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TUSCALOOSA, Ala.
The first thing you notice when you walk inside the Alabama locker room an hour before the Crimson Tide's spring game is just how big and mature-looking this team is. Starting with No. 86, A'Shawn Robinson, a 20-year-old 6-foot-4, 318-pound All-American candidate with a full beard and muscular arms that hang down to his kneecaps, the Tide have more guys who physically could pass for NFL veterans than any college team I've ever seen. Alabama has 11 players on its spring game roster who weigh 310 pounds or more, and that doesn't include Robinson, who was being held out of Saturday's game due to a minor leg injury.
The Tide are coming off a 12-2 season, which for most programs would have been a great year especially when you consider the team had to manage a patchwork O-line and unproven new starting QB, but most programs aren't Alabama. And around here, where it seems like everywhere you turn there are reminders that Bama has won 15 national titles in football, folks in this locker room are still ticked about losing the Sugar Bowl to Ohio State after leading the Buckeyes 21-6. The Tide were out-executed and couldn't match the Buckeyes' physicality, and nothing makes head coach Nick Saban sicker.
To get their first peek at the 2015 Crimson Tide, more than 65,000 fans came to Bryant-Denny Stadium on a gray day with thunderstorms in the forecast. That's why I came to Alabama, too. A few days ago, the school's athletic department asked if I'd like to be one of the "media coaches." There's actually no coaching involved in the role, but the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at Saban's program was intriguing.
The vibe inside the Tide locker room before the players head onto the field Saturday for pregame warm-ups is charged. Not Alabama-Auburn charged, or even Alabama-Louisiana-Monroe charged, but for a spring game there's still plenty of intensity in here. What you see on TV for some schools' spring games isn't the tone reflected in the Bama locker room pregame. A digital clock on the wall counts down the seconds until the 2:03 p.m. CT nationally televised kickoff time. Saban may be dressed in a salmon-colored sport coat with a matching tie, but he is in midseason form.
He brings his entire team around him, most gather on one knee. For about two minutes, Saban preaches toughness, focus and teamwork. "Do it for 60 minutes in the game," he says, his hands waving. "It's basic as hell, aight, but that's what it takes to be a great competitor. And that's what we're looking for. People who are great competitors, aight."
Saban then explains the pregame schedule, which is still down to the moment — at 1:18 they'll do 10 minutes of individual work and 10 minutes of 7-on-7, just like their scrimmages. He closes with, "'The team' on three!"
TEAM!
Most of the fans' eyes were on the Bama QBs, as were my mine, more so than usual. Offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin coaxed a pretty strong season out of Blake Sims last fall. Sims surprised just about everyone by beating out hyped FSU transfer Jacob Coker and proceeded to throw 28 TD passes against just 10 INTs, while also showing wheels the Bama fans hadn't seen from one of their quarterbacks in years. Sims, though, is gone. The strong-armed Coker is not. However, it's no lock that the job is his. There are questions about how well he sees the defense and his on-field decision-making. Redshirt freshman David Cornwell, who also has a powerful arm, has been very impressive, I'm told.
I was around Cornwell for my book, The QB, and after being around him Saturday it became obvious to me the 6-5, 220-pounder clearly has matured physically and mentally quite a bit in two years. I used to wonder how he'd get along in Saban's world, but the answer seems to be just fine.
During warm-ups, as dozens of Bama recruits outline the perimeter of the field, I hover with the QBs as they go through 7-on-7. Freshman Blake Barnett, another quarterback covered in The QB, also is in the position battle after enrolling early at Bama. It's a little surreal to see both Cornwell and Barnett out here in Crimson Tide uniforms as they flank grad assistant Keary Colbert, the former USC standout receiver, perusing a 7-on-7 script while the two former Elite 11 products rotate in with the other QBs in what has proven to be a wide-open race that also includes Alec Morris and Cooper Bateman.
