Saban gets ahead of QB question, raises other Alabama scrimmage concerns

Nearly four months have passed since Alabama’s spring game scrimmage when its starting quarterback contenders battled it out in Bryant-Denny Stadium. There was no decisive winner then. And when the Tide returned for its first fall exhibition on Saturday —  now with a third thrower in the mix — it was more of the same.

Head coach Nick Saban kept his initial assessment close to the vest.

“Look, everybody got reps today at quarterback. I’m not a stats guy, so we’re not interested in what their statistics were,” Saban told the media. “We are going to be interested when we watch the film in how did they execute. Did they throw the ball in the right place at the right time? Were they accurate in what they did? Did they take care of the ball so that we have a chance to play winning football at that position? And that’s what we’ll be evaluating. So if you ask me a question about it, that’s the answer I’m gonna give you.”

No reporter took the bait by asking another question about the QBs, letting Tyler Buchner, Ty Simpson and Jalen Milroe’s candidacies bake in the oven for a little while longer. Scrimmage stats aren’t typically provided to the media and the game was closed. But Saban did touch on the other elements of the offense and noted some areas of concern, mainly on the offensive line and wide receiver groups.

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The Crimson Tide needs more depth in the trenches as it works out whoever will be blocking for the quarterback. Saban said UA has about six or seven offensive linemen that currently are capable of “playing winning football.” The reciever room also had some drops, an issue that persisted in 2022.

“I think that we had some guys make some really good catches, I think quarterbacks made some really good throws at times, but what is the level of consistency? I mean, if you’re a receiver, why do they call your receiver supposed to be able to catch the ball, right? I mean, that’s what receiver means. So you should never drop a ball. And you know, that’s something that we got to stay focused on.

“Are you willing to do what is required to win? What does that mean? That means every player on the team has got to work hard to be able to become not the player they are right now, but the player they need to be. The player they could be. The player they could improve to be. And this is a great opportunity, in these circumstances, for us to be able to preserve some difficult things to overcome adversity. I don’t think you could be a great competitor if you can’t overcome adversity cause adversity is coming some kind of way. You should enhance the challenge of what’s coming.”

No clear timeline was given for Alabama’s quarterback decision, but the fact that Saban didn’t mention turnovers was a positive sign. UA wideouts said earlier this week that the unit is trying to maintain “tempo” while rotating reps with each quarterback.

Saban said through fall camp that the starting battle can linger past the Tide’s first game on Sept. 2 against Middle Tennessee State.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at NAlvarez@al.com.