Alabama Football: Week 2 Spring Practice Stock Report

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A very forgettable week-plus for the Alabama football team came to a fitting end over the weekend with a second crushing blow on the injury front.

Running back and former 5-star Bo Scarbrough went down with a knee injury during Friday’s scrimmage, and the early returns don’t look good.

Still, the scrimmage was a good, early look at where the Alabama football team is right now and appeared to be positive on a lot of fronts.

Let’s break down the last week of Alabama spring practice with the stock report.

Appropriate end to a miserable week

Initially, Nick Saban wouldn’t give a diagnosis on Scarbrough’s knee injury except to say that he sustained one.

But Scarbrough took to Twitter on Sunday evening and said that he is having surgery:

Scarbrough’s injury compounds an already rough week and offseason overall on the running back depth chart.

Photo courtesy 247Sports

On Tuesday, Tyren Jones was arrested for marijuana possession, Alabama’s third arrest in four days. The already suspended running back was promptly dismissed by Saban. Then Scarbrough went down, bringing the casualty count up to two for the week at running back.

It leaves Alabama with two fully healthy scholarship running backs—Derrick Henry and Desherrius Flowers—while it waits for 5-star Damien Harris to get to campus over the summer.

All signs pointed to Scarbrough having a productive spring. He was typically the third running back through drills during media viewing periods behind Henry and Kenyan Drake, who is recovering from a broken leg. He carried the ball 16 times and scored twice in the scrimmage.

Defensive line dominant

You can file this away in the no-duh category, but Saban is apparently already liking what he sees from his defensive line.

“The defensive front is probably the strength of our team right now,” Saban said after Alabama’s Friday scrimmage. “I think those guys showed that a little bit today—made it difficult to run and created a lot of negative plays with batted balls and pressures on the quarterback, that type of thing. As the scrimmage went on, I thought the offense sort of got in a little bit of rhythm and actually played better as the scrimmage went on, which is a good thing.”

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

It’s not hard to see why, given the group’s depth and talent, even after the dismissal of Jonathan Taylor.

Starters Jonathan Allen, Jarran Reed and A’Shawn Robinson are all NFL material who will likely head that way at season’s end. Behind them, there is still an embarrassment of riches in players like Dalvin Tomlinson, D.J. Pettway, Darren Lake and Josh Frazier.

In stats released by Alabama, Tomlinson had a pass break-up, while Robinson returned an interception for a touchdown.

"Competition is always hot for us because we like competition," Tomlinson said about the internal battles. "That's how we are on the D-line. It just depends on which defense we're going to be in, and everybody has a better ability than someone else, and we try to help each other improve our abilities that we might be lacking at. We all can help out in different ways."

The group will only get better once 5-star Daron Payne and 4-star Mekhi Brown get to campus in the summer.

Jonathan Taylor saga over

Speaking of Taylor, you can officially close the book on his time at Alabama.

Photo courtesy 247Sports

An Alabama spokesperson told AL.com’s Melissa Brown that Taylor is no longer in school and is not eligible for future admission. All of this came after another strange twist when his accuser recanted her story Wednesday.

The handwringing after the recantation can cease, and Alabama can finally move forward from the short-lived and emotion-filled two-plus months from his signing to his dismissal.

Saban opened up to ESPN.com’s Chris Low about the situation, reiterating that he would continue giving players like this second chances but apologizing for how he came off in last Monday’s press conference.

"Look, I didn't handle it the best way and I take responsibility for that, but I certainly didn't mean for it to come across that I was insensitive to the seriousness of domestic violence," Saban told Low.

Taylor is set to be arraigned in Georgia next Tuesday, per Low, for the start of his case from the Athens incident. He will plead not guilty.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes and reporting were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Note: Players are referenced by fall 2015 eligibility.

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.