How Alabama is Prepping Keelon Russell, New Offensive Line for First SEC Road Start

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said there was a lot of first-game stuff that was "honestly a little disappointing" in the Crimson Tide's 48-10 win over East Carolina in the season opener. Grubb thought his offense would have operated better despite it being the first game.

That offense is about to get thrown into the deep end in Week 2 with the first SEC and road game of the season at Kentucky (1-0._ The Wildcats are coming off a 5-7 and have a first-year head coach in Will Stein, but it is still an SEC road test for No. 13 Alabama (1-0) while breaking in a new, young starting quarterback in Keelon Russell and an entirely new offensive line.

"You gotta push them on the mechanics at practice," Grubb said. "Make it loud at practice. Make it disturbing, a lot of chaos. When you get to the game, it should almost feel easier than what you did at practice. We want to raise the level of creating some urgency and some forced communication through loud practices and things like that because we know the fan base up there is super excited, and I think any time Bama comes to town, people are pretty wired up. So we've got to get the guys ready for those environments."

The Crimson Tide was called for three pre-snap penalties, including two delays of game. There was also an illegal formation penalty on the very first play of scrimmage that was declined by ECU. On top of the delay of game penalties, Alabama also had to call timeout several times as the play clock was winding down. All those things will become more challenging on the road.

"Handling noise now, on the road, we've got to work on that this week," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBeor said. "Just communicating. We always talk communication. You've heard me say it over and over again. And so communicating becomes a little more difficult. We've got to communicate not just with them but also the guys on the outside at times. So just that's where it starts. Being able to build off of what we did this Saturday, I think, we've got some good things out there on film that we can take advantage of and understand where we're at and what we need to improve on, but I like some of the things that we also did from a physicality standpoint.”

Russell flashed his playmaking ability against East Carolina and showed the kind of threat he can be for opposing defenses. Still, the sophomore only has one start under his belt. Alabama also has a new center in Cal Poly transfer Racin Delgatty, who Grubb thought played well against ECU.

" I thought that he built momentum throughout the football game, and he's one of the guys that I thought had juice on the field and played with some passion, some emotion, made some really good late calls, corrected a couple things at the line of scrimmage for us that I thought made a big time difference," Grubb said. "Still working on some of the consistent communication that needs to happen and be even better. But I thought he played well, and honestly, I think he's just going to keep getting better every single week."

The offensive line features three other new starters in sophomore Jackson Lloyd at left tackle, junior William Sanders at left guard and Mississippi State transfer Jayvin James at right tackle. The only returning starter is Michael Caroll, but he slid over from his previous position at tackle to right guard.

Communication will be key as Alabama faces its first road test of the season this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT against the Wildcats.

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