Spring Practice: First Week News And Notes

The first day of practice was last Saturday, March 16th. It's not a coincidence that March 16th is also my birthday. Nick is so good to me. 

Anyway, that first practice was one of 15 practices before the A-Day Game on April 20th. There are 3 new assistant coaches this year.

Mario Cristobal is the most notable. He will be the O-Line Coach now. He came from Miami, where he held the same position, but he also has head coaching experience and is known as a great recruiter and teacher of his position.

Billy Napier is the new WRs Coach. He has been an OC at Clemson and has alot of recruiting knowledge as well.

Greg Brown brings 30 years of coaching experience to the defense, as the new DBs coach. Brown has coached in college and in the NFL and will no doubt be a good recruiter too, cause we all know how Saban goes about hiring.

Heading into the spring, Alabama has to find 3 new starters on the O-Line, 2 on the D-Line, and 2 more in the secondary. As we have seen in the past couple seasons though, we just keep losing 1st Rd talent and replacing it with more, so I'm not worried about this at ALL.

Day One News And Notes

Every year, we always see several guys move around to different positions. Sometimes it's for experimentation and sometimes it's a sign of where they are going to play at the coming season.

Cyrus Jones was a freshman WR last year, but he was working at corner. This might stick as his new spot. Dee Hart, RB, and Christion Jones, WR, were also working with the secondary, but they are likely to move back to offense when all is said and done.

Jeoffrey Pagan, Brandon Ivory, and Ed Stinson were the 1st Team D Line, with LaMichal Fanning, Darren Lake, and Xzavier Dickson being the 2nd Team.

Dickson was moving back and forth though between DE and LB and could very well end up being a starter at OLB this season. I think he should and will be.

Day Two

On Monday, the team practiced indoors due to nasty weather. It was found out that William Ming, Chris Bonds, and Jonathan Atchison were no longer part of the team, which was suspected earlier. The process, y'all.

Bradley Sylve is competing like hell with Deion Belue for the outside corner position opposite from Geno Smith. I think this battle will go into the fall and we'll be in good hands, regardless.

Landon Collins seems to be a sure starter to alot of people this year, but Jarrick Williams is looking really good and they are competing for that same spot. Another battle that might take awhile.

Day Three

Wednesday was the first day in full pads.

Kellen Williams was getting a look at LG, behind Arie Kouandjio. Another good battle. I love all these battles we have going on between such greatly talented guys. 

Day Four

On Friday, most everything was the same as has been mentioned above, except that we got to see Derrick Henry in some passing drills. Not so good yet. Dropped some passes. So there's an area that he will have to work on to move ahead of Drake and take that spot with Yeldon, though I fully expect by fall, he will have that locked down.