Biggest Takeaways from Alabama Football Spring Practice Viewing Period: Just a Minute

Welcome to BamaCentral’s “Just a Minute,” a video series featuring Alabama Crimson Tide on SI’s beat writers. Multiple times per week, the writers will group up or film solo to provide their take on a topic concerning the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.

Watch the above video as BamaCentral  writers Katie Windham and Hunter De Siver discuss what they saw from the Crimson Tide’s spring practice media viewing period on Thursday.

Alabama football is three practices into spring camp, and Thursday’s practice provided the first media viewing period of spring. BamaCentral writers got their first look at the 2026 Crimson Tide, and you can read the whole practice report here.

The biggest news of the day was offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb naming redshirt Jackson Lloyd the starting left tackle as Lloyd was running with the first team along with Nick Brooks at left guard, Racin Delgatty at center, Mal Waldrep Jr. at right guard and Michael Carroll at right tackle.

De Siver spent most of the time watching the quarterbacks and wide receivers. One of his biggest takeaways centers around redshirt sophomore receiver Rico Scott. He received a lot of preseason hype and attention last offseason, but his 2025 campaign didn’t end up matching the same level of preseason hype. Now, it appears that Scott could be ready for a bigger role in 2026.

Windham observed the offensive line and running backs. Alabama’s running game struggled a lot last season because of issues from both position groups. Running the ball better is a major point of emphasis for the Crimson Tide this spring, and running backs coach Robert Gillespie definetly appeared to get the memo.

Gillespie was intense with the running backs during Thursday’s practice, making sure things were done the correct way. The energy was high among the running backs, led by returners Daniel Hill, Kevin Riley and AK Dear.

It is obviously still super early in spring camp and months away from the season actually starting. A lot can and will change over the next few months, but these early observations are a good starting point for where the 2026 team is and what it might be.

Check out some of the highlights from Alabama’s practice in the clips below.

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