re: 2013 Alabama Football Recruiting Thread - DH Decommited from UGA

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-NG prospects are Michael Hill and Greg Webb

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(Walker Jones)will be visiting Vanderbilt on Tuesday, Tennessee next Friday, Alabama next Saturday and Mississippi State the following Saturday.

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A big problem for the D Friday
Chris Walsh
TUSCALOOSA

Even though he’s on the same side, University of Alabama offensive lineman Chance Warmack has a simple philosophy when it comes to teammate Jalston Fowler.

“Gotta get out of the way, man,” the 6-foot-3, 320-pound guard said. “He’ll run you over.”

That’s the idea.

If there was one disappointment from last week’s first scrimmage of spring it was that the running game didn’t have a better showing. Granted, the Crimson Tide’s backfield is plagued by injuries and last year the defense led the nation in stopping the run, but no one having more than 32 yards was still a little surprising.

It’s even doubly so considering that Alabama’s offensive line is expected to be outstanding this season.

“I wouldn’t say trouble, but we know we’re a lot better than what we are, and we can do a lot better than what we have been doing,” Warmack said. “I think this next scrimmage coming up that we’ll be a lot better because we know the standard, the level of play that we need to be. So that’s good.”

Friday, the offense will get its chance, during what many feel is the most important scrimmage of the spring -- the one not before 90,000-plus fans and television cameras on A-Day. There was also just two practices this week when Alabama started working on its new opponents this season: SEC rookies Missouri and Texas A&M, along with Michigan.

“Everybody's got to focus on what they want to accomplish and what we want to achieve individually and collectively,” Coach Nick Saban said.

“We put a significant amount of other things in and we're looking for more and more players to show that they have the ability to play winning football, that they can show the responsibility to go out there and execute a little better than they did last week. You usually improve quite a bit between first and second scrimmage, and hopefully that's what we'll see in our players”

Last Saturday, Dee Hart, who is coming off knee surgery, had the most carries and yards, 13 for 32 and one touchdown, while true freshman T.J. Yeldon was credited with the most yards per carry, 3.86, but was limited by a cast on his left hand/wrist.

Fowler, who had 10 carries for 27 yards and one touchdown, has been the veteran leading everyone through drills and the del facto starter with Eddie Lacy still recovering from surgery to fix his painful turf toe.

“He’s such an incredible back in terms of just hitting the hole,” Warmack said. “He’s really physical. I like that about him. He’s going to hit the hole regardless if there’s a defender or his own teammate. He’s going to try to score every time he gets the ball. I respect that about him. He’s a physical player. He runs the ball hard all the time, like he has a purpose, and I really respect that.”

Fowler, a converted linebacker, is also the biggest running back he’s ever had to deal with.

“Being a defensive player and having to tackle somebody that big, it’s tough,” safety Robert Lester said.

To put Fowler’s 6-foot-1, 242-pound frame into perspective, when Jerome Bettis was a fullback at Notre Dame, he was 5-11, 240 pounds. The “Bus” had 337 carries for 1,912 career yards (5.7 yards per carry) and made 32 receptions for 429 yards (13.4 average), before having a stellar NFL career.

“If you're a power pitcher and you get 26 outs throwing fastballs, you ought not lose the game in the bottom of the ninth throwing a changeup,” Saban said. “That's what I think. Jalston Fowler is what he is. He's a big guy who's hard to tackle and people don't like to tackle him.

“He does have good speed for his size, and he can run the ball on the edge on certain types of plays. I think he does that very, very well. Last year, a lot of the big plays that he made when he was in there last year were stretch-type, perimeter plays.”

Fowler has already played in 24 games for Alabama and is four yards short of 500 for his career. Last season he had 56 carries for 385 yards (6.9 average), and scored four touchdowns. The first was on a 49-yard burst against Kent State, and he broke a 69-yard score at Ole Miss.

“We're going to use him the ways that he's most effective,” Saban continued. “He is a good receiver, he's a good blocker. He has demonstrated that he runs the ball well with his pads pointed north and south. That doesn't mean he doesn't have some ability to cut and make people miss. He does. He's probably got better speed than people think.”

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Bonus quote from Warmack about the scrimmage:

“We want to be together, making the same calls and following off the calls. Barrett (Jones) stressed it enough after the first scrimmage that we need to come together as an offensive line more and listen to each other more. Just be together as a five-man front to make good plays, positive plays."

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