Alabama Spring Game 2017

The Alabama Spring game was April 22, 2017, and while it was very illuminating, it wasn't the full picture of what the Alabama team would look like. For one, running backs Scarbrough and Harris sat out on account of injuries, and these two players will no doubt be centerpieces of a very strong power running game with some Zone worked in there. With such a strong running component, it's very exciting to see what the new Offensive Coordinator, Brian Daboll -- formerly of the New England Patriots, will be bringing to the team in terms of pure passing, play action, and run-pass options.

There appear to be two main play-action passes that I saw, and the freshman recruit Tagovailoa used both to great effect throughout the game. There was the play-action from under center with only 1 running back that had the look of an Outside Zone Run, and there was another play-action pass out of the shotgun that may have been designed to look like a read-option. Tagovailoa playing for the White offense (2nd team offense) was able to make the Crimson defense (2nd team defense) suffer with these plays and put up 3 touchdowns and over 300 yards passing. The kid has a great arm in terms of both strength and accuracy, but when he went up against the White defense (1st team defense) at the end of the 3rd quarter/beginning of the 4th quarter, he had two 3-and-outs, so he may not yet be ready for prime time.

Jalen Hurts playing for the Crimson offense (1st team offense) has clearly been asked to develop as a passer as he spent a lot more time in the pocket. He had a few very good long balls that suggest he and Calvin Ridley, likely his prime target throughout the season, are on the same page and connecting well. This adds a vertical dimension to the Alabama Offense that was definitely lacking last year and was painfully evident in the National Championship game. Having said that, the White defense (1st team defense) sacked him 7 times: he constantly appeared rushed, and he was frequently flushed out of the pocket and left scrambling for his life. Whether this is an offensive line issue or a quarterback issue remains to be seen, but at times it appeared that he was missing the check-down option. The question of a QB battle between the new star Tagovailoa and the returning star Hurts doesn't seem sensible. After a year in which Hurts led the team to a National Championship game while running for nearly a thousand yards and throwing for almost 3,000 earning him SEC offensive player of the year, it would be difficult to simultaneously put his starting job at risk AND ask him to step outside of his comfort zone and work on his passing game, which is what he definitely needs to do to develop as a player and also improve his chances of playing in the NFL.

The major take away from this game appears to be that the defense is still the backbone of this team.  Despite the encouraging performance of both Tagovailoa and Hurts in the passing game, we should still see a run dominated offense that relies primarily on power and zone to set up play action passes and some read-option plays. Whether this will be as successful as last year remains to be seen given the various personnel changes, but I suspect it will be given the strength of this running back corps.