A common topic throughout this week has been Alabama’s staff discussing how the Tide could make things easier for Keelon Russell.
The Tide’s offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said if he could go back and change his game plan versus Tennessee, it would center around what is easier for his starting quarterback.
“I think, I mean, I’ll say it, I’ll go on record, I think Keelon Russell is the best quarterback in America, period, and I know that’s not what showed up on Saturday,” Grubb told reporters “And again, I can only take accountability for myself and getting Keelon in a better spot because I know he is that kind of player. So going back to the game plan, what’s easy for Keelon? And it’s not that Keelon is incapable of handling tough things or difficult concepts and things like that. It’s just in those type of environments in the first time against a really good defense, you got to make it as clean as possible.”
The former five-star quarterback threw for an underwhelming 147 yards against the Vols on Saturday. The Tide’s wide receivers accounted for 88 of those yards. Rico Scott pulled in four receptions for 54 yards, Lotzeir Brooks had three receptions for 26 yards and Derek Meadows pulled in two receptions for eight yards.
Ryan Coleman-Williams missed Alabama’s game against Tennessee with multiple injuries. He will also not play against Texas A&M on Saturday. After an underwhelming performance by the Alabama offense as a whole, along with a lot to be desired out of the Tide’s wide receivers, look out for the Tide involving two wide receivers more this Saturday.
Those two wideouts will likely be Noah Rogers and Cederian Morgan. Both saw very limited action against the Vols last week. Grubb said he was disappointed with the amount of snaps Rogers got.
“Noah, honestly, when I heard how many snaps he got after the game, I was a little bummed,” Grubb said. “Some of that was just, you know, due to lack of length of drives, you know, just not being sustainable and staying on the field, and poor performance on third down. So that part was a little bit tough. But when guys are rested, and they come back to the sideline, you’re gonna put Rico back out there first, and that’s kind of how it played out.”
Morgan was sidelined for the most part with an injury.
“Cederian was nursing a hamstring and missed a couple of days of practice,” Grubb said. “It was a little tougher to get him out there, he was going crazy trying to get himself ready, he’s a tough kid. We had that thing wrapped and we were just a little hesitant on how much he’ll be able to do.”
Rogers has pulled in three receptions for 55 yards this season after missing the Tide’s first few games of the year due to an injury he suffered on A-Day. The transfer wideout is coming off back-to-back 400-plus-yard seasons for North Carolina State.
Morgan is a true freshman for Alabama and is a former five-star recruit. He has only pulled in one reception this season, but he took that one into the end zone.
If Alabama is looking to make things easier on Russell, having more reliable play on the sideline could be a step in the right direction.
