Saban seeks improvement

TUSCALOOSA — The numbers were there, and the offense continued to make big plays, but Alabama football coach Nick Saban sounded as if something was missing from the 2 1/2-hour scrimmage Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“We probably didn’t have the consistency — play in, play out — that we probably need to be a good offensive team,” Saban said. “But we had some guys make some big plays.”

Freshman receiver Julio Jones, who has drawn rave reviews from his teammates in camp, continued to stand out. Jones made five catches for 125 yards and a touchdown.

Jones’ teammates in the receiver corps got a workout Saturday. Junior Mike McCoy made a big play, Saban said, with his three catches for 81 yards. B.J. Scott, another freshman, had five catches for 56 yards. Earl Alexander had four receptions for 44 yards.

“So we spread the ball around a little more today,” Saban said. “We were a little more effective throwing it.”

Senior quarterback John Parker Wilson, who has been praised by Saban throughout camp, completed 14-of-25 passes for 255 yards and two touchdowns.

“John Parker was pretty precise with the ball,” Saban said. “He did not have any interceptions and we did not turn it over.”

Backup Greg McElroy was 19-for-38 for 198 yards.

“He had a couple long two-minute situations. That’s probably why he had 38 attempts and John Parker only had 25,” Saban said.

The coach said the battle is for the No. 3 quarterback.

“We continue to work three other quarterbacks to see who emerges as the third and kinda go from there,” Saban said. “Thomas Darrah, Nick Fanuzzi as well as Star (Jackson) have all equally got reps.”

Passing numbers for the other quarterbacks were not available.

Defensively, Saban said he saw improvement, but those big plays were clearly a concern.

“That’s one thing we need to continue to improve on. I don’t think the ones gave up but one big one, but that’s one too many and that’s something we have to continue to work on,” Saban said.

“When you play defense, if you play well in the red area, you play well on third down, you don’t give up big plays, all of a sudden you get pretty hard to score on.”

Prince Hall, suspended for the first three games, led the defense with eight tackles in the scrimmage. Linebacker Eryk Anders had six tackles, two sacks, one tackle for loss and a blocked field goal.

Brandon Deaderick had a big-play afternoon with five tackles, four of them sacks.

Saban liked the improvement some of the touted younger players showed since last week’s scrimmage.

“There was a huge difference in some of the young players this week and last week,” the coach said. “Don’ta Hightower played really well in this scrimmage and made a big improvement. Jerell Harris has improved. The young receivers have improved. (Running back) Mark Ingram has done a good job. ... Marcel Dareus has done some good things.”

Terrance Cody, the 6-5, 365-pound defensive lineman, again had an impact.

“He has to continue to work on his conditioning so he can sustain things,” Saban said. “He’s played in the middle, defensive tackle as well as nose. He has made significant improvement in weight management discipline. He’s in the 365 range. ... I don’t know that he’s going to be able to lose a whole lot more weight than that right now. It’s his conditioning and ability to sustain. But he is a presence in the middle. He can push the pocket. He’s difficult to block. So he’s making a contribution to the defense in the middle — no question about that, especially on run downs.”

The scrimmage again was a pass-heavy workout. Junior running back Glen Coffee had 11 carries for 35 yards. Freshman Mark Ingram had seven attempts for 30 yards. Terry Grant had six rushing attempts for 13 yards.

Saban sounded encouraged by the improvement in Alabama’s short-yardage offense.

“We’ve made pretty significant strides in that situation,” he said. “We had a period where the defense had to get the ball back, the offense had to make a first down to win the game; and the other team gets to go two-minute. And the offense actually made the first down and killed the clock. So, those are certain kinds of situations we’ve worked hard on.”

Saban said the final preseason scrimmage “kind of officially ends fall camp.”

“I think that we certainly have room for improvement and that’s certainly what we’ll focus on,” he said.

Alabama will take two days off before returning to the field on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.