🏈 Observations from A-day

[BamaCore]

It was #41 I'm pretty sure, not Vogler.

Reuben Foster looked pretty good as someone has already said. He is a player and wants on the field. That hit he took on the head made me think concussion. He looked very wobbly getting up, not the look of a stinger. I had a couple conclusions when I played and that's how I felt when I tried to get up.

Yeah, you're right. It wasn't Vogler.

 

[alabama mike]

I thought Robert Foster at WR played very well. I saw some good hits on defense but why in the world don't we wrap up?

 

[jdpas29]

My observations are as follows:

The Good:

The D-Line is playing light years ahead of the last couple of years already. They will be tons of fun to watch this year.

LBs were doing pretty well.

Safety play was good on both the first and second team from what i saw. The corner play was average.

Skill players on offense at Alabama are astounding. If Alabama loses games, it won't be because we didn't have enough good RBs or WRs/ATHs.

Alec Morris may not be our QB, but he can kick the hell out of a football... and will make a nice threat to fake effectively also. This was the biggest surprise of the day for me. With him holding and punting, I expect him to either be the hero or the goat a couple of times this year when we need a fake.


The NOT so Good:

The QB play all around was pretty bad. I know it's tough to take much from a scrimmage, but i have watched enough scrimmages to know when things are bad. They're bad. I will reiterate what i said earlier this year about Cooper Bateman. He is the only QB we have currently on the roster that can lead this offense as it is currently designed. If we were running the veer, I would be all for Blake Sims. After watching this game, I think Coker has the job wrapped up and I've never seen him play a snap. Cooper Should be his backup.

The Offensive line got smoked in a multitude of ways particularly the 1s against 1s. One highlight was that they didn't have a lot of miscues and bad snaps. I did notice that the 1st team offensive line and tight ends appeared to line up improperly A LOT. I believe in the game they would have been called for not enough men on the LOS.

Place kicking was not good.

 

[bamaraider]

#41 is Kurt Freitag.

I never put much stock into A-Day game anyways, but I just cannot see Blake Sims as the QB. Maybe install some packages for him so he can see the field, but he just doesn't look like he has "it". Volger needs to get better all around as a TE. As far as other stuff, why the hell isn't Adam Griffinth putting stuff through? #1 kicker out of high school and yet still can't hit anything here. I saw one of Auburn's new kickers hit a 50 yard field goal from with the wind slightly against him. Anyways, the RB's, Linebackers, D-Line, and the receivers look bad ass. Other positions need more consistency.

 

[JoshB]

Yeah, that's what it looked like to me.

He looked a little out of sorts when walking off the field. Hope its not a concussion.

Yeah they showed Saban talking to him right after the hit...

Saban: I'm not a doctor but you know what you did wrong right?
Foster: Lowered my head...
Saban: Right... that's what we're trying to fix.

 

[rammerjammer]

My .02 While the QB's timing appeared to be off and there were a lot of balls thrown behind the receivers, I feel as the the WR's dropped too many passes. While they were not spot on several balls seemed to hit them close enough that they should have been caught.

Ardarius Stewart will be stud once he gets a little more consistent on his catches.

 

[JoshB]

Im gonna go back and watch again but MOST of the drops I saw where passes that fairly far behind the receivers... Amari had one drop that I can remember that was spot on tho.... Blake looked like he was trying to prove himself, Saban even yelled at him one time "You know its okay to run right?!" It was like he wanted to prove to ppl that he can stand in the pocket rather than run around and make plays when the chance comes, but at the same time Kiffin didnt help him out either with at least throwing him some read option to kinda get the feel of it (maybe Saban told him not to IDK)...

Yeldon was very good and I think he came out and made sure nobody forgets about him. Crazy that the first back since Shaun Alexander to run for 1,000 yards in back to back years has kinda been lost in the shuffle because of Henry's emergence. The front seven was beastly, Jonathan Allen came to flat out play. Ivory looked like he was getting double teamed almost every play but holding his own. I saw A'Shawn receiving some extra attention too. Reggie Ragland is gonna be a good one folks.

Really impressed with Tony Brown, that INT was something else. Geno Smith and Landon Collins were extremely aggressive going after the ball which I liked as was Jarrick. Adam Griffith was horrid, that first missed field goal was embarrassing.

 

[ElephantStomp]

My take: the defense is going to be scary fast! Our RBs and WRs are going to have big years obviously. The QB is Coker's! Scrimmage or not our QBs were horrible today. If it was up to me Cooper would be the backup.

 

[bamaraider]

I'm not going to back to see, but someone mentioned a thing I always hope for too and that is the defense being ahead of the offense. Offensive line has been experimenting, so the chemistry isn't there yet of course, but Jonathan Allen and the rest of the front 7 look scary.

