new weights for its players. For the most part, the players who needed to bulk up did so while the ones who needed to slim down dropped weight. That combined solid start to training should put the head coach in a good mood to begin camp.
Alabama usually starts its camp the day before spring break before giving its players the following week off and resuming. This year, it was pushed back to give the Tide’s incoming freshmen a bit more time to get settled.
Based on Monday’s press conference, I’d expect Alabama’s mantra to be “development” this spring. Players are going to get bounced up and down the depth chart and moved to different roles. The ones who don’t get caught up with that and focus in on improvement will be the ones who lock down important roles on the team.
Injury report
“We have quite a few guys that are injured to some degree. Probably Deontae Lawson and Dallas Turner are two guys that are probably out of the spring completely. Both guys have had surgeries. Shouldn’t be any issues for them moving forward, but they’re probably out for the entire spring. Roydell Williams and DeVonta Smith both are recovering from injuries but probably will be able to return at some point during spring practice. And then Robbie Ouzts, Jah-Marien Latham and Justin Eboigbe will be able to do certain things in practice, but they will be limited to some of the things that they can and can’t do and probably won’t be able to have full contact or be involved in the scrimmage at all this year."
Tony’s take: While losing Lawson and Turner stings, it could open some opportunities for other players looking to break into the first-team defense
With Lawson on the mend, Alabama’ middle linebacker position becomes even more interesting. The Crimson needs to replace both of its starting spots and has plenty of talented returners, including junior Kendrick Blackshire, sophomore Jihaad Campbell and redshirt freshman Shawn Murphy. It also brought in Georgia transfer Trezmen Marshall and JUCO transfer Justin Jefferson and four-star freshman Qua Russaw.
The biggest downside to losing Lawson is it deprives him the opportunity to carve out a role as Alabama’s signal caller at the MIKE linebacker position. He still might take on that role this fall, but this would have been a good developmental period for him.
Alabama has even more depth at outside linebacker, but it’s got to be frustrating that five-star freshmen Keon Keeley and Yhonzae Pierre won’t be able to take advantage of extra reps with Turner on the sideline. Still, Alabama returns two five-star talents in senior Chris Braswell and redshirt freshman Jeremiah Alexander and should be well covered on the edge.
On Tony Mitchell
“Tony Mitchell has been suspended from the team and all team activities until we gather more information about the situation and what his legal circumstance is. Everybody’s got an opportunity to make choices and decisions. There’s no such thing as being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You’ve gotta be responsible for who you’re with, who you’re around and what you do, who you associate yourself with and the situations that you put yourself in. It is what it is, but there is cause and effect when you make choices and decisions that put you in bad situations.”
Tony’s take: First off, I don’t think Saban was taking a shot at Nate Oats, who was criticized last month after he said Brandon Miller was at the “wrong spot at the wrong time," when referring to his transportation of the gun used in the fatal shooting of Janae Harris. Saban and Oats get along, and there would be absolutely no reason for the football coach to take a pop at his basketball counterpart. Instead, I think that Saban was thinking about Oats’ blunder and wanted to make sure he didn’t do the same thing.
Alabama will wait for all the facts to be presented after Mitchell was arrested in Florida last week on a charge of marijuana possession with the intent to sell. That being said, things don’t look great for the freshman defensive back at the moment.
On Travaris Robinson and the roles for the defensive coaching staff
“T-Rob has been here for a year. I think he’s a really good coach. He’s been a coordinator before. I think he’s very capable. So Kevin Steele is going to walk around basically. So we have an inside ‘backer coach, an outside ‘backer coach, a D-line and a secondary coach. And then you’ve got me walking around, and I don’t know what exactly I contribute, but I’ll be out there walking around, doing something. They’re still trying to find something I can do, but I’m gonna try to do something. That’s really kind of how we’re organized.”
Tony’s take: I’ve said for a while that this is how I expected Alabama to handle its coaching staff. With analyst set to be able to take on a more active role in practice, it makes sense to allow Robinson to take over the whole secondary and allow Steele to oversee his whole defense. As Saban noted, he’ll also be taking on a free role and will be able to help where needed.
On the opportunity for Malachi Moore and Kool-Aid McKinstry as veterans in the secondary
“It's an opportunity for them to play. It's an opportunity for him to create value for themselves in their future by how they play. But it's no different for them than it is all the other guys. How responsible and accountable are you to do your job? How do you pay attention to detail so that you can self assess and improve and try to get better at what you do and have a sense of urgency about how you approach everything every day? How they pay attention to detail, so that's I think that's everybody's opportunity. I don't see it any different for those guys. They have experience, experience probably matters, their leadership probably matters and how it helps other players around them develop. But I think that creates value for them as well.”
Tony’s take: Once again, development is the theme here. Sure, Moore and McKinstry are the two most experienced returners in the secondary, but everyone in the unit will have the opportunity to better themselves and compete for a role. Saban wanted to make that clear in his response.
On transfer portal additions
"Well, you know what we've tried to do when it comes to the portal is look at guys that we think can make an immediate impact on our team. We have always tried to build our team with good recruiting of good young players, who sort of fit the culture of what we want to do, and if we feel like we have a need at a position where we see someone who can come in and make an immediate impact, and I think most of the players that we've taken from the portal, and I think there's been six prior to this year, five of those guys all made significant impacts on the team. One guy got injured and probably didn't have the opportunity to do it, or he probably would have made an impact as well. So we're going to continue that same philosophy of how we bring guys into the team. We still have to manage the roster. We still have to manage numbers. And I think you always got to take that into consideration when you're dealing with the portal as well."
