Alabama football opened its first practice of fall camp on Monday.
After two seasons of not winning a national championship, the program is focused on returning to the College Football Playoff stage and capturing its 18th title in school history.
With much experience and talent back on the roster, the Crimson Tide worked at Thomas Drew Field as this year’s theme is toughness and being together.
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With the Alabama Athletics department providing video footage, here are some notes from the first practice.
-Mac Jones and Bryce Young both led a line of quarterbacks, and Paul Tyson was behind Young.
-Quarterbacks performed hand-offs to running backs, while executing timing patterns with tight ends.
-Najee Harris took the RB group through drills, and was followed by Brian Robinson (No. 4) and Trey Sanders (No. 26)
-In the route concepts that tight ends had with QB’s, Miller Forristall led the group with Cameron Latu and Major Tennison behind him.
-At wide receiver, the first trio through workouts was Devonta Smith, John Metchie and Jaylen Waddle.
-The second group was Slade Bolden, Xavier Williams and Traeshon Holden (No. 11), while Javon Baker was in the third group.
-When it came to the secondary on video, the parings were Ronald Williams Jr. with Jalyn Armour-Davis and Brandon Turnage with Jahquez Robinson.
-Things later switched to the defensive line under first-year coach, Freddie Roach. As a former player, the Alabama native is prepared to get this front back to being great. The pairings on the line were Christian Barmore vs. Stephon Wynn, Byron Young vs. Jamil Burroughs (No. 98), Ishmael Sophsher vs. LT Ikner (No. 97), and DJ Dale vs. Phidarian Mathis.
-Roach sounded highly energized with this group.
-At outside linebacker, Ben Davis led the group through drills. Christopher Allen came behind him.
-Although Dylan Moses was the primary player in the video at inside linebacker, Jaylen Moody and Joshua McMillon were captured as well. Alabama also has experience at the position with Christian Harris and Shane Lee.
-For LaBryan Ray, redshirt junior defensive lineman has switched numbers. He now wears No. 18 after having No. 89 for three years.
-Among the offensive linemen featured in the video working the sled, names included Javion Cohen, Damieon George Jr., Deonte Bown, Landon Dickerson, Tommy Brown, Kendall Randolph, Darrian Dalcourt and Amari Kight.
-Alabama will continue with practice on Tuesday at 3:40 p.m.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
