Written by Ell
| 24 September 2008
Alabama worked in full pads for two hours on Wednesday afternoon to get ready for the biggest game of Nick Saban's Alabama career.
Right off the bat on the injury front,
Preston Dial is almost certainly out. The only way this would matter is if two injuries forced
Brad Smelley into action.
Nick Saban noted that despite complaints from Urban Meyer (and others), he notices no difference in the clock rules this year.
Leigh Tiffin drew praise from Saban on the field goal front. However, Saban noted that Tiffin continues to struggle with kickoffs. Tiffin does well in practice, but apparently pops the ball up on kickoffs a bit. That has resulted in our younger players making some mistakes. He noted that our kick coverage needed to improve (no kidding).
Our offensive line drew praise from Saban as he noted that they are stronger and more versatile than in years past. He also pointed out that when the line was healthy and eligible last year, it was excellent. Good point by Saban.
When discussing Georgia, Saban is clearly impressed by the offense:
They will run the ball on you with direct runs and they're very effective doing it. They have a very effective play action pass offense to go with it. It's not going to be a problem to figure out what they do, but to be able to stop it relative to how they execute it is probably the trademark of what Georgia's offense is. Their skill guys have great vertical speed and their quarterback does a great job of getting them the ball.
But bigger than all that, the quarterback gets them in the right plays - they do a lot of "check with me" at the line, they do a lot of freeze plays where he changes so they can handle the blitz. These guys do a really good job on offense.
The receivers had a good day in practice - working mostly on breaking tackles off the line.
No one stepped to the plate to ask Saban about the
comments by Scott Cochrane. This was disappointing. Ian Rappaport, where are you when we need you?
