Alabama Football: Tide Has Competition at Every Position

The University of Alabama Crimson Tide's football team went into Spring practice with way more questions than answers regarding who would step up into the starting roles that were vacated by nine graduating seniors.

With most of the receiving corps, an underrated offensive lineman, the most productive defensive lineman on the team, a starting Jack linebacker, a team captain, an All SEC cornerback, and a two-year starter at safety all gone, the Tide had no clue who would fill their shoes.

Faced with a tough task, now second year head coach Nick Saban said that no starting spots were guaranteed and challenged his team to compete every day for a spot on the first team, and compete is just what they did.

Although many Bama fans think otherwise, John Parker Wilson, starting quarterback for two years, was way ahead of the rest of the quarterbacks, according to Coach Saban. However, the other three quarterbacks had an intense competition for the backup job.

Last year's backup, Greg McElroy, went into spring practice with a tight grip as backup quarterback, and many thought he would give John Parker Wilson a run for his money in the starting quarterback race, but Nick Fanuzzi and the walk on quarterback Thomas Darrah made tremendous strides and loosened McElroy's grip a little.

Darrah had the best stats of any of the four quarterbacks in the A day game, although he was playing against the third string. McElroy played well in spurts against the second team, John Parker Wilson had a good day throwing the ball, but had to deal with some dropped passes on good throws to his receivers. Fanuzzi was poised to take over the backup spot from McElroy, but struggled mightily in the game.

At receiver, Mike McCoy and Nikita Stover are the only two returning players with considerable game experience. While Stover was out all spring with a hamstring injury, McCoy thrived and established himself as a consistent producer on the field.

Earl Alexander is a huge target on the field for the Crimson Tide offense, but has problems with his hands at times; hands are not the problem at all for breakthrough receiver Darius Hanks, who Saban says has the best hands on the team.

McCoy, Alexander, and Hanks all performed well in the spring game, and with talented incoming freshmen like Julio Jones, the competition at wide receiver is really tough. The good thing about competition like this is that regardless of who gets the starting job, it creates depth at the position.

The offensive line returns four of five starters this season. Justin Britt, the starting left guard from last years squad has graduated, but instead of searching for a new left guard, last years starting right tackle, Mike Johnson, moved down to guard, between Andre Smith and Antoine Caldwell.

That left the dreaded right tackle position anybody's race. The Tide has struggled at right tackle for years, and is looking for someone to step up and really solidify that spot.

Drew Davis and Taylor Pharr were neck-and-neck for the job, and Davis squeaked by Pharr and started with the first team in the A day game, but mammoth offensive lineman Tyler Love will be in Tuscaloosa this fall to put more pressure on Davis to hold down that job.

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