What we learned from Alabama’s second scrimmage of fall camp

Nick Saban let off a little steam as Alabama kicked things up a gear Saturday. The Crimson Tide held its second of two fall scrimmages as it participated in more of a game-like atmosphere inside of Bryant-Denny Stadium. While the workout was closed to the public, BamaInsider was able to gather a few nuggets from sources in attendance as well as Saban’s post-scrimmage press conference.

Here’s a look at what we learned.

Two weeks ago, Saban sent a message to his star tight end, questioning Jahleel Billingsley’s level of commitment while stating the junior has to “buy into the principles and values of the team and be a good teammate.” Billingsley missed time early during fall camp due to what Saban described as COVID protocols. At that point, the head coach said the tight end would need to work his way back up the depth chart in order to make up for missed time.

While Billingsley has since returned to practice, Saban didn’t provide a glowing progress report when asked about the tight end following Saturday’s scrimmage.

“He knows what he’s supposed to do in practice, he knows what he’s supposed to do,” Saban said. “This is not a democracy. Everybody doesn’t get to do what they want to do, everybody doesn’t get to do what they feel like doing. You’ve gotta buy in and do what you’re supposed to do to be a part of the team and do the things you need to do in practice every day, a sense of urgency, play fast, execute, do your job.”

Earlier this month, Alabama heard from TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson, who spoke to the team about having a mentality of getting to play together rather than having to play together. Saturday, Saban re-emphasized that message when discussing Billingsley.

“It’s a privilege for everybody to go out there and create value for yourself,” Saban said. “And we have scouts at practice every day, so everybody thinks it’s just about playing in the game. It’s not just about playing in the game. They watch practice film, they watch practice every day, aight. You guys on ESPN, you evaluate what happens in the game, aight, but they evaluate what happens every day, what you do every day. So what are you doing to create any value for yourself?

“But you’ve gotta create value for yourself so that your teammates and everybody gets confidence in you, aight, so that you can have their confidence when you go out there and play. That’s up to every player on the team. I don’t make that decision for everybody on the team. I try to get them to do it, I try to point out the importance of them doing it. But it’s up for them to do, it’s up to them to do it. Maybe that’s not my question to answer.”

Billingsley is coming off a breakout sophomore season in which he recorded 18 receptions for 287 yards and three touchdowns. Alabama is looking for the junior to carry over that success this year as he is projected to take over as the Tide’s top option at the position. Whether he is able to develop the maturity to take on that role still remains in question.

Jordan Battle is another player Saban has called out this offseason. During the spring, the head coach brought up the junior’s veteran role on the team, stating that “it’s kind of up to him as to how he wants to accept the role of leadership.” Unlike Billingsley, Battle appears to have risen up to the challenge, taking on a more assertive role on defense this fall.

“He’s doing really well,” Saban said Saturday. “He’s been the leader back there. He makes all the calls. He’s very smart. Him and DeMarco [Hellams] both were playing really, really well. … They’re both smart. They both know the system. They don’t make very many mistakes and Jordan Battle has been a real leader, you know, in the backend. So he’s done everything that we’ve asked and he does it in the way that we like for him to do it, and I’m very pleased with the progress that he’s made.”

Battle started 12 of Alabama’s 13 games last season, finishing third on the team with 66 tackles while registering three stops for a loss and returning an interception 45 yards for a touchdown. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound safety finished fourth on the team with a 81.5 mark from Pro Football Focus while tallying four pass deflections. Battle has been working with the first-team unit at safety this fall and appears poised to retain his starting role this season.

Despite the talent it has in the unit, Alabama has yet to see a complete performance from its offensive line the offseason. Saturday was no different as the Tide had a few key absences. Redshirt senior Kendall Randolph is still nursing a sprained ankle he suffered during last week’s scrimmage, while Saban revealed that the team withheld redshirt junior Emil Ekiyor Jr. from Saturday’s workout.

With the two first-teamers on the sideline, Alabama was able to get a few inexperienced players more reps. While the line improved from last week’s performance where it was dominated by the Tide’s defensive front, Saban is still looking for more stability from the unit moving forward.

“We’ve got work to do,” Saban said following Saturday’s scrimmage. “I think there’s some competition at several positions. There’s some competition at right tackle, there’s some competition at center. … I think we’ve got work to do, especially in that group playing together and getting confidence in the calls and especially in pass protection and so forth. But I’m confident that they’re going to make the kind of progress. I saw a lot of improvement from Week 1 to Week 2.”

All three of Alabama’s scholarship quarterbacks received reps Saturday as each had varying levels of success.

According to sources in attendance, projected starter Bryce Young was 22 of 34 for 195-yards, including a long touchdown pass to John Metchie III and a short touchdown toss to Jase McClellan. Meanwhile, Paul Tyson continued his productive fall, completing 10 of 13 passes for 125 yards, including a long touchdown to Ohio State transfer receiver Jameson Wiliams. Freshman Jalen Milroe also received plenty of reps, completing 3 of 8 passes for 30 yards.

“We’re trying to work all three guys and see how they develop,” Saban said. “I think Bryce did OK today. I think we played better around him today so he had more opportunities to make plays and made some really good plays. I think the offense scored the first two, three, four times they had the ball in game-like situations, which is really good.

“And there’s obviously things we have to clean up. Because we had a couple of guys out from the offensive line, as the scrimmage went on, maybe we didn’t play quite as good as we could have. But we’ve had pretty good balance on offense. We were able to run the ball halfway decent. Got a little bit more consistency in the passing game. That’s not the passer. That’s everybody around him doing the things so that we can develop that confidence and togetherness we need to have a little more consistency in that part of the game.”

Alabama can only hope Will Anderson Jr. causes as many problems for opposing offenses as he has for the Tide’s attack this fall. The sophomore pass-rusher was described as a “problem” by those at Saturday’s scrimmage as he continues to feast on Alabama’s gelling offensive line.

To be fair, Anderson has already done enough to give opposing offensive coordinators nightmares this season. The five-star outside linebacker earned the Shaun Alexander-FWAA National Freshman Player of the Year Award last season, leading the nation’s freshmen with seven sacks while also tallying 52 tackles including 10.5 stops for a loss. He also led the Tide with eight quarterback hurries and forced a fumble.

Based on his camp so far, Anderson figures to be just as disruptive for Alabama this year.

“He’s been really good,” Saban said. “Will is probably the guy that creates more havoc for our defense in terms of his ability to pass rush. He’s a more complete player now and understands the whole scheme, is very diverse as a player in terms of what he can do. He’s had a really good camp, and it’s gonna be important that we continue to develop some other guys off the edge so they can’t just feature, worry about him.”