Spring Practice: Notes from Day One.
March 13, 2009
The weather in Tuscaloosa wouldn’t make for a fan friendly environment on a game day and didn’t suit the Alabama staff for holding their first practice of the spring outside as well.
What this leaves is a staff thankful for the Hank Crisp Indoor facility where the Crimson Tide started their spring camp today due to the bad weather in the area.
Joining the returning players from the 12-2, 2008 squad were four newcomers; James Carpenter (77), Jermaine Preyear (44), Kerry Murphy (64) and Chance Warmack (65).
As we’ve speculated throughout the fall of last year and the spring of 2009 Kerry Murphy has started out by joining the defensive line workouts. Today’s practice, centering mostly on fundamental drills, will ease Murphy even more back into “football playing shape,” a physical requirement he hasn’t had to deal with in over a year.
Of note, considering the amount of conversation concerning the position, the workouts at the center position were also handled in the way we speculated with our spring preview of the offense. Barrett Jones, Evan Cardwell and William Vlachos were the guys getting reps snapping the ball in quarterback drills.
Considering the first part of spring camp is centered on teaching and fundamental work the offensive line, specifically who filled the left tackle position and right guard position, isn’t something that could be determined in the limited time the media had to observe practice today.
When practices resume after UA’s spring break we’ll see Carpenter getting work at that tackle position along with a few of the other players from last years squad.
Coach Saban made it a point today during his press conference that we can’t put too much emphasis on who we see where/at what position.
“You’ll see some of the guards working at the tackle position. You’ll see some of the tackles working at the guard position. That doesn’t mean that’s where they’ll end up. We are going to get the best guys on the field…”
A prime example of not paying attention to any “pecking order” with positions is our QB position where McElroy and Jackson both worked on quick routes and shorter throws. While the staff has said it’ll be an open competition for the starting job, that competition won’t get “heated” until the team moves out of their fundamental drills and into more of a game like situation, but the criteria is in place.
“It’s the guy who performs the best, who moves the offense, shows the most leadership and gets the best results for our team. There are a lot of intangibles that go with playing quarterback that I think are very important, and I think that with this situation you have to be patient.
A few weeks ago when Saban announced that BJ Scott would be moving to defense he hinted that he would start working with the safeties. However, that has changed since that point and Scott began his drills on defense working with the cornerback group. Chris Jackson, who saw some practice time with the defensive backs last year is back working with the wide receivers again.
Over the off week the team has been asked to work out at least three times before returning. Along with that they’ve been told to go through their “stretch and stride” routines before spring camp resumes Monday, March 23rd.
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