Nick Saban was asked about his impressions of former five-star prospects and freshmen outside linebackers, Yhonzae Pierre and Keon Keeley, on Saturday during his press conference after Alabama’s first fall scrimmage.
Keeley and Pierre enrolled at the University of Alabama as summer enrollees.
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They are two of the four members of Alabama’s 2023 recruiting class who did not enroll in January as early enrollees. Saban stated he feels their learning curve is a bit behind the players, who did enroll early, but he feels they have a lot of potential.
“They’ve got to both learn, and they’re learning, and they’re progressing, but those guys weren’t here,” Saban said. “We only had four guys that weren’t here in the spring. Their learning curve is a little bit behind a lot of the other guys. But they have a lot of potential. They have a lot of ability. I just think that outside linebacker is a position that not very many guys played when they were in high school. They played defensive end, they rushed up the field all the time. To teach guys how to play that is a little bit of a work in progress. How do you drop? When do you drop? How do you stand up and play and use your hands? When can you rush up the field and when can you not? So all those things are, sort of, things that those guys need to learn. But man, we’re happy to have them both here. They got tremendous talent and ability. They got the right attitude, and they’re working hard.”
The Crimson Tide are continuing to push through fall camp ahead of their first game of the season against Middle Tennessee State.
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