Alabama head coach Nick Saban's reaction to the play of his quarterbacks in the 2015 spring game on Saturday wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement.
"There can be no great conclusions drawn from anything that happened today, other than we were pleased in what we saw in some of the guys," he said in quotes emailed by Alabama. "We will certainly take that into fall camp and summer and try to build on it. I was encouraged by the way the first offense played."
Not the most surprising thing in the world. With five quarterbacks vying for playing time, the best-case scenario for Alabama this spring was to narrow its race down to two. It appears to have done that, with redshirt senior Jake Coker leading the way ahead of redshirt freshman David Cornwell.
While all eyes were on the quarterbacks, though, Alabama was busy solving its most pressing issue of the offseason as it closed up shop on spring practice—cornerback.
Redshirt freshman and former 5-star prospect Marlon Humphrey picked off a pass, broke up another and had eight total tackles. Fellow corner Anthony Averett notched a pick, pass breakup and three tackles, sophomore Tony Brown played well and the secondary as a whole looked much more comfortable than it did last year thanks to the emergence of safety Ronnie Harrison.
The Tide finished with six interceptions, and the two offenses combined to post just 426 total passing yards, according to stats released by the school.
Humphrey's alma mater Hoover High School seemed pleased with his play.
This is huge news for Alabama and its hopes of repeating as SEC champs.
The Crimson Tide gave up 133 passing plays of 10 or more yards last year—the worst mark in the SEC. The inconsistency of the secondary has been the major reason Alabama has lost big games over the last two seasons, including the 2015 and 2014 Sugar Bowls, as well as the 2013 Iron Bowl.
Sure, play of the wide receivers was one of the most pleasant surprises of the game, which typically would be an indictment of the secondary. But there weren't major breakdowns in coverage, and even on the longest pass play of the game—the 40-yarder to ArDarius Stewart—the coverage was decent.
With Cyrus Jones—a bona fide star—out this spring, Alabama needed several reliable options to step forward and give confidence to Saban, defensive coordinator Kirby Smart and new defensive backs coach Mel Tucker.
They have that now.
As Kevin Scarbinsky of AL.com notes, the quarterback position is under control thanks to the presence of offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin. That's not going to be an issue in Tuscaloosa, even though the battle is still unresolved at the moment.
The cornerback issue is a much more pressing and lingering issue that Alabama has to overcome if it's going to win its first national title since 2012.
The spring game proved that it's well on its way to doing that.
A little bit of stability will go a long way for the Crimson Tide defense. The front seven is deep, talented and versatile, and the world saw that again on Saturday during A-Day. All Alabama needs is a secondary that can take advantage of the pressure generated up front at key times, and the Tide will be all set.
So far, so good.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com, unless otherwise noted, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports' composite rankings.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1aLy8IU
via IFTTT April 20, 2015 at 08:02AM
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