Alabama junior safety Xavier McKinney played on two very different defensive backfields during his first two seasons with the Crimson Tide.
He is hoping the third secondary can be a lot like the first.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pounder from the Atlanta suburb of Roswell was a wide-eyed freshman in 2017, when Alabama's secondary was headed by safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick and Ronnie Harrison and by cornerbacks Anthony Averett and Levi Wallace. All four of those players moved on after that season, leaving last year as more of a rebuild than a reload.
"Last year was the first time for a lot of us," McKinney said in a recent news conference. "Now we've got a feel for how everybody plays. We've played together now, and we've had that year to experiment.
"We've kind of jelled, and it's coming along."
The Crimson Tide returned to practice Monday evening after taking Sunday off.
Alabama's secondary this season also contains seniors Shyheim Carter, Trevon Diggs and Jared Mayden, as well as sophomores Patrick Surtain and Jose Jobe. Carter started 12 games at the "star" position last season, while Surtain started 12 games at cornerback but has worked at the "star" this preseason.
Diggs started the first six games at cornerback last year before being lost to a season-ending foot injury.
The Crimson Tide reeled off 12 regular-season wins by at least three touchdowns a year ago, becoming the first team in college football history to turn that trick, but they struggled against the stiffer trio of Georgia in the Southeastern Conference championship game, Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl national semifinal and Clemson in the title game of the four-team playoff.
Alabama hoped to rattle Clemson freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence, but Lawrence shredded the Tide for 347 passing yards and three touchdowns in the 44-16 surprise runaway. Justyn Ross had six catches for 153 yards and a score, with that performance giving Crimson Tide defensive backs an offseason's worth of relfection.
"We're going out there to earn our respect," Diggs said Monday in a news conference. "That's as simple as I can put it. We want to show everybody that we can play. It happened, and we've got to learn from our mistakes."
When asked if coach Nick Saban has used the Clemson game as a learning tool, Diggs said, "He doesn't have to use it much. We know what happened."
Diggs believes Jobe is the hardest-hitting of Alabama's defensive backs, while McKinney said that Carter is the smartest of the bunch. Jobe was thrust into the Clemson game when Saivion Smith was injured.
Surtain was the nation's No. 1 cornerback in the 2018 signing class.
"Those two guys got a lot of playing time last year, so I don't consider them young anymore," McKinney said. "I feel like they've been here just as long as I have."
Smith and safety Deionte Thompson elected in January to bypass their senior seasons for the NFL draft. Thompson was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the fifth round, while Smith went undrafted.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.