The walk-through on Friday before the SEC championship game is usually of limited use, but we’ll give you guys the notes we have from the 15 minutes we were able to see at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Alabama players were in no pads, and we didn’t see any individual drills or team practice during the 15 minutes that was open to the media.
Here are some brief notes from the open period and the last day or so:
- Running back Josh Jacobs tweeted that he had flu-like symptoms earlier today, but he’d be fine:
- Jacobs was out there with the team and dressed for practice, but you could tell he wasn’t feeling great. At one point he jogged off the field and leaned on one of the benches for a moment to gather himself. One of the athletic trainers came over to talk to him.
- Did not see tight end Kedrick James with the tight ends during the open period. He hasn’t played since he had an injury midway through the year, so it’s possible he’s just not on the travel team even though we saw him in practice in Tuscaloosa.
- Analyst Butch Jones took a quick moment to say hello to someone from the Tennessee athletic department that was here. Most SEC schools send a couple staff members to help run this weekend’s event (so this isn’t weird or abnormal).
- One minor note that demonstrates some of the attention to detail you see here: An Alabama staffer paced off the distance between the sideline and the numbers on the field. Players often know where to line up based on their proximity to/from the sideline or numbers, so if the numbers were a different distance than they were used to (remember, the hash marks are in a different place than college), they’d need to know.
That’s all for today. Be back later with a quick story from Atlanta.
