5 offensive storylines to follow as Alabama begins spring practice
On Monday, Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide football team began spring practice in Tuscaloosa.
Over the course of five weeks, Alabama will complete 14 practices and will conclude the spring activities with the annual A-Day Game on Saturday, April 22 from inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.
With each new season, position battles and question marks take center stage and 2023 will be no different.
Coach Saban not only has a lot of new faces on the roster, but a ton of new coaches will also be making their Alabama debuts in 2023.
As spring practice gets underway, let’s take a look a look some of the top storylines on each side of the ball. We will begin with the offense!
Tommy Rees as OC
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After two seasons with Bill O’Brien as the Alabama offensive coordinator, Nick Saban hired a young gun in Tommy Rees to take over the play-calling duties for the Tide. Rees, even at a young age, brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and enjoys playing a physical brand of football and focusing on development at the quarterback position. How Rees fits in at Alabama is a huge piece of the puzzle.
The wide receivers
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Alabama returns a pair of veteran players at receiver in Jermaine Burton and Ja’Corey Brooks as well as a herd of true sophomores who received plenty of playing time in 2022 as freshmen. The wild card of the bunch is JUCO transfer Malik Benson, who by all accounts has the potential of some of the recent Alabama greats such as Jerry Jeudy or DeVonta Smith. It will be interesting to see how Alabama lines those guys up this spring.
The running back rotation
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Jase McClellan is back in the Alabama backfield for 2023 and will likely provide better production than most Alabama fans assume. After that, you have Roydell Williams, Jam Miller, and true freshmen Justice Haynes. Williams doesn’t seem like the kind of player that you can rely on to provide a ton of production, but Miller and Haynes are explosive runners who have game-changing abilities. The running back competition could heat up this spring.
The offensive line
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The Alabama offensive line has not lived up to the standard over the past couple of seasons, and coach Saban is ready to change that. He and his staff have built a roster of offensive linemen who are big and powerful in an effort to restore a more physical group up front. One of the more interesting storylines this spring will be what the starting five will look like. To begin spring it was as follows: Elijah Pritchett (LT), Darrian Dalcourt (LG), Seth McClaughlin (C), Tyler Booker (RG), and JC Latham (RT). A name to watch this spring is true freshman early enrollee, Kadyn Proctor who could make a move into the starting five, most notably at left guard.
The QB competition
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Anytime there is a quarterback competition, it will take center stage. And although you could consider this low-hanging fruit, there is no denying the significance of the quarterback competition in Tuscaloosa. Jalen Milroe is an elite athlete who is still crafting his skills as a quarterback. Ty Simpson is a coach’s son who is more naturally gifted at being an accurate thrower. I expect this competition to last a lot longer than spring practice and will likely continue all the way up until Alabama plays Middle Tennessee on Sept. 2.
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