Alabama Football: Spring Practice Storylines That Matter

Alabama football spring practice is here. Here are the storylines that matter for the defending national champions.

Does Alabama really rebuild …

It’s Alabama, so the new players ready to take over for the lost NFL talent will ensure there won’t be a massive slip. However, the SEC championship doesn’t necessarily mean all that much to the Crimson Tide unless there are more confetti showers to follow.

As amazing as this run has been under Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide haven’t had an unbeaten season since 2009. One extra loss last year, and Ole Miss is playing for the conference title while Alabama probably would’ve been out of the playoff. The same goes for two years ago.

So that’s the bar. That’s the ridiculous standard. That’s the difference between rebuilding at Alabama, and rebuilding anywhere else – 10-2 without a national championship becomes a disaster.

Obviously this is a college football factory of the highest order. Every year there’s a quarterback battle. Every year some position gets gutted by losses. Every year there’s some major concern that would cripple most programs, and yet it’s just another March Thursday in Tuscaloosa.

This spring, the Alabama football team must get used to new defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt; it has to discover a whole new offensive backfield; it needs the backups in the defensive line rotation become the new massive – literally – SEC stars; and it absolutely must keep the focus and the intensity at the same Zero Fun, Sir, level it always is.

By April, the goal will be to figure out if Alabama football really does have to build this up again for a killer 2017, or if – to go cliché – it really did reload.

Guess the latter.

No one is worried about …

The receiving corps. Last year’s concern is this year’s biggest strength. The coaching staff finally unleashed tight end O.J. Howard on the world in the national title game, and now the expectation will be there to do something like that on a semi-regular basis. But Howard is just a part of the passing game puzzle, with Calvin Ridley and ArDarius Stewart returning after terrific seasons where they caught 89 and 63 passes, respectively. Both might possess NFL skills, and Ridley is growing into a superstar, but neither one is Amari Cooper quite yet. Overall, though, this should be one of the most dangerous receiving units offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin has had to work with.

Extra attention must be given to …

The quarterback situation. Pretty much blow off whatever comes out of spring practice, considering Jake Coker was supposed to be the main man two years ago – before Blake Sims took over – and it took a while to settle on a starter last year, too.

Blake Barnett fits, but it was Cooper Bateman who was declared starter for a few days last offseason and got the call against Ole Miss. David Cornwell will get every opportunity, too, but Barnett has the biggest upside among the three. Again, though, don’t expect anything to be settled during the spring – this will only set the stage for the fall.