| FTBL They're focused for the fall. "Alabama veterans agree with David Ballou: 2022 Tide team is 'locked in'"



TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Following the first week of summer workouts, Alabama director of sports performance David Ballou shared a promising update on the Crimson Tide’s mindset.

“Week 1 of Summer Prep complete,” Ballou tweeted. “These dudes are locked in.”

Alabama’s veteran players that were at Hillcrest (Ala.) High School on Monday for the inaugural Nike Football Skills Camp agreed with their strength and conditioning coach’s observation.

“I see it,” linebacker Jaylen Moody told BamaOnLine. “Everybody’s coming in with their own mindset of, ‘Alright, what can I do to get better today as a team? What can we all do to just better each other?’ With that mindset, it’s hard to stop that. We’ve gotta keep going and just keep getting better every day. Whatever corrections we can make, we’re gonna do that, too.”

Tight end Cameron Latu elaborated on how the team has approached its offseason training.

“We have sheets in the weight room for different lifts and different numbers to hit – it’s like a top 10 or whatever for each lift – and we’re all just trying to be first, second, third, trying to be competitive to be No. 1,” Latu said. “I just think the attitude and effort in the weight room have just been awesome. Even in the runs, as a whole, everything. Everybody’s just been focused.”

Alabama welcomes back a veteran team that will be projected by most outlets, much like Athlon Sports did recently, to hoist the national championship trophy after the 2022 season. The Tide has the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback in Bryce young, the best defensive player in the nation in linebacker Will Anderson and a healthy mixture of returning contributors, key transfers and promising young talent all now on campus for summer drills.

While a new season is quickly approaching, how the 2021 campaign ended for Alabama still weighs heavy on some of the veteran players’ minds. The Crimson Tide (13-2) lost to Georgia in the national championship game, 33-18, after defeating the Bulldogs in the SEC title game one month earlier. Falling short of its ultimate goal has fueled the players since January.

As head coach Nick Saban has stated in the past, this team doesn’t want to waste a failing.

“I think the whole team is just taking a different approach and just trying to do everything they can just to prevent what happened last year from happening again,” offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor told BamaOnLine. “If that’s just doing a little extra work after workouts, then that’s what it’s gotta be. Or the quarterbacks and receivers get some extra routes so we’re not messing up on the timing in the championship game.

“It’s those little precautions that we didn’t take before that everybody is just making sure they go through and do every little thing and every little detail is with no stone left unturned.”

Defensive lineman Byron Young added, “I think that we had stuff that we didn’t do the correct way last year. We had small things that we didn’t pay attention to. But this year, we’re making sure everything is the way it’s supposed to be, getting back to what we did the year that we won the national championship.

“So I think that everybody is locked in, everybody’s focused on the right thing. We’re not looking too far ahead, we’re not looking in the past of what happened last year. We’re just, every single day, we are where our feet are. We’re getting better every sing
 
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