Alabama Practice Report: Crimson Tide Reaches Midway Point of Fall Camp
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. —It terms of fall camp, the Alabama football team is halfway there.
Wednesday afternoon, the Crimson Tide reach the midway point as it worked in shells for two hours in the Alabama heat.
Conditions were sunny and 89 degrees, but with a heat index of 100.
The forecast includes some slight cooler temperatures by the weekend, and a significant drop in about a week.
Alabama is in the midst of its stretch of camp, when the coaches like to push the players under the toughest conditions. The players are getting more breaks than usual due to the extended schedule, plus school being in session, but it's still a grind.
Part of the unique challenge to this year is developing as much depth across the board as possible.
Due to contact tracing protocols, players could be isolated for just coming into contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. With the SEC going with a conference-only schedule, the Crimson Tide probably won't be able to get reserve players the same amount of game experience as usual.
One spot it figures to be especially crucial is the offensive line, where continuity and experience are key.
Alabama has four returning starters, although two are playing in new places. Landon Dickerson has gone from center to guard, and Evan Neal from guard to tackle.
"He's played so many different positions for us," center Chris Owens said about Dickerson. "He has so much insight, even going back to his days back at Florida State, so having him around and being able to bring along some of the young guys and not just us two, but everyone on the O-line.
"Starter or not, everyone is looking out for everyone. So we all want everyone to be successful, and we also understand that we do need everyone to be versatile.
After practice, Saban address reporters via Zoom:
"I think this week is a little different than the first two weeks. Our No. 1 goal and priority to sort of emulate a little more what an in-season week would be like. Tough practices on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not really practicing on Friday. Another tough practice, which would be a game, on Saturday. And even though we’re not really having a scrimmage on Saturday, we may have a lot of gamel-ike situations that we’ll want to sort of get the players to experience. I think the big thing that we’re trying to accomplish now, which is a little bit of a work in progress because we really didn’t have camp _ this is really not camp-like where you’ve got to go every day, you’ve got to grind through. You’re developing the mental and physical toughness and conditioning level. I think this is a lot better for the players in some ways because they get a lot of rest, but you don’t really get that sort of opportunity to really make a difficult circumstance for the players and then they have to have the perseverance to overcome.
"That’s something I think is really important to developing mental toughness. That’s what we’re trying to get out of the players on these back to back days that we practice.
"How committed are you? How good do you want to be? What are you willing to do to do what you need to do to be a good player. And the focus needs to be on the things that are going to help you perform and accomplish the goals that you want to accomplish. Not necessarily on the outcomes. That’s something that success is determined by consistency and performance, and having an ability to focus on every play and understand the importance that you never know when the play that you’re going to have an opportunity to make, whether it’s a pass, a catch or a play to make on defense, a fumble to recover. You never know when that’s happening.
"So if you’re not playing all out and focused on every play, then you’re not going to have a chance to make those plays when they come up. Circumstances like this, the kind of heat that we’ve had, even though we’re not practicing every day, how that’s something that the players really have to be able to push themselves through.
"Obviously we’re trying to get everybody reps like it’s camp, so that we can develop more and more players to develop depth on our team."
