On many accounts, Alabama’s offense is firing on all cylinders. With a quarterback who’s in the hunt for the Heisman Trophy, a running back coming off a 171-yard performance and an emerging receiving room, the unit has been trending higher and higher each week.
But on the list of concerns through the Crimson Tide’s five games could be the snapping issues which are becoming more and more noticeable.
It became apparent in Alabama’s previous game against Ole Miss, where Young was sacked on two consecutive plays which involved inaccurate snaps from center Darrian Dalcourt.
What could be seen as a major issue actually has much more on an explanation according to head coach Nick Saban who addressed the snaps during his Wednesday press conference.
“Well, I think that you just gotta keep working it and the guys gotta have a feel for it and a rhythm for it and it’s how hard it is, it’s how high it is, it’s how sideways it gets,” Saban said to the media over Zoom. “Sometimes those issues come when a guy is blocking in a certain direction. So you know, you just gotta really stay focused just like putting. You gotta really stay focused on exactly what you’re doing and sometimes when you’re trying to block some big guy that’s lined up in front of you, maybe you lose sight of that a little bit.
“But we had a couple in the game Saturday that we’re trying to clean up and I think it really is helpful to the quarterback to be able to operate the timing of plays when we get the proper snaps so it’s one of the most important things that we have to get straightened out and be consistent at.”
This is Dalcourt’s first season as a starter for the Crimson Tide, and Saban hasn’t had much to complain about from his offensive line as a whole. After replacing three starters from a year ago, the unit has taken steps in the right direction each week in pass protection and in the run game.
It’ll have another big test this weekend when Alabama travels to College Station for its matchup with Texas A&M at 7 p.m. CT.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
