Alabama ready to scrimmage

TUSCALOOSA — If younger players on the University of Alabama football team aren’t sure exactly what’s on the line in today’s final scrimmage of training camp, they can ask a veteran.

“It’s very important,” left tackle Andre Smith said. “Getting to see where everybody’s mindset is, as far as the offense and the defense. Make sure everybody knows their keys, things they’re supposed to do, different techniques, things like that.”

The urgency is there, Smith said, because today’s 1:30 p.m. scrimmage at Bryant-Denny Stadium gives a final impression to coaches as they evaluate their talent.

“The ultimate decision is the coach can make an evaluation on who’s gonna play what, and when, and what situations,” Smith said.

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said while Alabama may do live situational work and substitution drills, “this is the last really live scrimmage” before Bama opens against Clemson Aug. 30 in the Georgia Dome.

“We’ll probably make it as much game-like as we can,” Saban said Thursday night. “This will be the last full-scale scrimmage before the season.”

The other scrimmage, played last Saturday at Bryant-Denny, produced mixed results. As Saban noted, what’s good for the offense is bad for the defense, and vice versa. Two key areas that Saban monitors closely — third-down efficiency and red-zone opportunities — were also split.

“The defense did better in the red zone last time, but the offense did better on third down,” Saban said. “So we keep continuing to work on those type of things in practice. I think if you can run the ball well, you can always do better in the red zone, because the field shrinks relative to being able to pass. Third down is a matter of everybody paying attention to detail. In the passing game, you’ve got to be able to pay attention to the blitz, you’ve got to be able to catch it (the ball), you’ve got to have guys who can separate from close coverage. So, all those things we continue to work on. We have made significant progress in those areas. How good, we won’t know until we get to that first game.”

Senior center Antoine Caldwell said he wants players to stay mentally sharp and, that goal of the entire preseason, “finish” the scrimmage strong.

“It was more balanced than a lot of scrimmages you’d regularly see,” Caldwell said. “You want to be more mentally sharp to scrimmage. That’s what the offensive line coach (Joe Pendry) is harping on a lot this week. We look forward to getting that done.”

Caldwell noted the emphasis on the red zone offense, which too often settled for three points instead of seven last season.

“That’s probably the most important thing they’ve harped on, especially coach (Jim) McElwain. He calls certain plays ’personality plays.’ That’s what we do in the red zone,” Caldwell said.

“He talks about the red zone being the competing zone. That’s what we’ve gotta do down there, do a lot better job of that. I’m actually looking forward to that first opportunity at Clemson when we get in the red zone and try to make something happen. I’m looking forward to that.”

Saban will take it in the opener, but he’d like to see it today, too.

“We’re making progress, but we’ve got a little bit of work to do,” Saban said. “We’re not disappointed in where we are. We’re anxious to continue to make the improvements that we need to make to become a good football team.”