What Nick Saban Saw From Quarterbacks in Second Scrimmage
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After Alabama's first spring scrimmage, Nick Saban's reaction to the offense was overwhelmingly positive. It wasn't quite the same after Saturday's scrimmage inside Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Both Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson are improving, but both made plays they wished they could've had back.
"I think that they’re developing some confidence in the offense in what they’re supposed to read and what they’re supposed to do," Saban said after the scrimmage. "I thought we were a little up and down today. I think we made some really good plays, but I also thought we made some maybe mistakes that we need to eliminate.”
Saban called scrimmages a bit of a double-edged sword. If something goes well for the offense, that means it probably wasn't great for the defense and vice versa. For example, in scrimmage No. 1, the offense limited turnovers, but Saturday, Saban said it committed four of five. Which is a good thing for the defense, but shows that ball security is an issue for the offense.
(It should be noted that several defensive players were missing from the first scrimmage due to injury or personal reasons, which likely played a factor in the no turnovers.)
"We’re preaching ball security to the offense, so if we gave up the ball, it’s good for the defense, bad for the offense," Saban said. "So ball security becomes an issue that we have to focus on, whether we’re throwing it, whether we’re catching it, whether we’re running with it, whatever it is. We’ve just gotta keep working on it. We do turnover drills every day, so we’ll just keep working at it."
The head coach specifically noted ball security as an area of improvement for Milroe, who had six total turnovers (three fumbles and three interceptions) in limited playing time last season.
When asked about Simpson's running abilities when the pocket breaks down, Saban said Milroe stands out in that area because of his speed, but that Simpson is a good runner of his own.
"Ty does it really well," Saban said. "He’s a good athlete. He can run. He ran the ball a lot in high school. He’s tough, and he makes pretty good decisions when he’s running the ball."
One of the main things, outside of holding the ball securely with two hands, that Saban wants the quarterbacks to focus on when running the ball is situational awareness. During Saturday's scrimmage, the team was running the two-minute drill, and Saban said the players need to sometimes learn when to just get rid of the ball and move on to the next play. Sometimes, trying to run, especially during the two-minute offense, trying to make a play with their legs ends up just burning unnecessary time off the clock.
For all the discreetness around the quarterback competition, some things will come to the light next Saturday, April 22 at 3 p.m. when the Crimson Tide's A-Day scrimmage will be open to the fans and media, who can then make their own judgements about who should be the Alabama starter under center this fall.
"I think the most important thing is everybody assesses where they were a week ago, how much improvement did they make, what do they need to do to continue to improve, and these two practices before we head to A-Day this weekend, which I’m sure our players are all excited about that game and the energy and enthusiasm our fans show for that game is always something that excites the players and excites me," Saban said. "We wanna have a great turnout for that.
See also:
Who's Taking Leadership on Offense for Alabama Football?
What Nick Saban Said After Alabama's Second Spring Scrimmage