After about 20 minutes we retreat to our locker rooms. I've been assigned to the Crimson team, which gets to use the Tide's "home" locker room. Saban has divvied up his staff. The offensive assistants on the Crimson team are wide receivers coach Billy Napier, who will serve as the offensive coordinator for the day, and O-line coach Mario Cristobal. Defensive coordinator Kirby Smart will run the Crimson D.
Players split up on each half of the locker room. The offensive guys sit on stools as Cristobal gives a pretty intense talk about the opportunity in front of them, standing in front of a board that has a projector image with a list of priorities. In big letters above them are three things:
• Be Proud of what you put on Film!!
• Show us it's important to you
• Establish your IDENTITY as a Player
Napier follows with a lower-wattage speech that also includes more game-planning, going through the opening script.
With 3:36 on the countdown clock to kickoff, former Tide star Dont'a Hightower, now a player with the New England Patriots, walks into the locker room.
"THE CHAMP IS HE-YAA!"
"THE CHAMP IS HE-YAA!"
Scott Cochran, Alabama's strength coach, hollers in a voice that around here is unmistakable. Cochran's tone sounds like a cross between a pro wrestler cutting a promo and a beer can getting dropped into a garbage disposal. They even play clips of him during Tide games to rev up the crowd.
Cochran blows a whistle.
"EVERYBODY UP!"
The Crimson team assembles in front of the door. Helmets get squeezed onto heads. A mass of humanity begins to funnel its way toward the field. Two players, D-linemen A'Shawn Robinson and Jarran Reed, holler to their teammates: "Treat this like a real game. We gotta execute and give it everything we got. Play for each other."
"Ain't no tired out here, man."
"Show everybody what Bama is about now."
As they file out the locker room, two and three at a time, offensive lineman Alphonse Taylor begins a call and response to his teammates styled after the one Ray Lewis made famous.
"Y'ALL BOYS RED-DAAY?"
"Y'ALL BOYS RED-DAAY?"
The players keep replying in unison, voices beginning to fade a bit as each man rubs his fingers across a plaque in front of the exit. It is the last thing Alabama sees before it takes the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. It has a profile shot of coaching icon Bear Bryant in his trademark hat with these words beneath: "Simply put, football is eyes, movement, and contact."
The game begins with a kickoff although the runner is only touched not tackled, as per the rules of the day. Saban watches each play unfold from about 15 paces behind the QB.
The Crimson team's first series, much like it will be for the entire first half, is a dud. In between series, Napier and his grad assistant, Alex Mortensen (a one-time Arkansas QB and the son of ESPN NFL reporter Chris Mortensen), gathered up all of the skill players and their three QBs for a skull session. Napier holds up a three-by-one foot white board and Sharpie scribbles up plays while peppering the backs, receivers and QBs with questions about what they'd seen on the previous series.
Sometimes the coaches know what the defender did, but often because of the speed of the game and their sideline perspective, they can't see it. Plus, hearing the player's view affords them a window into what many of these younger guys are responding to. A few yards over on the Crimson bench, Cristobal is doing something similar with the O-linemen. He's also drilling some of his players for breakdowns in technique. "YOU'RE OVER-SETTING! YOU'RE STANDING STRAIGHT UP ..."
Cristobal, named the country's top recruiter last year, is the fieriest position coach on Saban's staff. Before coming to Bama, he'd turned FIU from being the sorriest program in FBS football into one that went to back-to-back bowl games. In two seasons in Tuscaloosa his lines have surrendered a paltry 33 sacks in 27 games. This year's group — with much more experienced sophomore Cam Robinson at left tackle and rising JUCO star Dominic Jackson at right tackle, along with steady Ryan Kelly at center and a handful of promising young linemen — figures to be a team strength, but the unit Cristobal has for the day on the Crimson side is getting whipped by the White team. The halftime score: White 17, Crimson 0.
