By Michael Casagrande
sports@timesfreepress.com
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The blows just keep coming for the Alabama secondary.
Now it’s injuries plaguing the young group of defensive backs.
Four went down with relatively mild ailments in Saturday’s scrimmage in Bryant-Denny Stadium, as did running back Mark Ingram, although Nick Saban was quick to say the returning Heisman Trophy winner was just fine after getting the wind knocked out late in the day.
The defensive backs, though, have bigger issues.
“It’s just one thing after another in the secondary in terms of changes in personnel,” Saban said following the scrimmage closed to the public and the media. “It starting in the spring – losing guys, suspending guys, getting guys hurt now – so we can’t get the continuity that we’d like. We’re going to stay positive about it. We like some of the players that we have; we just have to get them on the field and work them, and they have to stay healthy enough to stay on the field.”
Saturday’s injured defensive backs were Dequan Menzie (pulled hamstring), DeMarcus Milliner (twisted ankle), Robert Lester (concussion) and Blake Sims (sprained foot). Menzie, a junior college transfer, is coming off a torn Achilles’ tendon suffered in April that was originally considered a season-ender.
Safety Robbie Green was suspended for the 2010 season due to an unspecified situation with the NCAA, and Rod Woodson recently transferred to North Alabama.
Offensively, the Crimson Tide put up big numbers with Greg McElroy completing 26 of 33 passes for 360 yards in the stats provided from the scrimmage that included 11-on-11, situational, red-zone, goal-line and two-minute drills.
Throwing the ball around was supposed to help the young secondary improve, but injuries aside, Saban didn’t like what he saw from the defense. Immaturity, he said, was a factor.
“I don’t think, defensively as a whole, we played very well at all,” Saban said. “I don’t think we played good gap control up front. We didn’t tackle. We didn’t finish. We didn’t clean up tackles and knock players back. We didn’t have the eye of the tiger that we needed to be a good defensive team, and that’s all 11 of them.”
Players were not available to the media afterward.
More troubling than the breakdowns, Saban said, was his team’s inability to deal with the hot weather after practicing indoors Wednesday and Friday following two-a-days outside Tuesday and Thursday. The energy level was much better indoors.
“And as soon as we come back out here, it’s like, ‘Whoa is me.’ This is really something,” Saban said. “And we’re going to have to play a game, maybe not like this, but something that’s going to be difficult, and we’d like to be able to have the kind of mental toughness that would let us make that an advantage for us, not a disadvantage. I think that’s maturity, too, and I think that’s the biggest thing about this team. We have a lot of young players – especially on defense – and they need to grow up and they need to mature.”
The defense did create two turnovers as B.J. Scott and C.J. Mosley intercepted passes, and the four Tide running backs were held to an average of 3 yards per carry. Ingram had nine carries for 28 yards and a touchdown, followed by Trent Richardson’s 24 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries.
But the three quarterbacks combined to complete 52 of 69 passes (75.4 percent) for 698 yards and nine touchdowns. AJ McCarron went 21-for-26 for 241 yards with two touchdowns and both interceptions, while true freshman Phillip Sims was 5-for-10 for 97 yards and a score.
Julio Jones was the top target with seven catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns, followed by Marquis Maze with six catches for 51 yards and Earl Alexander with five receptions for 87 yards.