Alabama spring football: The quarterback position remains uncertain

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. Following the steps of one program-defining quarterback is hard enough. Whoever leads the Alabama Crimson Tide this fall will be watching four.

The Tides’ final four starting quarterbacks, Bryce Young, Mac Jones, Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts, are all either leading NFL teams or, in Young’s case, just days away from it. So that’s the job for the next Alabama quarterback: keep pace with a roster that includes one Heisman winner, two national championships and three first-round draft picks.

Alabama has four players vying for the right to carry that load, two running backs and two Class of 2023 hopefuls, and each saw playing time Saturday in the Tides A-Day spring game. Judgment? Unclear, at best.

The crowd at Bryant-Denny Stadium wasn’t quite up to October, either during or before the game. In the famous Denny Chimes area around Alabama, the ATV had maybe 10% of its usual trailer fleet. The line at Rama Jamas, the barbecue before the game mentioned, was only about ten people long. Maybe it was complacency, maybe it was just cobwebs in the tailgate gear, but the 58,710 in attendance didn’t even bring the rush that Bryant-Denny usually summons when hapless non-conference opponents wander the Tides’ path early in the season.

On the field, however, the intensity and expectations were at full throttle. Coach Nick Saban paced the backfield behind the Crimson and White’s offense, wearing a baby blue blazer and an assistant principal’s exasperated demeanor. He barked, clapped, stood with his hands in his pockets, turned away in frustration. He watched as the Tide QBs suffered through a rough first half, going a combined 23-of-43 with one touchdown and three interceptions, including a late-half Hail Mary. He threw his arms in the air time and time again as balls bounced out of the hands of some receivers while others ran down the field untouched and undetected by their quarterbacks.

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It’s really simple, Saban said after the game in a speech that was as much to his players as it was to the media. It’s about people being committed to the team and respecting what they have to do to play winning football.

Then he chose what he meant by winning football and came close to showing the emotion he showed on the field. You have to eliminate some negative plays, which would be interceptions, which would be turnovers, which would be turnovers, which we had too many of today, he said. Also giving up plays on defense, making mental mistakes. Things like that make you win. We want to remove that.

Coming into the game, Jalen Milroe, who started once in relief of an injured Young last fall, and former five-star Ty Simpson were projected as the leading candidates for the starting job. Heralded freshmen Eli Holstein and Dylan Lonergan also took snaps as Saban begins the delicate dance of keeping quarterbacks in-house and off the transfer portal.

Milroe’s line from last season: incredible foot speed, questionable accuracy and decision-making ability. The line held on Saturday as Milroe struggled in the first half to move the first team unit down the field. Saban didn’t name a starter Saturday, and Milroe hasn’t said he’s ready to take the gig yet.

“The biggest thing we worked on with the quarterbacks is basically what they need to do to handle the defense,” Saban said. Read ahead, what are they playing? They play in cover 2, they play in cover 7, they play three deep zone? So you have a plan in your mind: this is what I’m reading, this is where I’m going, this is the progress I want to go through, and trust it and believe in it, and don’t start drifting in the pocket.

Stats for the spring game are questionable at best, but Milroe passed for 245 yards on 19 completions in 37 attempts, two interceptions and two touchdowns. He rushed for another 65 yards and a touchdown, but also suffered seven sacks. Simpson completed 12-of-26 attempts for 155 yards, threw one interception and suffered a sack, though dropped passes throughout the game hurt his final numbers. He also showed the wheels, finishing with 62 yards and a game-long 45 yards. Simpson’s Crimson beat Milroe’s White 30-21 in a game worth game.

Lonergan went 8-of-14 for 79 yards and a touchdown as a freshman for the Holsteins 3-of-6 for 61 yards and an interception.

We wanted to get at least three sets for each of those freshmen, Saban said. Dylan moved the team a little better. I am pleased with their progress and believe they both have bright futures.

Saban addressed the fact that both Milroe and Simpson have come up through the ranks in Tuscaloosa rather than coming through a portal. He showed that it gave them a head start but didn’t guarantee them anything. The transfer portal is open until April 30, and with it the opportunity for a new challenger to participate in the competition.

“People who have been in the program obviously have an advantage to some extent because they know the system, they’ve had a lot of reps in the system,” Saban said. “But I think everybody also has to ask themselves, whatever position you play, are you playing winning football in that position? And can you play winning football in that position?

The real revelation of the games might have been Justice Haynes, a five-star running back recruit and true freshman who racked up three touchdowns on 10 carries and four receptions. If Saban and Alabama are going to take some pressure off the quarterback position this year, they’ll need reliable production from the running back position, and after a strong spring, Haynes looks poised to help handle that challenge.

He has a great maturity about him. You wouldn’t know he was a freshman if you didn’t know better, Saban said. Nothing is too big for him to learn. He is not afraid of anything.

The quarterback battle is a microcosm of the entire challenge facing Alabama. After a decade and a half as the sport’s flag bearer and benchmark, Alabama now finds itself in the awkward and alien role of sidekick. The Tide played themselves out of the playoffs with two losses in 2022. The Georgia Bulldogs are now the undisputed alpha-dawg of the games, and they climbed over the Tides’ broken corpse to get there to win two straight national championships. Alabama couldn’t even get marquee treatment on a random Saturday in April; Deion Sanders’ spring football debut at Colorado was carried on ESPN, and Alabama hit ESPN+ live.

No one panics in Tuscaloosa. The top recruiting class of 2023 arrived on campus, so no one is worried just yet. But all for sure aware. An improvement over 2022 is not only necessary, it is expected. The thing is, when you’re on a mountain as high as Alabama, there’s a lot of room to fall.