Back inside the locker room, the team again splits into offensive and defensive sides as players pile onto stools. Trainers pass around Rice Krispie treat packages. Some players and staffers go to a table covered with little energy shot bottles, energy jells, protein bars and huge packets of beef jerky.
Smart, the DC, is frustrated. Coker has hit a bunch of passes as the White team's receivers are beating his back-seven. For about six minutes he harps on many of the negatives he's seen: unfilled gaps, busted assignments and poor effort.
"Those O-linemen on their team have played more snaps than you have," Smart says. "We're subbin' on defense. They ain't subbin'. So how can we not out-rush them? We got to play with more effort and more toughness. Y'all with me? We're not playing with any energy and any passion. You gotta go get it. You gotta go take it. Every snap."
Saban, who entered the room a few minutes earlier and has been wandering around sans salmon coat, walks over to Smart and the defensive group with a disgusted look on his face.
"You know what the lady [ESPN sideline reporter Shannon Spake] just asked me?" he says looking at his players. "'Are you concerned about the defense?'"
Saban's words hang in the air for a few heartbeats as he looks at his players' faces.
"I am. I AM!" Smart replies. "Lack of effort. Lack of toughness."
As Saban leaves, Smart goes on to implore his defense to "create an identity in the second half."
The Crimson team responds when Maurice Smith picks off a pass and returns it 51 yards for a touchdown. Back on the sideline, there finally is some joy. Smith celebrates with his teammates and now has a WWE-styled championship belt draped over his shoulder pads. On the front it says BALL OUT CHAMPION with the Alabama 'A' in the middle.
The belt has been Saban's way this spring to encourage his players to get more takeaways. The staff awards the belt to the defender who makes the most plays — tipped balls, attempted strips, strips, pressures — that can cause a takeaway after each scrimmage. Saban got the idea after Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett showed him some studies they'd done about a team's chance to win games depending on what you were plus/minus in turnover margin. Last season the Tide gained just 20 turnovers in 14 games, which put them in the bottom third of the country in forced turnovers per game.
Smith's pick-six, though, doesn't do enough to rally the Crimson, which threw four of Alabama's six interceptions on the day. The White team wins 27-14. After the game, Saban leads the team in prayer before reminding them about how important the rest of the offseason is for them to come together. Leadership and accountability are critical, he tells them. There are still dozens of recruits in town, many of them blue-chippers. First, though, Saban has to go upstairs and meet with the media for his postgame presser. The QB situation of course will be a hot topic.
"The two quarterbacks that played with [the White team] had a much better opportunity," Saban said. "You're going to ask me all that stuff and look [at the numbers] and say, 'We'll these two guys played better.' Well, if I had to play on those two teams, I would've played better on the White team. That's me playing quarterback. I can still play quarterback. I can sling it a little bit. I can't see very well, and I might not be able to avoid the rush like I used to. I'm just saying that they had a much better opportunity.
"We lost a lot of players on offense, so we don't have a lot of depth on offense right now. It really affects the second unit a lot more than it does the first, especially when you add a few guys that are injured. Those guys had a better opportunity to have success today, and they took advantage of it and did a good job. I thought Jake did a good job. He threw the one pick that was a pick-six."
As for the Ball Out title belt, linebacker Dillon Lee, who ended up with it late in the game after picking off Barnett in the fourth quarter, tells reporters it's "neck-and-neck" between him and cornerback Tony Brown.
"We always talking stuff about (getting that belt)," linebacker Reggie Ragland said. "'Yeah, I got the belt, I'm the champ!' It's all about being a competitor. "I think coach has done a great job of bringing that into it. I know Tony has it right now, but we don't know who's gonna have it after Monday comes."
Bruce Feldman is a senior college football reporter and columnist for FOXSports.com and FOX Sports 1. He is also a New York Times Bestselling author. His new book, The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks, came out in October 2014. Follow him on Twitter @BruceFeldmanCFB.
