TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Maybe it's the hangover.
After winning national championships two of the past three years, Alabama fans can be forgiven for having a little lethargy. After all, you can't be rabid, crimson-clad, scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs enthusiasts all the time.
So, the fact that about 30,000 seats in Bryant-Denny stadium remained empty for this year's "A Game," the Crimson Tide's spring football game, can't be held against them. After all, this is little more than an offseason scrimmage, except for the fact coach Nick Saban forgoes the hat and wears a sand-colored suit and red tie.
Last year at this time, Bryant-Denny Stadium was packed as Tide faithful brimmed with anticipation of what they rightly believed would be another BCS title run. This year, the stadium was so subdued you could almost completely hear the late Bear Bryant's pregame speech over the PA system.
It was a typical spring football game for Duke or Harvard, but not for Alabama.
Saban had better hope that the fans' ho-hum, smell-the-flowers and take-a-nap attitude doesn't bleed over into the fall. Defending a national championship is tough enough (no one has had an uncontested repeat since Nebraska in 1995). A slip in enthusiasm can be the difference in a division as tough as the SEC West.
"Nobody ever has a bad spring, nobody has a bad spring game, and we didn't have one, either," Saban said. "We focus on guys executing and making progress and doing a good job. This was a final exam for some of the players relative to spring practice. How have they improved and what can they do to help this team?
"Being a coach in a college where you have seniors graduate every year is a challenge because you have to develop new leadership, new communication. But we are pleased with the spring that we had. Not satisfied; just pleased."
For a while it looked as if the Vanderbilt-Auburn baseball game would have bigger numbers on the scoreboard than the Crimson and White. The first score of the football game came 10 seconds into the second quarter when Crimson linebacker Jeremy Watson blitzed and tackled freshman running back T.J. Yeldon in the White team end zone for a safety. That was typical Alabama — a 2-0 game where both defenses stuffed the offenses.
The White team scored a field goal after some nifty passing by redshirt freshman Phillip Ely, who tag-teamed with Phillip Sims. Ely went 10-for-18 passing for 83 yards; Sims went 9-for-12 for 135 yards. And while the depth chart probably didn't change, Ely no doubt earned a second look with his quick release and good decision making.
A.J. McCarron also had a good day, going 29-for-42 passes for 304 yards for the Crimson team. If there was one concern, it was the three interceptions McCarron threw and the three sacks he took, but as Saban said all spring, "A.J. has continued to improve."
The final score was 24-15 in favor of the White team, which mattered not a bit. The stands were virtually empty halfway through the fourth quarter on a beautiful, cloudless day in Tuscaloosa, and the women's softball team had a game at 4:30 against South Carolina that actually counted for something.
But despite meaning nothing, the "A Game" answered a number of questions. The most important was: Could Saban replace key players on defense, especially probable NFL standouts Courtney Upshaw and Dont'a Hightower.
The answer was an emphatic "Yes." Watson, Tana Patrick and Adrian Hubbard combined for 24 tackles and showed a lot of speed and toughness. And while it is impossible to tell how they will react to the downfield passes of Zach Mettenberger at LSU, Tyler Bray at Tennessee or Tyler Wilson at Arkansas, the Tide appears, once again, to have a world-class defense.
The biggest and nicest surprise had to be the running of Yeldon, a freshman, who, after going down for the safety, ran for 88 yards and caught five passes for 91 more. One of his receptions was a 50-yard run-after-catch for a touchdown on which he stiff-armed junior-college transfer Travell Dixon in a move reminiscent of Mark Ingram.
"T.J. has played really well all spring," Saban said. He and (freshman wide receiver) Amari Cooper have shown that they have ability and make plays and could be contributors. (Running back) Jalston Fowler can do certain things, and (redshirt freshman RB) Dee Hart can do certain things, but T.J. can do a lot of things."
So how good is this team?
"I don't know," Saban said. "It's really up to them. We don't have the maturity as a team that we had a year ago or three years ago, but we could develop into a pretty good team. It is up to every individual on this team in terms of the decisions and commitments they make."
The same can be said of every team in the nation. But they don't have a national title to defend.
