Bama football stuff - Practice Day 5

The Tide hit the practice field in full pads for the first time on Monday afternoon. With full pads going on, the team will begin to work on preparing for the first scrimmage of the fall – which is scheduled for Saturday.

Here’s what you need to know:

No injuries. When the pads start going on, guys start getting more bumps and bruises, but the quarterback were still the only players in black no contact jerseys.

After attending fan day’s practice, Kerry Murphy was again absent today. He is with his family as they continue to deal with the death of his older brother.

Much has been made of the fact that Dre Kirkpatrick got some time with the first unit on Sunday, and that was partially the case again. Dre is working with the third group of corners when the team is working in its base defense. When the Tide goes to the dime package, though, he’s getting a lot of reps with the first group. The same can be said for Mark Barron, who is working with the third group of safeties (behind Justin Woodall and Tyrone King) in the base defense, but the first group in the dime.

This could be a solid indication that we are going to see more specialization this year on the defensive side of the ball. We saw a little of that last season, especially late in the season as there were some strange line and linebacker combinations put on the field to attempt to put more pressure on the quarterback. It looks like we might see some of that specialization creep into the defensive backfield in 2009.

Dont’a Hightower was still with the inside linebackers today, as Eryk Anders is attempting to put a stranglehold on the jack position. In all but one of the practices so far Anders has been the number one guy at the jack, and it looks like he could be preparing to be an every-down player in 2009.

Jerrell Harris is still working with the inside linebackers, as well. Cory Reamer has bounced around a good bit between the sam, will, and mike spots, though he was with the sams again on Monday. Harris started working with the wills on Thursday, and he’s been in that group since.

Alfred McCullough continues to work as the number one guy at right guard. I keep expecting to see Brian Motley or John Michael Boswell return to the first group at the position, but McCullough keeps getting those reps. This is his fourth position since he reported to Tuscaloosa (DT, DE, LT), but it looks like he might have finally found the right spot.

Marquis Maze and Darius Hanks are still working ahead of Mike McCoy, as the wide receiver rotation is beginning to take shape. Earl Alexander, Brandon Gibson, and Michael Bowman look to be the guys working behind Julio Jones, Maze, Hanks, and McCoy.

Coach Saban is exected to meet with the media tomorrow, and we’ll have coverage of that and tomorrow’s two practices.


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