How Alabama Football is Taking Advantage of Second Bye Week

The Crimson Tide is off this weekend ahead of another top-25 SEC matchup against LSU.

10/30/24 MFB Practice 1 off week / Alabama Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— In a normal college football season, each team has one bye weekend a year. Traditionally, Alabama's idle weekend comes the last weekend in October/first weekend in November ahead of the Crimson Tide's matchup with LSU. However, depending on how the calendar falls some years, like 2024, each team has two byes.

For the diehard college football fans, it just creates an extra Saturday without getting to watch their favorite team. But for the teams, the extra off weekend provides a bonus opportunity to work on fundamentals, watch more film, recover from injuries and more.

Alabama (6-2, 3-2 SEC) is experiencing its second bye week of the season this week. The players didn't have practice on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, will practice on Wednesday and Thursday and then get Friday and Saturday off before entering normal game-week preparations for LSU on Sunday, Nov. 3.

"This time of year when you have a bye week, you really want to focus on some of the things you can do better," Alabama running backs coach Robert Gillespie said on Wednesday. "We’ve been doing a lot of self scout. And it also gives you a chance to look at a few opponents who we’re gonna play in the future because you don’t want to spend two weeks preparing for a team that you’d normally spend a week for. So the first couple days, we did some self scout, looked at some future opponents, and today we’ll take some time to really focus in on LSU a little bit and start to get a base game plan of some things we can do, some things that might cause us some problems that we can talk about and dive into on Sunday when we get back.”

One of the biggest plusses of an idle weekend is the ability to rest players who have been battling through injuries and try to get some guys back closer to 100 percent health wise. Alabama had multiple players in the secondary get banged up in the Tennessee loss, and redshirt sophomore Keon Sabb is going to miss significant time with a foot injury, so the Crimson Tide has been working in some younger guys at safety.

Co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Colin Hitschler said this week is a great time to continue getting some of the younger players up to speed and ready to contribute at a high level.

"We have a lot of young players back there, so every opportunity to get out on the practice field with them and continue to grow, watch film with them," Hitschler said. "Things kind of slow down a little bit on a bye week, and a lot of development can happen when it slows down. It’s a big advantage for a younger team to have an extra bye week.”

Both of Alabama's bye weekend this season have come ahead of huge games. The first was before the Crimson Tide's home matchup with No. 2 Georgia, and this week's is before the trip to face No. 16 LSU (6-2, 3-1 SEC.) Hitschler said the extra week provides more time to study these opponents, but also gives the players more time to get fired up for the game.

Offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic feels that this second break came at a great time after five straight SEC games, including two losses, with the most important stretch of the season ahead if Alabama wants to make a run at the College Football Playoff.

"It was a pretty big stretch right there of ups and downs, a lot of emotionally draining situations," Kapilovic said. "And then guys are getting beat up, so it’s always good to get that just to give them a chance to get their bodies a little healthier. For us to be able to focus on some fundamentals and techniques that you don’t get as much time to do when you’re game planning and things like that. I think it came at a great time, and I’m anxious to see the improvement that we’ll have in the next week and a half.”

The Crimson Tide put together one of its most complete performances of the season last time out in the 34-0 shutout victory over Missouri. The assistant coaches talked about that game as a building off point as Alabama enters the last third of the regular season starting with the night game at Tiger Stadium, which will effectively serve as a CFP elimination game.

On paper, LSU is the toughest remaining game on Alabama's schedule. It is the only ranked opponent left, and the Crimson Tide follows the game with FCS opponent Mercer. But Alabama still has to travel to Oklahoma, and the Crimson Tide has struggled on the road in SEC play so far this season. The schedule wraps up with the Iron Bowl, and while Auburn hasn't won in Bryant-Denny Stadium in over a decade, Hugh Freeze and the Tigers would love nothing more than to end that streak and potentially derail Alabama's season.

The days off from practice can create a physical and mental reset for the players, and the foundation for these final four games is being laid this week during the final bye.

"We know we've got a really big one going into an environment that's tough to play in," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said Wednesday. "Gotta have great preparation. The guys are in a good spot, knowing full well that we've got a lot to work on."

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