Jumbo Package: Daniel Hill’s improvement and work ethic could define Alabama’s offense
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First up, we have our weekly press conferences from the coordinators.
Rico, one of the things that probably not on the stat sheet, I was excited to see how he blocked. And it’s probably off the screen a little bit a few times, but there’s a couple of touchdown runs where he’s finishing a guy in the back of the end zone. Rico’s a physical player, and so when I see him show up like that, I know his confidence is really high. When I see him playing like that without the football in his hand, I know he’s really, really confident. And we feed off that; just seeing his enthusiasm for a game, like when it starts, it fires me up. Cuz he’s a pretty level-headed guy, but when he lets it rip, he’s an excitable player. And so just to see him get that big play down the sideline and an opportunity to catch a touchdown, I know all the hard work that Rico has put in. And his belief to stay and be here with us with the Tide is just exciting to see. ‘Cause I think I was talking to a couple of recruits, honestly, last night. And I was just telling them, what a great place to come play football. But if you’re trying to think about being a high school player, look at all the players that were recruited to this program that were high school players that were on the field playing at Kentucky. Of course, you’re gonna have transfer portal players, and that’s part of the whole system now. But you look at the number of guys that were recruited to play at Alabama as high school players, are out there in starting roles, and it was pretty significant. So he’s just one of them that really stands out that way, too. His stick-to-it-tiveness and earning that role, again, much like Daniel Hill, a guy that hasn’t thought of it as I’m waiting my turn as much as I’m just gonna keep working as hard as I can to go get more reps.
A decent bit of the conversation from Grubb was about Keelon Russell and what the young QB needs to correct. However, I liked this answer he had about Rico Scott and his attitude the last few years. Grubb first emphasizes Scott’s run blocking even before his ability as a pass catcher, and then talks about the toughness and the way he’s worked his way into playing time. He also had a long answer before this saying some similar things about Daniel Hill, and that really made it sound like the staff was very much willing to drop Hill below Trae’Shawn Brown or EJ Crowell this season, but Hill has just made it hard to take snaps away from him.
If the identity of the offense starts to center around those players, then I think that bodes well for the Tide.
“I think Caleb Woodson is leading the charge in [effort],” Wommack said. “I think he’s really setting the standard for how hard you have to play the game, and I’m very impressed by him and just how physical he’s playing, how hard he is playing, and when you have 11 guys that play like that, you’re going to cover a number of things up, and so I thought he did a really good job.”
Along with fellow inside linebacker Luke Metz, Woodson was also named the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week following his performance against Kentucky. Woodson tallied 12 tackles, including two for loss, and two sacks this past Saturday in Lexington.
The tackle count is a new career high for Woodson, who came to Alabama after three years at Virginia Tech. He was everywhere on Kroger Field, and Wommack shared one of his favorite moments from Woodson.
“There was one play that bounced out, kind of rolled off the table and bounced outside there, and because of his effort, he went and cleaned it up,” Wommack said. “And had he not been there, that could have been an explosive run play, which we did not give one up on the day. So, really, really impressed by him and appreciate his effort.”
We’ve been talking about this since Saturday, but the combination of Caleb Woodson and Luke Metz seems to have the potential to wind up being the most impactful linebacker duo the Tide has fielded since 2017. They just look different. Bigger body types than we’ve seen in a while, but still with speed and explosiveness.
Finally, we did get a new injury update from Coach DeBoer:
Said DeBoer of guard Michael Carroll: “We’ll continue to work with him. I feel confident that we’ll get there, and we’ll just kind of see how the week goes. But I think he’s heading in a good direction, and we hope to get him back.
Carroll is recovering from a concussion, sources told Bama247. Mal Waldrep and William Sanders started at guard against Kentucky.
Said DeBoer on running back AK Dear: “AK [is] making good progress. I think he was getting closer towards the end of the week. Again, reset, we’ll see where he’s at today. And then tomorrow, get out there hopefully more on the practice field. He was doing some light practice, doing some things with us last week already. So, I think he expects — his mindset’s been awesome with what he had injury-wise, too. Just the recovery and the response, his mindset’s helped him come back even quicker.”
Dear fractured his leg in mid-August and was listed as questionable on last week’s availability report until being ruled out Friday.
