Practice Report: Alabama Crimson Tide Wraps Up Third Week of Fall Camp
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — This was college football on Saturday, but the University was Alabama was still three weeks away from opening its regular season.
But the Crimson Tide was thinking of game-time situations at least.
Alabama held a two-hour practice in full pads at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday afternoon, roughly about the time it was originally scheduled to kick off the 2020 season in Arlington, Texas.
That game was canceled as the Pac-12 postponed its season and the SEC later canceled non-conference games due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"If things were normal, we’d be playing USC today," Saban said during an interview with Ryan McGee and Marty Smith on the SEC Network. "Lots of challenges relative to uncertainty, and lots of changes in what we have to do. But I’ve always said to our guys, whoever can adapt and adjust to all this the best will probably come out the other end the best.”
Conditions were partly cloudy and 87 degrees.
From the video it appeared that senior running back Brian Robinson Jr. was limited, and freshman safety Brian Branch was in a black, no-contact jersey.
Alabama ramped things up this week by holding full-scale practices on Tuesday and Wednesday outside in full pads, and Thursday in shells inside the Hank Crisp Facility. Friday featuring a walk-through.
The tricky thing for coaches is to get players game-like experience, in terms of pace and specific circumstances, so Saturday was a situational day.
"It’s not necessarily a scrimmage," Saban said. "There will be a lot of game-like situations that we would try to practice in this practice."
Players will have Sunday off. The team is set to hold its second, and final, fall scrimmage next week.
Alabama will visit Missouri on Sept. 26.
