The stated goal of the spring for Alabama’s offense was to develop its passing game. Judging by recent comments from Alabama senior defensive back Hootie Jones, consider that mission accomplished under new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.

Jones met with the media Monday to discuss Alabama’s first scrimmage of spring football. While the word is that the Crimson Tide quarterbacks impressed, Jones gave an entirely new adjective to describe the performance of the team’s young signal callers.

“Quarterbacks are real, they were very good to see,” Jones said. “Very competitive, putting guys in great position, honestly, the defense really got tore up by the quarterbacks.”

During his introductory spring press conference, head coach Nick Saban made it clear his plan was to develop starting quarterback Jalen Hurts into a more effective passer. According to Jones, so far that’s happened in the first spring under Daboll’s leadership.

“He’s a great quarterback. He’s passing the ball a lot better,” Jones continued. “Of course we were upset, no defense wanna get tore up by the offense, but we’re learning from it. That means we gotta go out there and work harder.”

Given the fact Alabama annually has one of the toughest defenses in the nation under Saban, one poor performance from the Crimson defense isn’t likely to cause any lost sleep in Tuscaloosa. In fact, the early progression from the offense could turn out to be a huge confidence builder for the entire team moving forward — something Jones alluded to during his interview.

“It gave me confidence, the offense looked real good,” Jones said.

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