Alabama Football: Takeaways, Complete Stats from Tide's 2nd Spring Scrimmage

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The 2015 Alabama football team is still very much a work in progress. That was the message Nick Saban had after the Crimson Tide’s second scrimmage of the spring.

“When you’re playing against yourself, when one side does good the other side has to do not-so-good,” Saban said. "So you don’t really know exactly whether you’re really that good on one side or that bad on the other.

“I think what we need to do here is continue to try to create our identity as a team. I think we’ve done a lot of different things on offense this spring, and I really do think we have to establish an identity of what we can do and what we’re going to do. There’s a lot of things that are happening now that contribute to being able to do that.”

With one week to go until next Saturday’s A-Day spring game, Alabama took to Bryant-Denny Stadium for its second scrimmage of the spring, a closed affair open to only members of the prominent booster club on campus.

Saban addressed the media afterward, though, and UA provided some stats from the action.

Here are some takeaways:

Saban eager for quarterback resolution

The longer Alabama’s quarterback competition goes on, the longer Alabama essentially takes watered-down reps on offense.

With Saban and Lane Kiffin essentially splitting reps five ways (between Jake Coker, Alec Morris, Cooper Bateman, David Cornwell and Blake Barnett), it’s difficult to establish any continuity or chemistry for long periods of time.

Photo courtesy UA Athletics

As far as the actual competition, everyone has shown flashes, but Saban is waiting to see that over an extended duration.

“I think all these guys at some point in time have shown they have the capability of doing it. I think the issue is, who can do it with the most consistency?” Saban said.

“We're looking for the guys that can do it more consistently and who’s gonna help play winning football at their position on the most consistent basis. Knowledge and experience comes into that. Instincts and awareness, understanding of the offense, confidence, all these things are factors in this. Ability to be accurate, be a good decision-maker with the ball, take care of the ball.

“So this is not something that you can just sort of wave a wand and say, 'OK, I think we've got it here.' This decision is going to be made over time. And we're going to be fair and give everybody a fair opportunity. And when the time comes, we're going to have to make a choice and decision and go to work on making that guy the guy.”

But until that “guy” emerges, the offense as a whole is somewhat stuck in neutral. After the spring, Saban will have to make the choice of narrowing down the field to two or three—and thus giving the offense a little more continuity—or sticking with the same wide-open, five-man race.

“I think if we had that resolved that it would be easier for us to establish an identity on offense,” Saban said.

Secondary experiment could turn into long-term switch

One noticeable personnel switch this week has been cornerback Eddie Jackson taking reps at safety. With Geno Smith suspended, Alabama has been noticeably thin on the back end, so Saban moved Jackson over from cornerback to safety.

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Jackson started three games at corner in 2014 as a sophomore. With Tony Brown’s emergence after a big freshman year and Cyrus Jones owning the other spot, his skill set has been welcome at safety.

“I think in the long run we want to get our best players on the field in the secondary and make sure they fit the roles that they need to play,” Saban said. “In this day and age, we end up playing a lot of five DBs, we end up playing six DBs in some cases on third down. When we play multiple-wideout teams with four wideouts or more, you have to have the right components to fit the parts.

“So what happens with Eddie is it’s just not all about Eddie, it’s how the other corners develop. The experiment was to see how he’d adapt to playing safety, and that’s going very well. So now we have the option of playing him at corner or safety. I don’t think we need to make that decision right now, but I think it is affected by how everybody else progresses.”

Alabama doesn’t really have a solid fifth or sixth defensive back for those passing situations that Saban was talking about. If Jackson doesn’t end up starting at cornerback, his work at safety could pay off and give the Crimson Tide more depth in the secondary.

Smith back in the mix after DUI

Speaking of the secondary, one of Alabama’s troubled players appears to have worked his way back into Saban’s good graces, at least somewhat.

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Smith has been practicing with the team since Monday, nine days after his DUI arrest, his second since coming to Tuscaloosa.

Saban said that he still has more work to do, but so far, Smith has done everything they’ve asked him to since the arrest.

“He was out for seven days,” Saban said. “That was, you know, those seven days were what he needed to do, did it all correctly, did it the way we wanted him to do it. We test him every day. So if he continues to do the right things, he can continue to perform. Geno has not been a problem on the field in terms of his performance.

“So we're encouraged to have him back, and hopefully he'll continue to improve and make good choices and decisions about what he does.”

Complete stats

The following stats were provided by UA after the scrimmage. They include game-like simulations and situational work:

Rushing

• Ronnie Clark: 17 rushes, 29 yards
• Lawrence Erekosima: 7 rushes, 29 yards
• Derrick Henry: 6 rushes, 24 yards

Receiving

• Robert Foster: 6 rec., 102 yards
• Parker Barrineau: 4 rec., 81 yards
• Raheem Falkins: 2 rec., 46 yards
• O.J. Howard: 4 rec., 45 yards, 2 TD

Defense

• Jarran Reed: 5 tackles, 1 sack, 2 TFL, 1 PBU
• Dalvin Tomlinson: 5 tackles
• Ronnie Harrison: 4 tackles
• Dillon Lee: 3 tackles, 1 INT
• Reuben Foster: 3 tackles, 1 INT

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.