Some of the most important practices for any football team come during their spring sessions. It’s a time for players to get back in the swing of things, new coaches to get learn the players and also for early enrollees to learn the system.
Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, teams spring practices were cut short and a lot of them didn’t even get to have a single practice.
If the season were to start on time, most of the younger players would be put at a bit of a disadvantage which could end up hurting the team.
But Alabama head coach Nick Saban is proposing something new that would help ease the players into their new teams, and help them adjust to the college game. This would be in the form of a 14 day OTA.
“But one of the things that I’ve kind of tried to propose … was one of the things that we used to do when I was in the NFL is we had 14 days of OTA days in April and May before we had minicamp and it was just shorts and shirts and you could go out and teach players techniques,” said Saban during and Instagram live with ESPN’s Maria Taylor.
Saban’s plan also accounts for teams who did begin spring practices and actually got a couple of sessions in before the cancellation. Because of that he doesn’t believe that those teams should get the advantage of a full 14 day OTAs.
“We usually have 14 practices in the spring and the spring game. If you had five practices, you could have nine OTA days sometime before we started fall camp,” said Saban. “If you didn’t have any spring practices, you could have 14 OTA days where you just had opportunities to go out and work with your players on football-related type stuff so many days in the summertime. Non-contact, no pads, no-helmets.”
Although the 14 days would lead into the team’s fall camp, Saban is adamant that he doesn’t want there to be an extension of fall camp. The non-contact and teaching moments are what he wants to get out of the extra sessions before the pads get put on. He is also looking to avoid any injuries to his players.
“Some people say, ‘Well, just make fall camp longer.’ Well, fall camp is the most concentrated time during the season,” said Saban. “It’s the time where we have the most concentrated contact because we have so many practices in a short period of time preparing for the season.
“I think making that longer would not help the concussions, the injuries and all that type of things. So, doing something in the summertime probably would be, I think, a better way to go. If we have the opportunity to do that. Nobody even knows if we’ll have the opportunity to do that.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
