Over the weekend, former Alabama standout Christian Barmore was the subject of some negative pre-draft chatter. In particular, there was a report about Barmore’s “resistance to coaching and structure.” Nick Saban, however, says that isn’t the case.

“We never had any issues here with him at all when it came to structure, whether it was football or academics,’’ Saban told Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com. “He always worked hard in the offseason program and he did whatever everybody told him to do. We were very structured in regards to academics and he worked very hard at that.’’

There have also been questions about Barmore’s maturity but Saban denied that was an issue in Tuscaloosa.

“I never had a problem with him,” Saban said of Barmore. “He’s a good kid.’’

In his conversation with cleveland.com, Saban also noted Barmore’s strength as a prospect.

“He just has really good initial quickness for a big guy, and he’s a really good inside pass-rusher and he was very productive for us as a player,’’ Saban. “He’s very instinctive as a rusher.’’

The weekend reports included an NFL.com expert speculating Barmore could drop out of the first round. We’ll find out tomorrow if Saban’s reassurances, presumably also made to inquiring teams, are enough to keep Barmore in the first 32 picks.