Alabama lost one of its most dependable punt returners for the season when Cole Adams went down against Missouri.
The Crimson Tide have younger options on its squad to step in for Adams, but Kalen DeBoer feels it is essential for Alabama to develop more returners for the short and long term.
“You will go with, who you feel best about,” DeBoer said. “Obviously, we need to continue to always build depth. Said this at the beginning of the year to our special teams coordinator, Jay Nunez. He does a great job but also just in developing returners. It isn’t just your upperclassmen that you know can do it, you have confidence in, but it’s also developing younger guys. You have seen just as much as anyone has, that we have younger guys that we’ve been putting out there with Bak (Jaylen Mbakwe) and Ryan (Ryan Williams). We need to continue to develop more and more, not just for today, not just for the next couple games or the rest of the season, but also for the future, years to come. And so just over and over, you just can’t catch enough kicks, punts, and then all the situations that come along with it, when to field it, when to fair catch it, the communication that happens, just being comfortable back there. It’s reps and reps and reps of that. And so we’re going to always continue to develop more and more guys and kind of who you’ve been seeing is who we’ll start out with Bak and Ryan.”
Who comes out to return punts will be something to watch this weekend against LSU.
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