 

[TheChief]

I thought Philip Simms would be the quarterback over AJ, and I swore I'd never open my mouth again about A-Day quarterbacks. That being said, I don't think they looked that good. I DVRed and watched it when I got back from the baseball game, so those at the game might have been able to tell that they looked even worse than I thought they were. What number will Coker be? I'd like to get a jersey.

 

[TerryP]

Looked like to me he lowered his head on that tackle

Yeah they showed Saban talking to him right after the hit...

Saban: I'm not a doctor but you know what you did wrong right?
Foster: Lowered my head...
Saban: Right... that's what we're trying to fix.

What's missing in this pic as well?

 

[planomateo]

wrapping up.

 

[bcracker]

Consciousness?

 

[Kirk Van de Graaff]

A number on his helmet?

 

[TerryP]

A number on his helmet?

:highfive:

That's what I was referring to...tends to lead me to think there's a good chance he was leading with his head on another tackle as well.

 

[rammerjammer]

I think Coker will be 14, but not sure..

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

My observations: The food was good. The weather was warm. I'm glad I was under a tent all day.

 

[TerryP]

My observations: The food was good. The weather was warm. I'm glad I was under a tent all day.

And it took you 24 hours to come to this conclusion? Outstanding observation there, Bran! That's why you get paid what you do!!!

 

[TerryP]

I'm going to use this post to offer a few of my obs—easier to build on what jdpas has posed than start a new post...

It's been raining for three days now...so, time afforded me to just watch the game a few times.

My observations are as follows:

The Good:

The D-Line is playing light years ahead of the last couple of years already. They will be tons of fun to watch this year.

I stand by my earlier comment in this thread. Still think they looked good. Honestly, I'm not sure which player I'm looking forward to watching in the fall the most; Reed or Pettway.

LBs were doing pretty well.

A few weeks ago we talked a bit about Ragland and the move to inside. I can see why he made the move and can see why he's beaten out Foster.

How will he do in pass coverage?

Safety play was good on both the first and second team from what i saw. The corner play was average.

Geno Smith looked good, didn't he? It's a safe bet, in my eyes, we're looking at Collins and Smith for our two starting safeties.

As a group the corners looked average. If we separate the guys into 1's and 2's? Our 1's looked like they're going to be okay. I worry about guys coming off the bench—Averett is probably my biggest concern.

Skill players on offense at Alabama are astounding. If Alabama loses games, it won't be because we didn't have enough good RBs or WRs/ATHs.

With all the talk about Henry, he didn't do much at all. I don't think it's fair to judge how he'll do in the fall based on A-day.

Depth, depth, depth...and lastly, depth.

Alec Morris may not be our QB, but he can kick the hell out of a football... and will make a nice threat to fake effectively also. This was the biggest surprise of the day for me. With him holding and punting, I expect him to either be the hero or the goat a couple of times this year when we need a fake.

Practice hopefully leads to consistency. I'm not worried about punting.

The NOT so Good:

The QB play all around was pretty bad. I know it's tough to take much from a scrimmage, but i have watched enough scrimmages to know when things are bad. They're bad. I will reiterate what i said earlier this year about Cooper Bateman. He is the only QB we have currently on the roster that can lead this offense as it is currently designed. If we were running the veer, I would be all for Blake Sims. After watching this game, I think Coker has the job wrapped up and I've never seen him play a snap. Cooper Should be his backup.

If we take Sims as one example here it's impossible to judge how he'll do based on the A-day game. He's got a lot of his skill set removed before the game even starts when the QB's are down when they're touched.

That said, there's reason to be concerned with how Sims sees the field. Or, in this case, doesn't. While the TV broadcast didn't show our WR's the way watching the game live will, reports I've gotten today from those who attended mentioned him not seeing guys—consistently.

Now, what I believe has to be taken into account is if you take away the ability to run from Sims you're not only hampering his play making ability but you're undoubtedly affecting how he's thinking in live action as well. If a player is playing on a leash, I don't believe he can be fully engaged mentally.

Cooper did seem to show a pretty good feel for the team.

The Offensive line got smoked in a multitude of ways particularly the 1s against 1s. One highlight was that they didn't have a lot of miscues and bad snaps. I did notice that the 1st team offensive line and tight ends appeared to line up improperly A LOT. I believe in the game they would have been called for not enough men on the LOS. .

The right side of the line did a pretty damn good job. The left side? Not so much. We need Jackson to be ready when he gets on campus.

As of today, the two sides seem night and day to me.

Place kicking was not good.

I came away with this impression. Adam has a strong leg. His problems are between his ears.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

And it took you 24 hours to come to this conclusion? Outstanding observation there, Bran! That's why you get paid what you do!!!

The only real thing I could add from what little I saw on TV was that I liked what athleticism Tony Brown brought to defensive backfield. I saw hardly any of the game... I'd have been a 1000x more interested in one of the spring scrimmages they held.