Alabama’s pass rush dominated during the team’s spring game.
Shocker.
Arguably the deepest position group on the team tallied 15 total sacks between the crimson and white squads with 10 of those sacks coming from the first-team defense against the temporary first-team offensive line. There wasn’t much consistency in the run game either with the first team. Removing a 75-yard touchdown run from running back Jahymyr Gibbs, the team’s average was just 3.3 yards per carry on all other carries.
“Probably one thing that impacted the game as much as anything else was the front seven on defense,” Nick Saban said to the media following the scrimmage. “It was probably a little further ahead than the offensive line.”
When your team returns the best defensive player in the country in outside linebacker Will Anderson and pairs him with the likes of Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell your defense will have a leg up on everybody. Not just your own offensive line.
Coming into spring football the offensive line had a tall task in front of itself in its own right. The unit lost left tackle and potential top-five pick Evan Neal along with senior right tackle and Chris Owens who both left for the NFL. At the beginning of the spring season, Saban announced that the offensive line’s most experienced player Emil Ekiyor would be held out for the spring as well as center Darrian Dalcourt who was the team’s primary starter when healthy.
“With two starters out and one start back from last year, we have a lot of inexperienced players, playing positions against some guys that are pretty good players that are pretty good rushers,” Saban said. “That probably impacted the game a little bit, and we’ll certainly try to improve that. I think we have. We’ll do it in recruiting, and we’re doing it every way that we can.”
The first-team offensive line that was tasked with protecting quarterback Bryce Young included (from left tackle to right tackle) Kendall Randolph, Javion Cohen, Seth McLaughlin, Damieon George and JC Latham. Redshirt freshman Tommy Brockermeyer also worked with the first group throughout the scrimmage.
At times it looked rough out there, but the unit is far from a finished product. As Saban mentioned, the group has lost a significant amount of experience from last season accompanied by the players who were held out, which isn’t something that will be fixed up in a few practice sessions in April. It’s going to take time, and with players getting healthy and with Vanderbilt transfer Tyler Steen joining the team this fall to add experience, the unit could still see some turnover before it’s all said and done.
*Get the BEST Alabama football insider information, message board access, and recruiting coverage today! SIGN UP HERE to unlock our subscriber only content!*
Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
