Alabama's Secondary Could Be One of the Best

In my final installment of my spring wrap-up I review the kicking game and the secondary.  

First I'll review the kicking game:

** PANIC ! **

Ok, with that unpleasantness out of the way let's look at something less scary: the Alabama secondary.

At last look Alabama's secondary entered the bowl game having to replace an All-American safety with a short, slow walk-on. We never really got to see if that would be a problem because the Michigan State quarterback couldn't remain upright long enough to find out.

For that matter Will Lowery, the previously mentioned walk-on, must to use "the force" or something, because he's never out of position and plays bigger than he is.

Entering this spring safeties Mark Barron, Jarrick Williams and Nick Perry all wore black jerseys and were not allowed to hit.

I don't think hitting is an issue for a healthy Mark Barron, but it would have been nice to see Williams and Perry get some solid work. They did as much as they could do playing all the snaps, just pulling up rather than hitting.

At Alabama's spring game the secondary clearly showed they have come some distance since this time last year.

While Alabama no longer has freakishly athletic Julio Jones to make them all look bad, they still have a small fleet of fast talented receivers who ran them up field all day.

The secondary in general did not allow too many big plays. The biggest plays were to Trent Richardson, who is very much like the freakishly athletic Julio Jones—he makes everyone look bad.

In reality, both AJ McCarron and Phillip Sims have more arm talent than many quarterbacks the secondary will face in 2011.

Mark Barron played per his usual self only we didn't get to see him jack somebody up like we normally do. I guess we will have til fall to see more of that. The injury he suffered against Auburn was significant so he will want to show the NFL that he is fully recovered next year. His cover skills could use some additional polish as well.  

Barron should be a first-round pick in next year's draft, if the NFL still has a draft by then.

The other starting safety, Robert Lester, had a bit of a rough spring. He lost his job at least temporarily due to lackluster play. Adding to is troubles are players like Jarrick Williams and Nick Perry who are very talented and are pushing hard to take his snaps.  

Jarrick Williams looked especially active at A-Day and victimized Phillip Sims on a low throw into the flats that he could have taken for six.

Will Lowery is still around and is still a solid player who does an amazing job of overcoming a general lack of physical ability.

Probably the biggest surprise of the spring is the solid play of true freshman Vinnie Sunseri who to me looks like a bigger, faster, more athletic version of Will Lowery.   Sunsuri is a kid who lacked the measurables of a top-flight Division I player but played better than those who did.

Vinnie Sunsuri was considered by many to be a low-level recruit but after his A-Day performance I think it will be very hard to assemble a kick cover team without him on it. He appears to have the smarts to put back in the secondary without making too many mistakes. 

The other surprise was the play of an unknown walk on by the name of Ranzell Watkins. Watkins, who is 5' 9" and 170 lbs, hails from Charlotte, North Carolina and was making tackles all over the field from his corner spot. Like all walk-ons Watkins has an uphill battle but he had every bit as good a spring game as Will Lowery did last year.

Last season Nick Saban recruited corner Dequan Menzie from junior college to be Alabama's starting corner. All those plans changed when he ruptured an Achilles before even reporting. Initially he planned to take a redshirt, but eventually healed enough to play.

Play he did but he wasn't able to do the conditioning needed due to the injury and it showed with follow-up injuries that resulted. As a result, Alabama had to shove true freshman DeMarcus Milliner into the starting spot and go with it.

Milliner showed promise for sure but showed his youth as well. This spring it appears to have all flipped back around with a now fully healed and conditioned Menzie not only taking over the starting corner spot but may be Alabama's best corner.

DeMarcus Milliner will move to nickle where he will play enough to be considered a co-starter. If Milliner continues to improve that could give Alabama the three quality experienced corners that they used in 2009 to stifle virtually every quarterback they faced.

Dre Kirkpatrick was hobbled by an injured hand but played the whole game. He and Milliner both looked great but Menzie has the look of a breakout star for 2010.

Sophomore John Fulton spent time on special teams last season and looked to be improving this spring. Fulton should get some playing time this year and has a chance for more in the future. 

If all those guys don't make you feel good enough, senior Phelon Jones is still around and is an experienced and talented player in his own right who should see plenty of snaps this year.  

Senior Robby Green who was suspended all of 2010 for unknown violations was suspended again this spring. With the depth of talent available and more freshman arriving this summer its hard to see the Alabama staff investing any more time in a player they can't count on. 

Overall, the Alabama secondary bears a striking resemblance to the lock down secondary that stalked the SEC in 2009.  The difference is this secondary is bigger, faster, and more athletic. The one area I can't answer is how they tackle. The 2009 secondary were superior tacklers and Javier Arenas was lethal on the corner blitz. It remains to be seen if they can master those skills.  

I suspect, however, that Dequan Menzie is going to be used in that same corner blitz that Javier Arenas made famous.