Tony’s take: Alabama has brought in two players from the transfer portal so far in Maryland tight end C.J. Dippre and Georgia inside linebacker Trezmen Marshall. Dippre figures to be the Tide’s top tight end, while Marshall will compete for a starting spot at inside linebacker while adding veteran presence to the unit.
Alabama isn’t done with transfers just yet. It figures to see more departures when the portal opens back up this spring, and it could stand to add another offensive lineman if a legit option becomes available.
On the size of the offensive line
“I like the players that we have on the offensive line. I think we have some bigger, more physical players. I think they obviously don't have as much experience. But I like the attitude. I like their temperament. I like their toughness. And I think the number one thing is we got to create some depth. You know at that position, we probably lost more players than we gained even though the players that we gained we're excited about how and how they can contribute and what their future might be. So probably need to add a little depth at that position.”
Tony’s take: The quarterback battle will generate more hype, but how Alabama develops its offensive line will be equally as important. The unit returns plenty of beef, including five-star freshman Kadyn Proctor, who stands in at 6-foot-7, 354 pounds. Alabama needs to put together a unit that can provide push in the running game while also keeping its first-year starter at quarterback on his feet.
Saban mentions adding depth which could be achieved through the portal. Alabama could also take advantage of its depth on the defensive line and convert one of its defenders to the offensive side of the ball.
On the challenge with so much change in the program
“Well, I've said this before, but I look at every season like I just took the job. So (if) I just took the job, what would we have? We'd have new coaches. We'd have new leadership. We'd have to create a new culture on this team. We'd have to create a new leadership on our team from players as well as coaches. I would have to make sure that the coaches really understood the culture and the system that we wanted to play with, whether it was offense, defense or special teams. It's great to have continuity, especially in leadership positions, but this is not something that we don't have some experience at making sort of adaptations, being flexible, letting people add things that they know will be beneficial to us. Contribute to how we can fix some of the problems that we've had in the past. New energy and new enthusiasm is always helpful.
“So that's what we're basically going to try to do with the new people that we have. And hopefully we'll have some players that step up and become leaders, but they're going to have to earn the right to do that. You know, we haven't picked a leadership group yet. We have an advisory committee and with the advisory committee is supposed to do this. Go back to their room to their group and advise them on my and our message that they all need to understand. Whoever does that the best has obviously got a chance to be a leader, but we haven't decided who that is yet. So they have to earn the right to do that.”
Tony’s take: Saban wasted no time snuffing out the potential excuse of change — both in the coaching staff and on the field — becoming an issue. As far as he’s concerned every season is a fresh start, so new faces shouldn’t matter too much. That being said, it will be interesting to see how Alabama fairs under new leadership.
On the advantage of a younger coordinator breaking in QBs
"What if you had an older guy that had been there not too long ago, what would be the difference? (unintelligible) I think the most important thing is not young, not old: good; effective; good teacher; good quarterback coach' can develop quarterbacks; can help them sort of learn and grow at the position. I think that was one of the critical factors in the search for a new coordinator was the guy would be a really good quarterback coach and has a history of being able to develop quarterbacks. I think we did that."
Tony’s take: There’s an argument that 30-year-old offensive coordinator Tommy Rees could have an easier time relating to Alabama’s young quarterback room, especially since he was a college quarterback himself a decade ago. Still, that’s not why Saban hired him. Instead the head coach made it clear that he thought Rees was the best man for the job regardless of his age.
On ILB coach Robert Bala
“We interview a lot of people so 'A' we're looking for guys that fit from a character standpoint, who have good character, who are gonna set a good example and be good leaders for the players on our team. Secondly, we're looking for people who have knowledge, especially knowledge of our system in terms of what we do and how we do it. And can a guy be a good teacher? And in the interview process we thought Robert was an excellent candidate as a young guy that could come in and do all those things well for us."
Tony’s take: Saban seems similarly pleased with Bala, who will take over as Alabama’s inside linebackers coach after spending the past season as a defensive analyst at Liberty. Before joining Liberty, Bala spent four seasons at FCS program Southern Utah, including the final two as a defensive coordinator. During that span he also oversaw three different position groups including cornerbacks (2018-19), safeties (2020) and linebackers (2021).
On the QB opening and what he likes about candidates
"Look I think everybody has an opportunity. None of the guys have a significant amount of experience. I think Jalen played one game, half a game where he really had to play a game and he made a lot of plays. He made plays in a different way than Bryce made plays. Ty, who made significant progress throughout the year but never really had much of an opportunity to play in critical situations in a game, is also someone that we think has developed and made a lot of improvement and has a lot of potential to be a pretty good player. Then we got two young freshmen that they probably have a long way to go but they're eager to learn and they're eager to try and improve and get a better understanding of what we need to do. Development at that position is really gonna be a critical thing for our team this year because I like the players that we have around them."
Tony’s take: It’s a wide-open quarterback race, so buckle up and enjoy the ride.
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