A breezy day in Tuscaloosa, Ala., made the temparatures tolerable for Alabama’s fourth practice of the bye week. Here are the notes and observations.
– Texas A&M preparation has officially begun, as the Crimson Tide has freshmen quarterbacks Parker McLeod and Luke Del Rio wearing No. 2 to simulate Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel. Neither quarterback was noted for their mobility in recruitment coming out of high school, but since Blake Sims is the bona fide backup, he may not be taking practice reps to simulate Manziel’s mobility and instead preparing in case of an injury to AJ McCarron.
– Defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Kirby Smart continues to show no mercy on freshman Reuben Foster. Smart has been keeping his eye on Foster especially tight throughout the fall and has been doing some one-on-one coaching with him at times. It’s not that Foster is behind the expectations, it just looks as if Smart expects a lot of Foster.
– Today was without a doubt a teaching day for the offensive lineman. Instead of hitting and working on blocking schemes as they usually do throughout the week, the coaches were working on footwork with the lineman today. This could be a usual Thursday occurrence, since Thursday practices are normally not open to the media, or it could be a return to the fundamentals that Saban generally uses bye weeks to refine.
