Final Fall Scrimmage Is In The Books
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics/Kent Gidley |
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - It was the second and final scrimmage of the 2017 fall practice sessions. The University of Alabama football team scrimmaged on Saturday afternoon under a hot Bama sun with temperatures in the mid-90s, with a brief rainstorm, at UA's Bryant-Denny Stadium. With a 20-plus rain delay, the 125-play scrimmage lasted a little over two hours.
Following the Saturday scrimmage, Alabama head football coach Nick Saban said, "I was really kind of encouraged with the progress that we made [Saturday]. I think there was a lot of improvement between scrimmage one and scrimmage two. A lot more guys were able to execute. The key to the drill is, can you ask yourself the question, can I do my job on a consistent basis? Can I play with the kind of effort, kind of toughness and be responsible to know what to do, how to do it, why it's important to do it that way and do it over and over and over and over, regardless of the situation in the game. I think we had more guys who can do that today."
The Crimson Tide is preparing for its 2017 season opener against the third-ranked Florida State Seminoles in Atlanta, Georgia for the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium scheduled for Saturday, September 2nd at 7 p.m. CT on ABC. The Tide is taking today off, and will return to practice on Monday afternoon.
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics/Kent Gidley |
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics/Kent Gidley |
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Nick Saban Press Conference
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| Press HERE for Saban Press Conference |
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Why Bo Scarbrough Is MIA
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| Crimson Tide Running Back Bo Scarbrough Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama - University of Alabama football running back Bo Scarbrough has been missing-in-action recently. The reason, according to Crimson Tide head Coach Nick Saban, is that Scarbrough is dealing with an illness.
Though it's not serious, it was enough to cause the Bama back to miss both the Friday practice session as well as Saturday's scrimmage. Saban said,"Bo has been ill the last two days, pretty sick, talking about ill enough to be in bed. We don't think this is a serious illness or anything like that, but it is something that we didn't think it would be good for him not to be in a position where he would be resting."
Speaking of illness, injury and the like, the head coach did say that there was one potential serious injury during Saturdays scrimmage. Walk-on receiver Donnie Lee suffered some sort of knee injury during the scrimmage. More should be known soon.
Saban also reported on the condition of running back Josh Jacobs. He said that the youngster, suffering with a hamstring injury, was still considered "day-to-day."
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Crimson Tide Soccer Defeats Jacksonville State
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| Photo Credit: UA Athletics |
Tide head soccer coach Wes Hart said, "You know, clearly the goal in each of these games is to get the victory, and we certainly did that tonight, but we wanted to create chances. We talked about the importance of our mentality, to come out and be the aggressor. We set a goal to get a shot off in the first five minutes, and we did that. Our goal was to come out and be the aggressor, be the attacker, and we saw that from our group tonight."
UA junior Chatham DeProspo led the Tide in scoring with two goals, while juniors Kayla Mouton and Emma Welch along with freshman Nicole Lyubenko all added one each. Senior goalkeeper Kat Stratton netted three saves in the contest, with the only Gamecock goal coming on an own goal by the Bama defense.
The 1-0 Crimson Tide returns to play this afternoon hosting the Samford Bulldogs at 7 p.m. CT at the Alabama Soccer Complex.
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Alabama Football
Disappointments Come As Does Victory
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| Photo from Bing.com |
The spoils go to the victor. But sometimes the spoiled explain why they aren't the victors. Of course there are the reporters that also go looking for a little controversy to help stir the pot. And everyone, it seems, likes to see the pot stirred when it comes to University of Alabama football and head coach Nick Saban.
For those who haven't heard, ESPN hosted an interview with former UA quarterbacks Cooper Bateman and Blake Barnett. Both QBs said that they were unhappy with how the head coach was lacking in communication skills back during the 2016 battle for the starting quarterback position at The Capstone. Both have since moved on, with Bateman now playing at Utah and Barnett at Arizona State.
Barnett, as all Bama fans remember, did start the first game of 2016 against the USC Trojans. He was given the opportunity to lead, the chance to solidify what in his words were Saban saying that he "was their guy." Barnett told ESPN, "Once Jalen (Hurts) went in, I was expecting it. But then he went out on the next series, the next series and the next series. I don't know if everything was communicated correctly."
Of course all remember that Hurts went on the lead the Crimson Tide to victory. He also became the Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year in the vaunted Southeastern Conference. So the "complaints" of two former quarterbacks who were good, but not good enough to capture the starting quarterback position, comes across as sour grapes. It is beneath a true competitor to blame anything but superior skills on the failure of the vanquished.
Bateman, too, joined in on the "disappointment" of the lack of communication at The Capstone. He said, "How things were communicated, there was a lack of communication. I knew I didn't want to be involved with that anymore. I knew after that first game that I didn't really want to be a part of it anymore."
ESPN's Chris Low spoke with Coach Saban, asking how he felt about the things that the two former Bama quarterbacks had said.
Saban responded, "We try to give everybody a fair chance, you know, to win the position. I feel like it’s my job to do a good job of making the best choice and decision for our team. And one of the most difficult things is sometimes that’s not what everybody else would like for it to be. You can’t make everybody happy. Everybody wants to play; I have a tremendous amount of respect for those guys as competitors. I tried to do the best job that I could to tell them exactly how we were going to play the quarterbacks and the opportunity that they had. I wish those guys well. They did a great job for us and this program, and I hope they do well wherever they choose to take their career now."
As usual, Saban communicated effectively.
