Alabama Football: Week 1 Fall Camp Report

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama football program opened up training camp this past week, and like usual, there was nary a dull moment.

Despite daily 100-degree heat, the Crimson Tide held two practices in shorts and helmets and two in shells, in addition to its annual fan day/media day that features the only open practice of the year.

But the most talked-about item with the team was something that occurred off the field. At the end of Nick Saban’s first press conference of training camp, the coach gave an unprompted statement about the unauthorized biography by Monte Burke, Saban: The Making of a Coach, that was released last week:

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

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I just want everybody to know that I’m opposed to an unauthorized biography on anybody. If some person that you don’t even know (is) trying to profit by your story or someone else’s story. One of these days when I’m finished coaching at Alabama, I’ll write an authorized book because there’s only one expert on my life and guess who that is … me. And there won’t be any misinformation. There won’t be any false statements. There won’t be any hearsay. There won’t be any expert analysis from anybody else. It will be the real deal. And I’m not really ready for that to happen and it’s a little amazing to me that the timing of all this happening right when we’re starting camp. I just want everybody out there and all of our fans to know, it’s not going to be a distraction to us and it’s never going to get discussed again.

But since I’m not finished yet at Alabama, we’re not writing any books yet. But when we decide to write an authorized book it will have the truth—the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

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Saban didn’t give any specifics about what he didn’t like about it and indicated that this would be the only time he commented about the book.

The coach also made the statement shortly after responding to a question about a player’s eligibility by saying he “shouldn’t comment because it seems like every time I make a comment about something it kind of gets taken out of context and gets blown up and all that, so I’m going to make less comments about things."

Stock up 

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One player making an early favorable impression is true freshman Calvin Ridley, who was rated Alabama’s top recruit in the class of 2015 by 247Sports.

Offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin went so far as to call him an “elite talent.”

“Now there’s a long way to go to get to that level, but his speed and the way that he catches the ball and his transition, if he does the other things all the way through, which is a lot, I think he can be really special,” Kiffin said.

Additionally, in part due to the injuries at his position, true freshman cornerback Minkah Fitzpatrick took a lot of snaps during Sunday’s open practice and showed little or no signs of being overwhelmed.

Injury update

Alabama got a scare when left tackle Cam Robinson was carted off the field due to an injury Saturday. Although rumors were rampant of a serious setback and possible foot fracture, the sophomore only had a mild knee sprain and return to practice the next day.

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“I’m fine,” he said.

Meanwhile, sophomore cornerback Tony Brown, who is expected to challenge for a starting job, left Sunday’s practice with a shoulder injury. His status won’t be updated until Tuesday.

In other injury news:

• Junior wide receiver Chris Black is day-to-day with a sprained ankle. Alabama is already thin at the position after sophomore Cam Sims suffered a torn ACL during the spring and junior Raheem Falkins is coming off surgery to repair a leg fracture.

• Senior tight end Ty Flournoy-Smith was limited by a sprained ankle but back practicing Sunday.

• Redshirt freshman cornerback Marlon Humphrey will miss a few days with what Saban described as a “pulled muscle.”

• Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Josh Casher injured a pectoral muscle while lifting weights over the summer and is expected to be out for a few more weeks.

• Junior Eddie Jackson, who made the switch from cornerback to safety during the spring, appeared to be limited Sunday with an undisclosed injury. Taking extra snaps at strong safety was true freshman Ronnie Harrison, who has impressed teammates.

• Coaches have taken the no-contact jersey off running back Kenyan Drake (leg fracture/dislocated ankle).

Quarterback competition

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

Coaches remain adamant that there’s no timetable for picking a starting quarterback between senior Jake Coker, redshirt freshman David Cornwell, junior Alec Morris, sophomore Cooper Bateman and true freshman Blake Barnett. All indications are that Coker and Cornwell remain the guys to beat, although everyone remains very high on Barnett's potential.

Saban squashed recent speculation that Alabama might be best off starting a younger quarterback so it can build more for the future.

“If someone shows great potential for the future then our theory on how we manage that is to keep that guy in a position where he can develop so that if he's called on at some point in time in the future, he's going to be more ready to do that,” he said. “But that does not give him sort of an advantage in being able to play right now.”

Crimson Tide bits

• Freshman running back Bo Scarbrough is back practicing with the team in a black no-contact jersey after suffering a knee injury during the spring, but Saban announced that he’ll miss the first four games anyway due to a suspension regarding NCAA eligibility.

• Usually Alabama opens training camp with two split-squad sessions on the first day, with the younger players essentially having their own practice so the coaches can help them get acclimated, but Saban combined them this year. “The issue with that in the past has been it really wears out the players because you only have 50 players out there at a time and you don't have enough guys to actually share the reps. Guys get too many reps, and then I always felt that really degraded us getting really some overuse problems the very first day. We decided that we had made good progress with a lot of the freshman (over the summer).”

• A notable absence on the preseason watch lists was cornerback Cyrus Jones by the Thorpe Award for best defensive back. “I’m not going to say disrespected, but, I mean, it is kind of disappointing,” said Jones, who was named All-SEC at media days. “Me just being a competitor and knowing what I can do as a player I do feel like don’t get the respect sometimes. But it just adds extra motivation to me. I don’t take it personal.”

• Saban’s message to his team: “It comes down to there's two ways you can look at camp. You can say I'm going to try to survive this camp or I'm going to go out there and thrive every day in this camp in terms of working hard, pushing myself, trying to get in better condition, trying to be a player that can better go out and dominate the competition and do my job better.”

• Alabama will hold its first scrimmage of training camp at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday. It will be closed to media and the public.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer.

Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.