Alabama Football: A-Day Questions Answered

Once again, Alabama fans showed their support for the university football program by turning out in record numbers. Better than 91,000 fans attended the annual A-Day scrimmage.

That kind of support sends a great message to the team, the coaches and particularly to recruits. Alabama is back, and the fan base is in full support mode.

Defensively, Alabama is on Track

The Alabama defense is much further along than pundits and nay-sayers have tried to convince the casual fan. The combined defenses for the Crimson and White teams had 16 plays for loss in the A-Day scrimmage.

Marcel Dareus is a handful, and no team will be able to prepare a game plan against the Alabama defense without taking this beast into consideration. He is a force to be reckoned with in 2010. Hopefully for Alabama, he will stay healthy.

The defensive line is talented and deep. Dareus, Sentimore, Davis, Chapman, Square, Billingsley, Lewis, Murphy, Gentry, Ming, Bonds and Moore will dare others to defeat them with the run.

After stopping the run, they will pressure opposition quarterbacks into making hasty decisions that will result in turnovers.

Fifteen of the sixteen plays for loss were due to the front seven.

There is competition at the linebacker position. Alabama has more talent in the linebacking corps that at any time in the past 20 years. In fact, the talent rivals the 1978-1979 years and we all know what those teams produced.

Dont'a Hightower is still holding back a little but at 90 percent, he is as good as he every was in 2008 or 2009.

Andy Staples from SI.com was quoted as saying, "this was the most competitive and physical spring game I have ever seen." Staples has been covering college football for more than 30 years.

Staples has just released a story after discussions with Mack Brown on the trend back to power football. Mack Brown iterates, "if you can't keep up with the Alabama's, you're gonna have a tough time winning national championships."

In the secondary, Dre Kirkpatrick is every bit as talented as expected. While the pick on McElroy was in part due to a bad pass, the play that Kirkpatrick made on the ball illustrates the kind of talent he has to make adjustments.

In addition to the interception, Dre Kirkpatrick made a play on Mark Ingram in the flat that shows he can take down one of the best open field players in the country.

The hit he laid on Ingram stopped him in his tracks. Typically, Ingram gets most of his production on yards after contact.

B.J. Scott battled Julio Jones and was very effective. True freshman Demarcus Milner played very well but gave up completions on well thrown balls from A.J. McCarron. John Fulton competed well against the first-string receiving corps, as well.

Offensively Alabama is Explosive

Greg McElroy is a very good quarterback. He is an excellent field general and game manager. He can throw the ball downfield with accuracy and effectiveness.

He will have A.J. McCarron breathing down his neck for playing time. A.J. came to play and will be eating steak on Monday.

A.J. will have Star Jackson breathing down his neck and Phillip Sims won't let Jackson rest easy. This is the first time in any decade I can remember that Alabama is as deep in the quarterback position as they are in 2010.

Every quarterback is on scholarship and they played like scholarship athletes in the A-Day game.

In fact, Greg McElroy is no longer undefeated as a starter, if the A-Day scrimmage counts for anything. Though the game ended in a tie, the white team won in overtime on a pass completion to Brandon Gibson.

Ingram led all rushers with 90 yards on nine carries, that included a run of 60 yards. Trent Richardson showed that he can be a threat in the passing game, taking in a 28 yard reception from McCarron for a score.

McElroy hit Marquis Maze for a 39 yard TD pass on a flee flicker from Eddie Lacy. On replay, Maze was out of bounds but the score counted as replay was not used for the A-Day scrimmage.

McElroy led the Crimson team on a 5-play, 80 yard drive, ending with a touchdown by redshirt freshman Eddie Lacy.

Star Jackson hit Demetrius Goode on a 25-yard strike for a score.

In overtime, on fourth and 15, McCarron hit Brandon Gibson in the end zone for the game-winning score.

The offensive line needs more work to gel together as an effective unit. Pass protection will be an important component of the offensive schemes next year, and the protection was not there in the first half of the game. Protection improved as the game progressed in the second half.

There were several dropped balls by the first string receivers, balls that should have been caught and must be caught in game situations.

Julio Jones must get better at catching the ball with his hands. Julio dropped three balls that if caught, could have gone for big gains.

Saban's Assessment

Comments were generally positive from the Alabama head coach, "We lost a lot of good players and we are really pleased with the progress of this team through spring practice."

He made particular note of progress by the quarterbacks and offensive line play throughout spring practice up to the scrimmage.

The offensive line needs to make progress at right tackle, regardless of who plays the position. Saban discusses the needs in a unit, he does not finger point at particular players.

Saban was pleased with the progress of Dre Kirkpatrick and B.J. Scott. True freshman Demarcus Milner and John Fulton have made great strides at cornerback and they provide needed depth to that position. Safety is still a concern.

The punter position is not settled and won't be until fall camp. Two incoming freshman have a chance to compete for the starting position.

Taylor Pharr has been the best punter in the spring but suffered a concussion in the last week of practice and was held out of the A-Day game as a precaution.

Near the end of the press conference, Saban clarified his position on polls: "If this team ends up ranked No. 1 at the beginning of the season it is because of what the prior team accomplished. It's not what this team has done, they haven't done anything."

But he went on to clarify, "We have some good players back, we have a lot of issues and questions, especially on defense and with the kicking game. Those problems will get solved with these players."

He continued, "It depends on what kind of commitment this team has on attention to detail and their collective focus on the process of improving and doing what they need to do to be successful. That can't be determined in a poll.

"If I was voting, I wouldn't vote it because there are likely other teams returning more experienced players."

Lastly, he stated, "But that doesn't mean I don't like this team, I love this team and these players. Do I think this team can develop into a good or great team? Absolutely!"