re: Spring Football News & Info

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Spring Game Video - 3rd and 8: 3rd and 8: Anoma is on the right side of the line this time, going against left tackle Alex Leatherwood (#70). Anoma gets caught up by Leatherwood on his initial move and is stymied. He doesn’t give up, however, and keeps his eyes on the prize. Anoma manages to disengage with Leatherwood and goes around him. Tagovailoa has been forced back after Anfernee Jennings (#33) forced Womack into the quarterback’s lap, and Anoma reaches around and gets a hand on Tagovailoa. Since it’s A-Day, that’s enough for a sack.

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Spring Game Video - 3rd and 4: 3rd and 4: Anoma is back on the left side now. He charges into Forristall’s chest and is only slowed down for a fraction of a second before shoving Forristall aside. That’s okay for the offense, though, since the pass is designed to go quickly to the other side. Anoma should be able to beat a one-on-one battle with a tight end, but I mainly included this one for the end of the play (and no, not because of Jobe). Anoma started on the complete opposite side and didn’t stop just because the ball went the other way. He kept going to the ball and was right there when Jobe popped up.

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Spring Game Video - 1st and 10: 1st and 10: Hey, it’s some pass coverage, too! Anoma is standing up on the right side. He starts to follow Forristall, who is flaring out into the flat; but he sees Paul Tyson already starting to throw it to Cameron Latu (#20). Anoma adjuts and jumps, extending his left arm out to block Latu from the ball. The pass was poorly placed to begin with, but Anoma made sure Latu had no shot at it. Give the man the PBU.

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Spring Game Video - 1st and 10:1st and 10: Anoma’s on the right, going up against Leatherwood again. Xavier McKinney creeps down to the line, showing blitz. Leatherwood tries to help with Anoma, who is rushing inside, before turning his attention to McKinney, who is coming from the outside. Chris Owens (#79) is at left guard after starting the game at center, and he is too slow moving to his left. He gets a hand on Anoma; but the outside linebacker blows through the two offensive lineman and gets a hit on Tagovailoa, who just has to heave the ball deep.

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Spring football has ended for Alabama, and Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide have entered the offseason after 15 practices. But with those said practices and UA’s annual A-Day Game still fresh on our minds, we recap what happened at each position this spring, while also looking at the past and future of the groups. We continue our spring position rewinds with the tight ends.

PRE-SPRING QUESTION

Alabama entered the spring without its two starting tight ends from the last two seasons. Hale Hentges ran out of eligibility, while Irv Smith Jr. elected to declare for the NFL draft a year early following a record-breaking junior campaign. Miller Forristall was back as the most experienced player at the position for the Crimson Tide, but beyond him was a lot of youth and inexperience.

So, the pre-spring question for the tight ends was who was going to provide depth?

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WHAT WE LEARNED

One of the players at the front of the line to contribute in 2019, Kedrick James, will miss the first four games of the season as a part of his suspension by the NCAA during the College Football Playoff last year. James is a freak athlete but also dealt with minor injuries this spring. The same can be same for Major Tennison, who ended the spring season on the sideline with a concussion.

Outside of Forristall, James and Tennison, Alabama’s options were limited to redshirt freshman Michael Parker and walk-on Giles Amos. So, Saban and company called on a defensive player in outside linebacker Cameron Latu to give the tight end group enough bodies. Latu spent all 15 practices with the tight ends and showed a lot of potential on offense -- so much so that he and Forristall were with the ones in the A-Day Game, and the spring experiment caught two passes.

“Miller Forristall had a good spring. Really shown a lot of leadership in what he does,” Saban said. “Cameron Latu has made a lot of progress at the position, and I certainly think could develop into being a pretty good player there. Major Tennison was having a good spring before he had an injury. Kedrick James has been out there practicing, and he’s got a chance to make a contribution.

“Everybody’s developing. Everybody’s working hard. So we just keep on keeping on, trying to make those guys better.”

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“We’re going to have a lot more young guys come in that hopefully can make a contribution,” Saban said. “I think of the 12 guys we have coming in, nine of them are defensive players and some of those guys are going to add depth to the team, in the secondary, up front, maybe at linebacker. So, there’s a lot of opportunity there. We’ve got a tight end coming in. That’s an area where we need some help. A couple of running backs on offense where we need help.

“We’re going get younger before we get older. We’re going to do a good job of trying to teach those guys what we can during the summer.”

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Spring football has ended for Alabama, and Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide have entered the offseason after 15 practices. But with those said practices and UA’s annual A-Day Game still fresh on our minds, we recap what happened at each position this spring, while also looking at the past and future of the groups. We continue our spring position rewinds with the offensive line.

PRE-SPRING QUESTION

Alabama was tasked with replacing two starters in left tackle Jonah Williams and center Ross Pierschbacher and two key reserves in Lester Cotton and Joshua Casher this spring. The Tide had some experience returning in rising juniors Alex Leatherwood and Jedrick Wills, as well as former starters Matt Womack and Deonte Brown. The question in the 15 spring practices was which young players would step up alongside them to give UA the five best offensive linemen?

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WHAT WE LEARNED ... “I’ve been really pleased with some of the young players that we have,” Saban said. “They’re obviously swimming. Probably the most difficult thing at one position that requires more knowledge and experience is maybe the offensive line. But I see ability there.

“And I’ve been pleased with Alex at tackle. Jedrick has done a good job. Chris Owens has worked hard at center and doing a good job. Matt Womack is doing a good job at guard. E has done a good job at guard. Some of the young guys -- Evan Neal, Dalcourt. I feel pretty good about that group. They’ve got to develop probably more consistency in what they’re doing, but I feel pretty good about that group and I feel good about the progress they’ve made.

“And I think the transition to Coach Flood has been seamless and seems to be working really well.”

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Enough is going to be discussed and parsed through concerning Alabama football over the next four months. Here’s what Bama Hammer thinks about the Tide’s chances exiting the spring.

Alabama football is fine. Seriously. It’s all good.

The world came tumbling down for those of us looking to celebrate a sixth national championship in the last ten seasons. It was not in the cards. Clemson came down hard on the Tide in January. Unless you were a Tiger fan (or every other college football fan on the planet) it was a horrific sight to behold.

Oh, and don’t you worry: once SEC Media Days officially kicks off the 2019 college football preseason, there will be plenty of around-the-clock coverage of how truly morbid Alabama football’s loss was that evening.

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