Days 'til the A-Day game: 26 Days 'til Season kick-off: 159
Yeah, I thought I would be working on the blog on the weekends...turns out I've been wrong for the past few weeks, so I guess I'll just keep it to a Monday - Friday thing, at least until August.
Anyway, the first practice, from what I understand, was incredibly intense. Coach Saban, who doesn't like to single out players, made mention that both DJ Hall and JP Wilson were ahead of the curve on offense. That's always a great thing to hear - it's something an offense can be built around.
Saban is going to be acting as the graduate assistant with the secondary because Kirby Smart does not currently have anyone to help him in that position. Coach Saban will do more hands on work with cornerbacks, just as he did on Saturday.
Coach said that the defense's first unit did very well, but he didn't specify who was on the first unit.
The secondary has already been pinpointed as a major strength. The base defensive formation will, of course, be a 3-4, but with so much talent in the defensive backfield, the setups may look more like the 3-3-5 that we've seen for the past few years. I imagine that one of our nickels will end up splitting between outside linebacker and nickel back. Should help throw off the opponents' offense a little bit.
A lot has changed since Saban took over. Don't overlook the little things, like the fact that the quarterbacks used to wear non-contact yellow jerseys, and injured players would wear orange. We're Alabama and we hate orange and yellow, so Coach Saban has switched both QBs and injured players to black jerseys.
The start of spring practice also resulted in a couple of commitments from Birmingham's Undra Billingsley, a 6'4" 260 lbs defensive end, and Corey Smith, rated as one of the top five kickers in the country. Smith excels at everything - punting, field goals, and kick offs. He had a bad day in the "college combines," only going 3 for 8, but he has a range of 55 yards. He booted 25 of his 34 kickoffs out of the endzone last year.
The guys over at TideSports.com are trying to figure out if Saban has finalized his deal with Nike or not because Coach didn't wear any Nike branded Alabama gear at the first practice.
The next practice is tomorrow. I'm sure we'll have more, along with pictures, etc. The first day was smiles and "get-to-know-you" time. The 2nd practice should be a little bit tougher.
¶ 9:02 AM
