Depressing Read on the Current Status of Bama's Oline

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Through four practices, second-year OL coach Mario Cristobal is really going to face a challenge and truly earn his money at Alabama. The first five has been the same through four practices as Shepherd is an anchor at right tackle, and Ryan Kelly is entrenched at center. Arie Kouandjio has thus far been at left guard with redshirt sophomore Alphonse “Shank” Taylor at right guard and former junior college transfer Leon Brown at left tackle.

This has raised some eyebrows because most had pegged sophomore Grant Hill to be moved inside to guard. The Huntsville native has continued to play right tackle with the twos and inside word is that the 6’6 308-pounder has struggled thus far. The senior Brown started at right guard for the injured Anthony Steen in the Sugar Bowl and performed pretty well. But his move to left tackle, where he practiced and played for parts of his first season in 2013, was necessary because true freshman early enrollee Cameron Robinson has had a rough transition from High School to SEC football. The Monroe, Louisiana, native was signed as the consensus top-ranked offensive tackle in the country, with the thought process that he could have an Andre Smith-type impact as a freshman and start from day one at left tackle. He has run third-team thus far through four practices and faces an uphill climb this spring to push into the two-deep.

Former tight end Brandon Greene (redshirt sophomore) has moved back to left tackle and is running with the twos, while the back-up left guard is redshirt junior Isaac Luatua. Redshirt freshman Brandon Hill has seen time with the twos at right guard but redshirt freshman Bradley Bozeman has seen reps there in the last couple of practices as Hill has been a little banged up. Bozeman and Grant Hill have also spent time at center with junior walk-on Paul Waldrop (twos) also getting reps with the centers behind Kelly.

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