And said DeBoer on wide receiver Noah Rogers: “Noah, just really — we took him on the trip; he didn’t play. We weren’t expecting him to play, but that kind of gives an indication, I think, of how close we are. And again, we’ll see how the week of practice goes. But I would say in the next week or two, you can see him out there helping us out. So again, not 100% sure, but getting there.”
DeBoer is the master of not giving us any actionable info, but to me, this sounds like Carroll will most likely be back next week, but Dear and Rogers will not be. I’m honestly not sure where AK Dear fits into this running back room at this point, as Brown and Crowell have both put some impressive reps on the field already, and I don’t really want to see either one getting less touches.
At the center of Alabama’s 150-rushing-yard second half outburst against Kentucky were the team’s tight ends.
Three of them, to be specific.
Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has heavily utilized 13 personnel (one running back, three tight ends, one wide receiver) to great success through the Crimson Tide’s first two games.
“I think there’s a physical piece that they’ve added to the edge of the offense, you know, outside the line or that C and D gap,” Grubb said. “They take a lot of pride in what’s going on out there.”
Josh Ford, a transfer from Oklahoma State, was brought in specifically to bolster the room’s run blocking, and has played as significant a role as anybody in the early success.
“You just see it in some of those you know fourth quarter moments or when we run the football in the second half, where we’re just leaning on them,” Grubb said. “You see Josh Ford knocking out a C-gap and collapsing two people, and you know we’re celebrating that on the sideline, and guys are seeing it.”
Ford, Danny Lewis Jr., Jay Lindsey, and Kaleb Edwards have been the four players primarily in the rotation for those heavy sets, while Marshall Pritchett has been the most-targeted tight end in the passing game. The unit has admittedly been targeted less than expected by Keelon Russell, but the impact it has had on the offense has been undeniable.
I do love some good multi-tight end offensive sets. Always have, always will. Now I just want to see Alabama with a fullback again, and my life will be complete.
Alabama is 2-0 to the Over, but last week’s 45-17 scoreline masks the fact the Tide scored touchdowns on drives of 21, 34, and 43 yards in addition to a pick-six in the first quarter.
Keelon Russell threw for just 188 yards and the offense was good for 5.4 yards per play (that would rank 64th in the country this season). This is not a proven and trustworthy offense… at least not yet.
Meanwhile, the defense held the Wildcats to 3.3 yards per play and 1-for-14 on third down. These are the circumstances that have me expecting a brutal day for this Seminoles offense (65th in yards per game) now that they’ll be away from home for the first time this season.
These teams are also among the slowest in the country, with FSU 86th in seconds per play and Alabama 102nd out of 138 FBS programs, and if Kalen DaBoer wants to keep the ball on the ground to avoid any more interceptions from its young quarterback, that will only help the Under’s cause.
This article is mostly just talking about betting odds, but I thought that last paragraph was interesting, showing that Alabama’s offense is one of the slowest in the country. That fits with how often it felt like the Tide was really running things down to the final seconds of the clock. A year ago, we all kind of took that in stride as QB Ty Simpson was a pre-snap guru that was constantly changing plays at the line of scrimmage, but it’s interesting that its following Alabama into 2026 despite the Tide rolling with a much younger QB, and one that’s much more of an RPO player (which is supposed to be making decisions post-snap, rather than pre-snap.
Wanna read a little misery this week to warm the cockles of your heart? Go check out the Florida State SBN site, Tomahawk Nation (we have a Q&A with them coming later this week).
2 — That is the number of sacks from Florida State’s defensive line through two games this season. Maybe a better number could have been zero: the number of sacks the entire FSU defense had against SMU on Monday.
No matter what number is chosen, FSU’s defensive line has been one of the most disappointing units on the team, which is saying a lot because almost all of the position groups have been underwhelming.
Starting with the stars of the defense, neither Mandrell Desir nor Daniel Lyons has made an impact in the early part of the season. Lyons began the year without recording a stat against New Mexico State, only for Desir not to end up on the stat sheet versus SMU, as he did not make a tackle. The second year in Tony White’s system was supposed to help both players take another step by moving all across the defensive front, but that hasn’t come to fruition at the start of the year.
Things are looking mighty dysfunctional for the Noles.
Lastly, we haven’t heard much on the recruiting front lately with the start of the season, but looks like the Tide is going after a current Wisconsin commit at safety.
Don’t know too much about him yet, but Roberson is a guy to keep an eye on.
Roll Tide!
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