re: Bama Football Tidings

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Crimson Tide dons full pads outside in preparation for Southern Miss

Alabama worked outside in full pads while preparing for Southern Miss. Conditions were sunny and 96 degrees.

The forecast for Saturday’s game at Bryant-Denny Stadium is sunny and high of 90 degrees.

Coming off his knee injury, linebacker Terrell Lewis had a maintenance day and didn’t practice.

At interior linebacker, Christian Harris was working alongside Shane Lee during individual drills.

As expected, junior defensive end LaBryan Ray (foot) was absent. Freshman Justin Eboigbe took his place at South Carolina.

Reporters got a look at the first-team offensive line, which had no changes with Chris Owens at center, and Landon Dickerson next to right tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. at right guard.

Darrian Dalcourt appears to be the backup center, and Emil Ekiyor was at left guard.

When reporters walked in the wide receivers were on the blocking sleds. They also got to see a dime drills that included Shyheim Carter and Jordan Battle.

Injury rundown
Junior interior linebacker Dylan Moses: Out indefinitely with a knee injury.
Senior interior linebacker Josh McMillon: Out indefinitely with a knee injury.
Freshman running back Trey Sanders: Out indefinitely with a left foot injury.
Reserve offensive lineman Hunter Brannon is out indefinitely.
Antonio Alfano remains absent.

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You know him as a key member of the nation’s best college football receiving corps. You know him as Alabama’s kickoff return man, though in today’s game there aren’t many opportunities there. You may not know him for the role he plays in Crimson Tide kickoff coverage.

But you may not know Henry Ruggs III as a student of his craft.

Alabama has one of the nation’s most prolific passing attacks. It starts with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa being so accurate with the football pass, but when his receivers get the ball it’s often off to the races, and Bama receivers win a number of those races to the end zone.

Officially this year, Ruggs, a 6-0, 190-pound junior from Montgomery, has 12 receptions for 202 yards (16.8 yards per catch) and two touchdowns, including an 81-yard play in last week’s 47-23 win over South Carolina in Columbia.

We say officially, because on the opening play of the Crimson Tide’s 62-10 win over New Mexico State, Ruggs took what everyone would agree was a pass on the right sideline and went 75 yards for a TD. On the technicality that Ruggs was behind Tagovailoa when the pass was thrown, the play was ruled a run — and so Ruggs is currently Bama’s fourth leading rusher — 1-75.

Alabama opponents have had only 11 kickoff opportunities this year. Five have been touchbacks, one has gone out of bounds, and three have been fair catches to take the ball at the 25. Ruggs has been able to return only two for 41 yards.

(His 81-yard reception and 75-yard run are the longest of the year in both categories for Bama this year and the longest of his Tide career.)

There is little chance there will be many more kickoff return opportunities Saturday when Alabama (3-0 and ranked second in the nation) hosts Southern Miss (2-1) at 11 a.m. CDT (ESPN2 televising).

Ruggs said a primary attribute for a kickoff return man is “Patience, for one thing. But then, you can’t be too patient, because [kickoff team coverage men] are coming down full speed. But you trust that your guy is going to make the block.”

He also has to make a split second decision on whether to return a ball, particularly one that hits the ground and may be going out of bounds or into the end zone. That was the case last week.

Ruggs explained, “Off the bounce, I saw it was going out of bounds. If it’s close, you can’t really chance it; you have go go ahead and get it and get up the field and get what you can.

“But if it’s going out of bounds, I’d rather take the flag.” The penalty is the offense gets the ball at its 35-yard line.

Opponents this year have returned four kickoffs for an average of 15.5 yards per return, the longest 18 yards.

The secret to good kick coverage Ruggs said is “We race down the field, race to see who can get to the ball first and who can make the tackle first.” He added that the good hang time by kickoff man Will Reichard allows good coverage.

Alabama uses first team players in its special teams, and although Ruggs is certainly the fastest man on Bama’s kickoff coverage team, he is not often at the tackle. “I’m a second level player,” he said, so it’s not his role to be first down. “I do what I’ve got to do.”

Ruggs said he was pleased with the game his teammate, DeVonta Smith, had against South Carolina, taking in 8 receptions for 136 yards and two touchdowns. “With the group we have, you never know who is going to make plays, who is going to have a big game. Obviously, [South Carolina] was his game.”

Not far behind was Ruggs with 6 catches for 122 yards and a TD.

There has been talk about Alabama receivers running good routes. “That comes from being a student of the game, paying attention in the meetings and understanding coverages and what we’re going to get in the games,” Ruggs said. “The whole group is getting better at that, paying more attention to the things we can do, more technical than just relying on skills.”

Much of Alabama’s success in the passing game comes from slant routes that take the receiver into the middle of the field. “You know you’re going to get hit at some point, and sometimes you do,” Ruggs said, but “when the ball’s in the air, you’ve got to make that play. That’s our job.”

He gives some credit to Tagovailoa, who puts the ball where it needs to be. And then it’s often that race. “The momentum of the ball carries us one way, and we just follow it,” Ruggs said. “Sometimes it’s just fortunate enough to not have anybody in the lane.”

How much room does Ruggs need to get those yards after catch?

“I don’t think I need too much room,” he said. “We’re guys that are big on carrying the football, so we don’t think we need too much room. We can break a couple tackles if we need to. So, I’d probably say just a little bit of room. Just a little bit.”

On Ruggs’ long touchdown against South Carolina, he saw teammate Jerry Jeudy make a block “and I just kind of ran off his back, and that was it from there. It was just a race from there.”

Which brings up another job for Ruggs and his wide receiver teammates.

“We take pride in the blocking as a receiver, especially as smaller guys because we know that more so it’s just getting in people’s way. But we try to take pride in blocking and getting our hands on bigger defenders. So, when we do make a play and you see a guy with your jersey on make a block or chasing you downfield, it just feels like the whole team made a play.”

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Two of Alabama’s weak-side linebackers struggled against South Carolina, and it appears that the competition for the starting role and extended playing time is still up for grabs.

Christian Harris, a freshman, has started each of the first three games, and sophomore Ale Kaho relieved him against the Gamecocks.

“There’s no plan right now,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said at his weekly press conference. “We’ll see how guys work out in practice. If they do well, we’ll play the guy that we think that can do the best job in the game.”

South Carolina running backs being able to rush for 88 yards and an average of 14.7 yards per carry during the third quarter of that game, according to analysis by AL.com. Harris had a missed tackle on a 22-yard run from RB Rico Dowdle, and Kaho missed a tackle near the line of scrimmage on a run up the middle that Dowdle turned into a 12-yard gain. One play later, Kaho was out of position on a 33-yard gain by Dowdle.

After the game, Saban also said, “There was a lot of confusion with the young guys with formations and motions and some of the things that they were doing,” Saban said. “We tried to get 8 (Harris) settled down by taking him out of the game and put in Kaho in for a series. Then, we put him back in the game and then we decided to play Kaho a little bit because he’s a good football player and he needs to get some experience himself.”

Harris has 11 tackles this season, while Kaho has seven.

The Crimson Tide play host to Southern Miss this week in a 11 a.m. local time kickoff on ESPN2.

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