Alabama was among the many teams across the country that did not have the option to hold spring practice this season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While coaches like Kirby Smart have come out and expressed their frustration over losing spring camp while others may have had the opportunity to run a number of spring practices before the coronavirus forced the NCAA and the SEC to practice down, Nick Saban shared his thoughts on how he would like to see those that missed out on spring catch up.

During an Instagram Live interview with Maria Taylor of ESPN, Saban was asked what he thought the biggest hurdle would be to overcome following the NCAA and SEC’s decisions to halt sports activities across the country.

“I think the uncertainty we have ahead, all of us, in terms of when will we be able to go back to school? When will players be able to come back to campus? What actually will happen in the next two weeks, month, whenever, in terms of controlling this virus,” Saban answered. “A lot of things that are not in our control. All you can come up with is some alternative plans. What ifs. What if we can come back in the summer?

“I think we need to have a lot of contingent plans as to what we can do if we come back in the summer, what can’t we do if we can’t come back in the summer? Do we move the season a little bit forward so we can prepare the players the right way?

That’s when Saban shared a page out of his NFL offseason playbook when he was coaching with the Miami Dolphins. The way Saban sees it, the NCAA needs to lift the rule that prohibits programs from coaching players during the summer — if football resumes this summer across the nation.

“One of the things we used to do when I was in the NFL was 14 days of [Organized Team Activities] days before we had minicamp,” Saban said. “And it was just shorts and shirts and you could go out and teach players techniques, you could do one-on-one, like receivers versus DBs, no contact. You could do 7-on-7s.

“Our rules don’t allow us to work with our players in the summertime in football-related things. Our strength and conditioning coaches can work with them.”

Saban further explained his idea noting that he believes the teams that did not have spring practice could catch up in terms of development that was lost by not having camp and the competitive advantage gained by those that did hold some spring practices could be minimized.

“If you had five spring practices, you could have nine OTA days sometime before we started fall camp,” Saban continued. “If you didn’t have any spring practice, you could have 14 OTA days where you have an opportunity to go out and work with your players on football-related type stuff, so many days in the summer. Non-contact, no pads, no helmets.

“I think that would go a long way helping young players especially catch up on some of the learning and developing of spring practice if you weren’t able to have spring practice.”

It’s an interesting idea and one that would likely gain traction among coaches that didn’t have the opportunity to hold spring practice this offseason.