re: Bama Football Tidings

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With its season opener against Duke nearing, Alabama continued to practice inside the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility on Tuesday.

Alabama was in full pads.

Here are some observations from the limited access period provided to the media:

— The first-team offensive line remained unchanged. Alex Leatherwood was at left tackle, Evan Neal at left guard, Chris Owens at center, Landon Dickerson at right guard and Jedrick Wills Jr. at right tackle. The first line of reserves had some alterations. Matt Womack was at left tackle, Pierce Quick at left guard, Emil Ekiyor at center, Kendall Randolph at right guard and Tommy Brown at right tackle.

— Two former four-star recruits, freshmen Ishmael Sopsher and Braylen Ingraham, left their fellow defensive linemen during individual drills to work with the scout team.

— Running back Jerome Ford (ankle) looked mobile during drills, but appeared in pain following a rep, as he stopped to look down at his foot before peering up at the ceiling.

— Alabama worked on its Dime package. Trevon Diggs and Josh Jobe were the outside cornerbacks. Patrick Surtain II was the Star. Xavier McKinney was the Money defensive back. Shyheim Carter and Jared Mayden were the safeties.

— ESPN/ABC dispatched its broadcasting team for the Duke game to Tuscaloosa. Watching practice were Steve Levy, Brian Griese and Todd McShay.

— A scout from the Miami Dolphins was on hand, too.

— Nick Saban used Tino Sunseri, a grad assistant for the quarterbacks, to throw passes to the defensive backs for an interception drill. Saban has usually handled that responsibility in the past. Sunseri, meanwhile, played quarterback at Pitt and in the CFL.

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Alabama's top-two running backs could miss the first half of Saturday's season opener.

Juniors Najee Harris and Brian Robinson could sit out the first 30 minutes of the Crimson Tide's first game of 2019 against Duke in Atlanta for missing a team function, BamaOnLine has learned.

*** UPDATE: Along with Harris and Robinson, BOL has confirmed redshirt junior outside linebacker Terrell Lewis will also miss time in Saturday's game against the Blue Devils for the same reason. Alabama junior wide receiver DeVonta Smith is reportedly set to be suspended, as well.

Harris was the nation's No. 1-ranked running back in the 2017 recruiting cycle, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. He saw the field in all 14 games as a true freshman in 2017 and was the Crimson Tide's fourth-leading rusher. Last year, his involvement increased as he was the team's second-leading rusher with 783 yards and four touchdowns on 117 carries.

Robinson played in all 15 of Alabama's games last year and rushed for 272 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 63 carries as a reserve. The year before as a freshman, he posted 165 yards and two scores on 24 touches in 11 appearances. Those numbers are expected to soar this season and look more like his production as the nation's No. 8-rated running back in 2017, per the 247Sports Composite.

Both players were ready to take on larger roles as juniors, but that will now have to wait a half.

Lewis is now healthy after missing all of last season because of an ACL injury. Smith was expected to be part of a potent passing game that returns all four receivers for a year ago. As a sophomore in 2018, Smith caught 42 passes for 693 yards and six touchdowns as a starting wide receiver.

Alabama is already thin at running back with freshman Trey Sanders (foot) out indefinitely. These suspensions mean redshirt freshman Jerome Ford, freshman Keilan Robinson and redshirt sophomore Chadarius Townsend will be the only scholarship backs available in the game's first half.

Ford, however, dealt with an ankle injury in the preseason and wasn't quite 100-percent healthy when he was mentioned last week. But with the latest news, Ford might have no choice but to play.

"We're going to work him in and see what he can do and try to do more and more each day and try to see if we can get him back to 100-percent," head coach Nick Saban said. "He's done really well before he was injured, so we planned on him playing in the game, and if he's healthy enough and the doctors clear him and we feel like he's 100-percent, we'll play him in this game.

"If not, we'll have to wait and kind of see how he progresses. So, it's going to be more day-to-day at this point to try to make that judgment."

Alabama and Duke will face off Saturday, Aug. 31, at 2:30 p.m. CT inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The game will be televised on ABC with Steve Levy, Brian Griese and Todd McShay on the call.

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Alabama and Duke will kick off the 2019 season in four days in Atlanta.

Following a “very intense study” of the Crimson Tide over the summer, Blue Devils head coach David Cutcliffe shared his thoughts on his team’s season-opening opponent Tuesday morning.

“I think they’re probably the most talented team, top to bottom, in the country. That’s what I honestly think,” Cutcliffe said. “Along with that, they’re extremely well-coached. They don’t have a lot of penalties, they don’t bust assignments, they don’t make errors, and so they do make you play their strengths.

