The Alabama football team got back on the practice field this afternoon to begin practice for the Orange Bowl and Oklahoma. Finals wrapped up on campus today, and graduation will be this weekend.

Alabama was inside on a rainy day in Tuscaloosa. Players were in shoulder pads but just wearing basketball shorts, so not full pads. Here are some observations from the open period:

    • Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had one of his legs wrapped up heavily, like we saw with Jalen Hurts earlier this fall. During the early part of the open period he was with head athletic trainer Jeff Allen, but later he was doing quarterback drills.

  • Speaking of Jalen, he appears fine and doesn’t have anything extra on his ankle or legs now.
  • Offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, now the Maryland head coach, was at practice and performing his normal duties. Didn’t see anything out of the ordinary there.
  • Analyst Butch Jones was also at practice. There have been some conflicting reports about whether or not he would join Locksley’s staff at Maryland.
  • How about this: Outside linebacker Chris Allen was at practice and doing some work with his position group. Allen had a torn ACL during fall camp in August. Terrell Lewis continued to practice, though Nick Saban said ahead of the SEC championship that he wasn’t taking contact at that time.
  • The first team left guard today was Lester Cotton. Deonte Brown was dressed out but not working with the ones.
  • Taulia Tagovailoa and a small group of recruits were at practice. Tua & Taulia’s father was also there.
  • Alabama’s early enrollees have not arrived yet. Be on the lookout for them later.
  • Tight end Kedrick James, whom we did not see in Atlanta at the walk-through, was practicing.
  • No sign of former Maryland coach D.J. Durkin during the viewing portion of practice. He’s reported to be around in a “consultant-like” capacity but there’s no report that he’s officially hired.

That’s all for now. Be on the lookout for more notes later this weekend.

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