Tide wraps up spring drills

TUSCALOOSA | It wasn’t a practice day that Nick Saban originally expected to have on the calendar — but the University of Alabama coach said having one additional practice to wrap up the season after A-Day wasn’t so bad.

“We really got a lot out of the day,” Saban said as the Crimson Tide wrapped up its spring work on a chilly Monday afternoon. “We got to watch film [of A-Day] and make a lot of corrections. We got to cover a number of different situations, not based on any one opponent, but some things we will see in the early part of the season. It was pretty much a teaching practice.”

Now, Saban and his staff have to hope that the lessons of the spring will carry over to late July, when practice resumes. Until then, off-the-field demeanor will be just as important as on-the-field performance will be in autumn.

“Our [top] goal was to get every player to improve as we can have more guys play to their potential,” Saban said. “We [wanted to] improve relative to effort, togetherness and responsibility and we made a lot of progress in those areas.

“Our second goal was to make some decisions about what our strengths are and what our needs are for the future.”

Saban said part of that decision-making process would be a staff “ranking” of every player on the Crimson Tide roster.

“We’ll rank them all from Number One down to Number Whatever,” Saban said. “It’s a useful tool for us as a staff.”

The Crimson Tide coach said he used to have his staff at LSU do the same thing.

“One year, we had Corey Webster as the No. 5 wide receiver but the No. 9 athlete overall, so we said ‘that guy needs to be playing somewhere else because he isn’t going to play much at receiver.’”

Webster went on to be an All-SEC cornerback at LSU and now starts at that position for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

Saban said the third goal of the team involved leadership.

“We wanted to build leadership and team chemistry,” he said. “We’ve made some progress in that area.

“It starts with everybody understanding what the expectation is as far as representing this institution and understanding why that is important.

“We’re seeing more players starting to affect other players. We’re seeing that peer pressure can work in some cases and that does have an effect.”

SABAN WAS asked about the status of junior linebacker Prince Hall, who did not participate in the spring due to a suspension.

“It’s undetermined,” Saban said. “It’s kind of a family thing that we’re not going to discuss in public. But behavioral issues are usually based on behavioral issues so … behavior has something to do with it.”

RASHAD JOHNSON, one of two returning team captains on the Crimson Tide squad, said he plans to work just as hard in the off-season indoctrinating new recruits as he worked in the spring.

“We’ve got some young guys coming in with ability,” said Johnson, a senior safety from Sulligent. “My role will be to establish a time when I can tell them what to do because I already understand the defense.

“I’ve already talked to a lot of the recruits. A lot of them have texted me and most of them were here for A-Day. I think they are humble and understand what their role will be, but they are ready to go.”

Johnson said the entire team shared that sense of anticipation.

“We’re going to do something good,” Johnson said. “The way the season ended last year, well, now a lot of guys saw what Coach Saban had been telling us about finishing strong.”

DESPITE A narrow escape from a collision with quarterback John Parker Wilson at last Saturday’s A-Day Game, Saban was, of course, not sporting a no-contact black jersey as the Crimson Tide went through its final practice of the 2008 spring on Monday afternoon.

While Saban had made only a joking reference to black jersey status on Saturday, there were several players who did wrap up the spring in black shirts as the Crimson Tide worked in shorts and shoulder pads. Among those players -- some of whom have been injured all season -- were linebacker Charlie Higgenbotham, defensive end Milton Talbert, wide receiver Nikita Stover, running back Glen Coffee, defensive back Terance Farmer and offensive linemen Brian Motley and Patrick Crump.

Higgenbotham suffered a broken wrist in the A-Day Game, Saban said.

Because the Tide was not in full-contact work, several of those players, including Motley, Crump, Coffee and Higgenbotham, were able to work in some drills.

Defensice back Marquis Johnson, who suffered what Saban called a “possible mild concussion” in the A-Day Game, was back in uniform on Monday. Offensive tackle Charles Hoke was also back, but Saban said that Hoke’s shoulder injury continued to be “a cause of concern, because it is a recurring thing.”

The team practiced in chilly conditions, with tiny hail sprinkling the practice field at one point on Monday.

“We were talking about that at practice,” said safety Rashad Johson. “We looked around and said ‘it’s raining. Freezing rain.’ I never saw that at practice before,”

Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.