Name: Alabama Golden Flake A-Day Game
Time: Saturday, 2 p.m. CT
TV: ESPN
Location: Bryant-Denny Stadium (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
Format: Offense vs. defense, with the first-team offense facing the first-team defense, and the second teams also facing each other.
1. Solidify the QB hierarchy – Bama’s top question as it finishes spring practice is pretty much the same big Q from last spring: Who will be the signal-caller come fall?
The candidates are Cooper Bateman, David Cornwell, Blake Barnett and Jalen Hurts, with Bateman, who nearly got the nod over Jake Coker in 2015, the current frontrunner. Although Bateman has performed well in spring drills according to coach Nick Saban, Hurts has done well enough in practice “to at least be in the conversation,” Saban said.
The touted freshman from Channelview, Texas, could provide Bama an effective run-pass option. He’s possibly the player that fans are most curious to see in action Saturday.
Saban still seemed to have last year’s Ole Miss game – the Tide’s lone loss, started by Bateman – fresh in his mind during a recent conversation about his crop of QBs
“Giving the ball to the other guys, throwing interceptions, making bad decisions — the game we lost last year, we turned it over five times. That’s probably the single statistic that determines winning and losing,” he said, according to AL.com.
“The quarterback handles the ball every time so some of these guys trying to make plays, trying to do extraordinary things on the play rather than just executing the play, they force it and we had too many turnovers. Who can move the team the best and take care of the ball is the guy that will come out on top.”
2. Shore up the defensive line — Jonathan Allen is out with a bum shoulder, and defensive end Da’Shawn Hand has suffered back spasms – although he is back at practice this week. It appears now that the defensive line that will face the first-team offense Saturday will also include Dalvin Tomlinson, Josh Frazier and Daron Payne.
“We’re hopeful … he’ll be able to play in the A-Day game because with him and Jonathan Allen both out, it really makes us thin in the defensive line where we were already pretty thin to start with,” Saban said of Hand, a junior.
3. Parse the running back situation – It’s no easy feat to effectively replace a Heisman Trophy running back, but Bama’s done it before (see Mark Ingram to Trent Richardson). And it appears the Crimson Tide’s “Running Back U” status will remain solid with the emergence of Bo Scarbrough this spring. The hometown hero (he’s a graduate of Tuscaloosa County High) lit up the stat sheet in the two scrimmages, so fans are eager to see what he does against that vaunted Bama defense on Saturday. Sophomore Damien Harris, another spring standout, is expected to provide relief to Scarbrough this fall.
“I think there’s going to be an opportunity for some young players there,” Saban said, according to AL.com. “We’ve had freshmen running backs do well for us in the past, so it’s not a position they can’t play and contribute.”
4. Determine if X marks the spot – Beside Hurts, perhaps the next-most anticipated player on Saturday is sophomore Xavian Marks. The former 5-foot-8 running back had one carry for no gain and two catches for 19 yards in his lone appearance against Charleston Southern last year.
This year, he’ll line up primarily at wide receiver, and Tide coaches hope he’ll provide a strong complement to Robert Foster, Calvin Ridley and ArDarius Stewart in the receiving game. They hope he makes a dynamic impact on the return game as well.
“He is very quick, very fast, has very good hands,” Saban said, according to SEC Country. “He’s not a big guy but he can overcome all that and he has made a tremendous amount of improvement.
“He’s also made a lot of improvement as a returner, and I think the No. 1 thing that if I had to say he has anything to prove is if you’re going to be in those positions as a punt returner or kickoff returner or even as a slot receiver your ball security has to be something that everyone can depend on. And I would say that to anybody that was going to do that on our team.”
5. Finding Foster – Big things were expected of Robert Foster coming into 2015, after limited but exciting results during his freshman season. But after tallying 10 catches, 116 yards and two touchdowns, in three starts in 2015, he suffered a season-ending broken collarbone against Ole Miss.
The junior, and former five-star recruit, is among the fastest players on the team, and coaches and fans hope he continues the recent Tide tradition of standout wide receivers, whose forefathers include Julio Jones and Amari Cooper. With Foster, Stewart, Ridley, Marks and tight end O.J. Howard in the lineup, the receivers and tight ends could be very deep for the Tide.
Now coaches need to figure out who’s going to toss them the ball.