“How do you do that? You take your team and you work as hard as you can starting Aug. 2 on what you believe your strengths and how you have to go about developing and building those, and that’s games of this magnitude are good for your program, they’re good for your team. I think starting back in January when we returned to school, you know the significance, they knew the significance of preparation.”

A former assistant director of the athletic dormitory at Alabama, Cutcliffe fielded questions about his alma mater, as well as the challenges a couple of the Crimson Tide’s current players present.

Below is what Cutcliffe said during his game week press conference.

On how the University of Alabama shaped who he is today…

“Well, I’m so old I can barely remember Alabama. You know, Alabama -- not only the university but growing up there -- shapes your passion for college football, shapes your passion for football. Obviously, when I’m there and being privy to Coach Bryant and the other great coaches -- Mal Moore had a great influence on me, Ken Donahue, Jack Rutledge, who unfortunately all those men are gone. I think that I understood a lot about the right way to go about this coaching business, and there’s a great benefit in that.

“I think the other part that is a reality when you do go to Alabama and anything involved with Alabama football, then or now, is that you learn to expect to win, and you don’t step away from that. You expect to win, and you understand that that comes with a price. It comes with a price of the offseason, but it comes at a price for preparation.

“And so, there’s no question that that helped start molding me, and I think we’re all a product -- I’ve done a lot of apprenticeships, which is not a bad way to learn. And that means working for people that are outstanding, so whether it’s Coach Bryant and the other coaches I mentioned or Johnny Majors or Phillip Fulmer or coaches I’ve coached with other places and/or here, there’s no question that Alabama football, the way the entire state thinks about it, changes kind of what your passion level is for college football.”

On what made him think this opener was a good thing for the Duke program…

“Yeah, I think our recruiting had just continued to rise, which it has, and you always are looking two years ahead at the quality of your athletes, the speed. We’ve got a fast football team. To play these caliber of teams, you’ve got to be able to run. If you can’t run with them, you can’t tackle them. If you can’t run with them, you can’t get away from them, etc. So, I just felt like our program had earned this type of opportunity, and it wasn’t as much that it was Alabama, it was the opportunity to be in a kickoff-type game for the 150th year of college football.

“Duke has had a storied history in part of our own tradition. And so, with Coach Wade and coming from Alabama and all of it, I viewed it as a tribute to Duke football past and to Duke football present. So, how do you walk away from that opportunity? And I still feel great about that decision, there’s no question. And challenging? Yes. But how do you grow? I mean, this is what you’re supposed to do.”

On what type of challenge Tua Tagovailoa presents…

“You know, I think he’s terrific. He has got everything that you want to start with with a quarterback, and the thing that is most obvious is his unbelievable accuracy. He has got a great, quick release. The biggest, most difficult part of it is if he has time, he’s going to be accurate and he’s going to be deadly with the ball down the field. So, you’ve got to mix up coverage, you’ve got to mix up rush, you’ve got to a great job of consistently making it as hard as you can for him. But yeah, I just think he’s terrific. I mean, everything I see about him is great for a lot of years, and there’s no question, I mean, he’s as good as there is out there in the college game right now.”

On what challenges Jerry Jeudy presents defenses…

“I don’t know if there is a better prospect than Tua, but Jeudy may be equal. There’s stopping, you’ve just got to minimize damage. With people that explosive, that fast, coverage has to change, you have to get help different ways. And so Coach (Matt) Guerrieri and Coach (Derek) Jones and that backend have got a lot of little things we’re doing that hopefully we can get some help in proper places. But he’s not the only one they’ve got at receiver, also.”

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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama worked indoors for a second straight day as the team continued to prepare for Saturday’s season-opener against Duke in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Players were dressed out in full pads for the workout. Here are some notes from the media viewing period.

— Alabama’s first-team offensive line remained the same as the Crimson Tide lined up with Alex Leatherwood, Evan Neal, Chris Owens, Landon Dickerson and Jedrick Wills Jr. from left to right.

— The second unit saw a bit of a shakeup as it featured Matt Womack, Pierce Quick, Emil Ekiyor Jr., Kendall Randolph and Tommy Brown. The third unit consisted of Scott Lashley, Tanner Bowles, Darrian Dalcourt, Jackson Robyn(WO) and Amari Kight.

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Crimson Tide went from returning no starters, to having nearly everyone back among the defensive backs

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There’s the senior veteran, the long shutdown corners plus the player who is being hyped as being one of the best safeties in the nation.

Yet the Alabama defensive back who is being talked about the most by his teammates this fall is easily sophomore cornerback Josh Jobe, who has worked his way into being one of the key players the Crimson Tide will be relying on this season.

