Alabama wide receiver Kenny Bell returns to practice after a personal day on Tuesday. (Photo by Brett Hudson)
In his Tuesday press conference (video here), Alabama head coach Nick Saban said the Crimson Tide would not be taking on preparation for the Texas A&M Aggies until Thursday’s practice. But it does look as if some of the Aggies’ schemes are the center of some individual drills in practice.
Here’s the full report.
– As Saban expected, wide receiver Kenny Bell returned to practice after being given a personal day yesterday (full story here). Bell did not appear rusty at all, coaching all three balls thrown at him in the open viewing of practice. You can see video of Bell’s activities, plus some video of the defensive backs, below.
– On Texas A&M’s schemes, yesterday saw the linebackers go through drills that seemed to emulate Texas A&M’s offense (click here to read about it), and today it was the defensive backs. Safety Nick Perry simulated a quarterback in a pistol set and a wide receiver behind him. The drill forced the defensive back in the drill to either pursue the ballcarrier while maintaining contain if the quarterback handed the ball off, or keep contain on an ensuing rollout to the backside by the quarterback if he did not hand the ball off.
As detailed in yesterday’s practice report, many teams do this kind of scheme, this particular one is even used by teams that do not run a no-huddle spread offense exclusively. However, the personnel the Aggies have offensively makes this particular play style deadly and is certainly something the Alabama coaching staff will prepare for, whether these drills were for the Aggies or general improvement.
– Finally, formerly suspended nickelback Geno Smith was practicing as normal today. His involvement in the gameplan or position in terms of playing time is difficult to gather from the limited practice viewing, but he is practicing, at least.
