re: Bama Football Tidings

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A few notes from Alabama’s first open-week practice By Michael Casagrande | mcasagrande@al.com After getting Monday off, Alabama was back at practice on Tuesday in Tuscaloosa. It’s still warm with temperatures in the mid 90s at 4 p.m.

A few notes on a shorter-than-usual media viewing period:

-- Henry Ruggs was in uniform but it didn’t look like he was participating much in the individual drills. He left Saturday’s game with a hip pointer but returned to action later in the game.

-- Defensive back Shyheim Carter was also out there and practicing after briefly leaving the game with an injury.

-- This was a practice getting back to the fundamentals. There were no scout team jerseys since preparation for Texas A&M won’t start until later this week at the earliest.

-- Players were in helmets and shorts, not full pads.

-- Guard Landon Dickerson was taking a few snaps at center but it was solo and he’s technically the third-string center after starting there in Game 2.

-- On a related note, we spoke with receiver DeVonta Smith earlier Tuesday. He was asked if teammates were giving fellow receiver Tyrell Shavers a hard time about dropping a blocked punt for what would have been a touchdown. “Something like that,” he said with a grin. “Shav’s the person that’s always, he wants to be perfect. When he did that, we were just like, ‘It was there, and you just let it happen.’ It was funny, but at the end of the day we were all happy that, no matter who it was, we got the turnover and we scored.”

-- Anyway, it was a practice light on news. They’ll be back out there again Wednesday.

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Even though there's no game on the schedule, Crimson Tide has a lot to accomplish during its bye TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It’s a bye week for Alabama, which means no opponent to prepare for, except to maybe get a little bit of a head start on the next foe, Texas A&M.

Although the team is welcoming the break, the extra week off this year isn’t something they’re entirely accustomed to. The Crimson Tide is traditionally off the final Saturday of October, and it will be again after three straight Southeastern Conference games, acting like a pause before the challenging final stretch of the season.

Alabama is practicing every day this week. A lot of it will be getting back to fundamentals, fixing mistakes along with some advance work on upcoming opponents.

For the coaches it also means a chance to hit the road in recruiting over the weekend. Meanwhile, the players will get a chance to put their feet up and watch some games on Saturday.

But it doesn’t mean that this will be an easy few days.

“I need to continue to work on my tackling, my tackling on the perimeter coming down, playing safety, in the SEC at that,” senior safety Jared Mayden said. “There’s a lot of big backs out there. I need to make sure I’m not just going up and hitting guys as hard as I can. I need to be able to hit and wrap up. Wrapping up is definitely something that’s on my focus.”

Here are five other points of emphasis for the Crimson Tide this week.

1] Recover
Alabama’s had a ridiculous number of injures this season, including some like junior wide receiver Henry Ruggs III (hip pointer) who could benefit from some extra rest.

“He’ll probably be sore for a few days, but we don’t think it’s an issue long-term,” Nick Saban said after Saturday’s 59-31 victory over Ole Miss.

Kicker Will Reichard (hip) and linebacker Markail Benton were held out of the Ole Miss victory, while Alabama is still being a little cautious with linebacker Terrell Lewis (knee).

“It’s a little bit day-to-day with how he can go about what he has to do,” Saban said.

2] Work on ball control on offense
Scoring touchdowns is obviously always the goal, but doing so and also eating up some of the clock could certainly help the defense.

“There’s been games where he’s told us to drive, and there’s some drives where he wants us to go fast,” junior wide receiver DeVonta Smith said about balancing up-tempo and ball-control priorities.

“it depends on who we’re playing. If they’re a team that plays fast too, he’ll tell us to slow it down, give the defense a little bit of a breather. But then again, you don’t always just want to sit up there and play the game slow. You want to use the speed of the offense.”

3] Set the offensive line
Deonte Brown returned last week and had significant playing time at both guard positions. Freshman Even Neal might have made the decision for coaches about who to play a little tougher as both he and Landon Dickerson had strong performances against the Rebels.

4] Continue to gel defensively
Alabama is playing with one returning starter on the defensive line and on one at linebacker. The secondary has more experience, but it has a pair of new starters too with Mayden and freshman Jordan Battle at the dime slot. Combined with two true freshmen at interior linebacker and true freshman D.J. Dale at nose tackle, and that’s a lot of people still figuring out how to play together as a unit.

“You want everybody to reset and focus on the next play,” Mayden said about minimizing mistakes. “You can’t stop that play from happening no more. We need to focus on the next play and get everybody on defense sound for the next play so all 11 guys can play fast.”

5] Get off the field, especially on third downs
Similar to what happened at South Carolina, Alabama’s defense was on the field for 88 plays against Ole Miss. It has to do better or the defense will tire down the stretch.

“If we play 20 more plays of defense every game that we play, the cumulative effect of that is times 12, so that’s a lot of plays and that’s a lot of wear and tear on some players,” Saban said.

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Jared Mayden still makes sure to give a look to his left following every call that comes in from Alabama’s sideline out of the dime package. The senior is just checking to make sure freshman Jordan Battle is on the same page.

Lately, there hasn’t been much to worry about.

“I always make sure,” Mayden said. “As I get the call from the sideline, I look at him. And if the formation changes, I’ll make sure I look at him. I feel like he’s always looking at me. We always gonna be on the same page. There's not too many times where we don’t understand what we’re doing.”

BATTLE, who enrolled at Alabama over the summer, has already locked down a role in the Crimson Tide’s dime secondary. The former four-star recruit recorded his first career interception during the season-opener against and made his first collegiate start the following week against New Mexico State.

Through five games, he’s recorded 12 tackles, including two for a loss and one sack while also tallying an interception and a fumble recovery. He’s allowed just four receptions for 13 yards on nine targets and is holding opposing passers to a 12.0 NFL quarterback rating, according to Pro Football Focus.

“Jordan has done a nice job for us,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said earlier this month. “He’s made some contribution. There’s been some plays that I think with a little more experience he would make. He’s tough. He’s a good tackler. He’s a very instinctive player. But you can’t really teach experience.”

Following Battle’s interception against Duke, Saban explained that Alabama was lined up in the wrong coverage on the play. Despite the miscommunication, the 6-foot-1, 201-pound safety had the necessary awareness to adapt and play the ball with confidence resulting in the big play. The next step for Battle is being able to limit those types of freshman miscues, something his teammates say he’s been working relentlessly on this season.

“He’s grown very well,” defensive back Patrick Surtain II said. "He’s getting into the plays, learning the plays very well, communicating out there. It seems like he’s a vet out there already. He’s a pro playing at the safety position. He’s doing very well.”

Battle will have a chance to regroup and polish his game as Alabama enters its first of two open weeks this season. In the meantime, he can rest easy knowing he has an extra set of eyes for guidance on the field.

“Jordan, he’s coming into his own,” Mayden said. “Funny. He’s a funny kid. He goes out there and plays with a lot of energy. What he doesn’t know, he’ll ask. He’ll ask in meetings. Even out on the field, he’ll look at me and I’ll make sure to look at him to make sure he’s doing the right thing. So he’s a crazy athlete. The guy can be a good talent.”

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Gary Danielson

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