The reason is simple: He’s the most physical player in the secondary. When he makes a hit, his target definitely feels it.

“I’m pretty sure all of us have taken at least one,” junior wide receiver Henry Ruggs III said. “Jobe is a pretty good tackler. He comes, you know he’s going for the football.”

Or something else, and the physical play isn’t limited to making tackles. Jobe likes to get his hands on receivers at the line of scrimmage, and do anything and everything he can to disrupt a route.

"It's just like he has an aggressive edge about it,” veteran cornerback Trevon Diggs said. “He's real aggressive and real locked in and real focused. I feel like it pays off real well. He goes out there, he hits everybody hard, he jams real well, he's really aggressive. So I feel like that's his edge."

As defensive coordinator Pete Golding put it, with size, speed and ball skills, Jobe’s becoming everything Nick Saban looks for in a cornerback. Plus, he now has the confidence to go with it.

“He had one of the best summers of any of our guys,” Golding said.

Jobe’s development helped lead to senior Shyheim Carter being pushed into the dime package. However, it’s even more telling of how good the Crimson Tide secondary could be this season.

This group has the potential to be outstanding.

Don’t be fooled by preseason articles claiming that the Crimson Tide’s defense might be susceptible or unproven on the back end. Those misguided reports are reflective of someone who hasn’t done his or her homework and is trying to find a reason to downgrade Alabama.

Yes, Clemson passed for 327 yards in the National Championship Game, and 308 to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl semifinal of the College Football Playoff. That was a different and younger team. It also didn’t have Diggs following a season-ending foot injury suffered at Arkansas.

The Crimson Tide’s best cornerback in that game was Patrick Surtain II, then a true freshman, who was still figuring everything out.

"Probably the Oklahoma game,” Surtain said was a turning point for him. “That was probably one of the games I knew I had to step my game up."

In addition to Surtain being thrust into the lineup after the first play against Ole Miss, the entire secondary was new. Even in the dime package the Crimson Tide had replacements from the previous year, making it prone to being attacked – although only few teams could do so.

Now it’s a veteran group. There was only one starter who needed to be replaced, and Jobe still forced his way into regular playing time. Consequently, there’s some proven depth.

“Last year it was more of we were trying to get to know each other,” McKinney said. “We hadn’t really gelled yet. There were a lot of people that were new to the defense, a lot of people who didn’t know the defense as well.

“But this year it’s more, we’ve got a whole bunch of faces that pretty much have played with each other. We’ve got a feel for one another, so I think that’s what makes our defense special, and that’s is what going to make our defense great this year.

Joining McKinney at safety has been Jared Mayden, whom if he starts as expected against Duke in Atlanta on Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT) it’ll be because he’s the better option over Carter in the base defense. Unlike with Jobe, the opposite is true with him, the less he’s being talked about the better.

It means he’s not getting beat or making mistakes.

Meanwhile, Diggs and Surtain look ready to earn that “shutdown” label previously mentioned.

“He couldn’t wait to get back,” Surtain said about Diggs coming of his injury.

Both are listed as 6 foot 2, which is very tall for a cornerback, and no one questions their speed after going up against Ruggs and Jaylen Waddle every day in practice.

Surtain also sees a lot of Jerry Jeudy, the Biletnikoff Award, as he’s taken over the role called “star,” covering the slot receiver (and allowing Jobe to step in at cornerback).

That Surtain is able to know and handle both positions, and be the best at handling the slot speaks volumes to how much he’s improved.

“I think Pat’s grown tremendously,” Diggs said. “He was a better star than I was.”

Diggs continued to explain why having a taller star makes things so much tougher on opponents : “I feel like when you’re in the slot, people think the position is supposed to be smaller so you can move those guys. Pat and I are bigger guys but we can move just as well as the smaller guys so I feel like it’s really not a difference, but I feel like we have an advantage because quarterbacks normally read the cover-two and throw that seam route. It’s harder to get that over our heads because we’re taller and longer.”

Go back to that confidence thing, and it’s a huge part of playing the position. Everyone has more and not just at cornerback. With the added experience, not to mention having three position coaches with Charles Kelly, Karl Scott and Saban, roles are better understood, allowing for better focus on each play.

It should translate to the most improvement among Alabama's position groups, with the possible exception of the kickers.

“Man, it feels great,” McKinney said about playing alongside Alabama's three established cornerbacks. “I got to do a little bit. But I know they can handle their own, so I don’t have to do too much. So, just knowing I have those guys out there — they can cover, they can tackle. Just knowing that I have them, it kind of keeps me cool and keeps me calm.”

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