For the second time in as many scrimmages this spring, Nick Saban found himself displeased with his secondary.
Both last week and Friday afternoon, Saban expressed umbrage at how the back end of his defense defended the deep part of the field.
No statistics were revealed, but for a head coach that coaches in the secondary, it was a little personal.
“I wasn’t pleased with the way we played on the back end today,” Saban said. “I thought we missed some 50-50 balls we should have made plays on and they turned out to be not great big plays but plays that could have been big plays for the defense but ended up being big plays for the offense.
“Your ability to make plays on 50-50 balls is really big and we can’t give those up, whether it’s technique or keeping a guy cut off or whatever it might be.”
Injury update
Junior running back Bo Scarbrough was held out of a second-straight scrimmage.
“Bo Scarbrough did not scrimmage even though he’s been doing just about everything in practice now, but not getting hit,” Saban said. “But he looks to me like he’s pretty much full speed.”
His position mate, Damien Harris, who sprained his foot in March and then re-aggravated it last week was also shut down for Friday’s scrimmage.
“Damien Harris sprained his foot in the last scrimmage so we held him out and he will be day to day and we’re not going to take any chances with any of these guys pushing them into A-Day,” Saban said. “But we’ll make that determination later on. Other than that, we had no significant injuries today that I know of.”
Offensive line
Matt Womack and Lester Cotton worked at right tackle and right guard, respectively during the first scrimmage of spring. Friday, Cotton moved to right tackle and Deonte Brown was at right guard.
“Lester played a lot of tackle last year and he’s done a really good job at guard,” Saban said. “Sometimes we do things because we want to see what someone else can do and we want to make sure, like in Lester’s case, that he could play guard or tackle next year.
“I can’t really comment on how he played at tackle today, I thought he did OK. And I can’t really comment on how the right guards did because I didn’t watch the guys like I do when I watch the film, I watch each guy every play to get a much better feel for them. I don’t think there was a major drop off or a noticeable negative in any way I can comment on.”
Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0229.
