Alabama football wrapped up spring practice last weekend with A-Day, but with a 90-minute workout replacing the traditional A-Day game, Crimson Tide fans will enter the 2025 season unable to frame expectations with the benefit of seeing a live scrimmage. The quarterback position tops their concerns, but this edition of the Tuscaloosa News mailbag is a forum for much more than that. To the readers ...
Ted from Dothan writes : It's no surprise that Ty Simpson has the nod at quarterback coming out of spring, but what do we really know about him? The second half of the 2023 USF game is the only time he's ever really been in the fire. I'm hopeful he'll be a cool customer in the big games, but I feel good about the receiving corps he'll have to work with.
Hey Ted: A new starter at quarterback is about an every-other-year reality, and rarely do they gain enough game experience as backups to make anyone feel comfortable. Simpson, with 50 career pass attempts, has been around the program for four years and enters his second under DeBoer. But as you note, his next high-profile start will be his first. Answers will come quickly: He'll open on the road at FSU and will catch Georgia just four weeks later.
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Shane from Lakeway, Texas, writes : I haven't seen anything this spring to change my mind that Alabama 's rushing attack will once again be marginal. We have talented backs, but there are questions on the offensive line and I just can't see the Crimson Tide for a championship without a solid rushing attack, no matter how good our receivers are. We just haven't managed to run the ball with any consistency since 2020 and I don't think it's coincidence that was the year of our last natty.
Hey Shane: There's a new play-caller in town in Ryan Grubb, and if Alabama can run block well enough to keep pressure off presumptive starting quarterback Ty Simpson with a consistent running game, he'll do it. He'd be crazy not to. Whether it will be at his disposal is another matter. UA's last 1,000-yard rusher: Brian Robinson in 2021.
Barry from Brunswick writes : With all the secrecy around spring games, it's difficult to form an opinion. I do understand why some schools opted out or limited media coverage. For those outside the area, we got no insight into the 2025 Crimson Tide. We know what the coaches wanted us to know. Albeit, spring games were always very vanilla and didn't reveal much. We are left with hope and wishful thinking that this year fares better than last.
Hey Barry: I'm 100% behind any coach who tells a TV network, "Go find another spring game to televise, I don't want mine aired." That should be a coach's prerogative. Some of the reasons we heard college football coaches cite for canning a spring game are long-term concerns that could set a new norm. Others, like Kalen DeBoer's worry about position-specific injuries, aren't.
Derek from Indianapolis writes: My biggest concern isn't the team or coaches, it is the reality of the University becoming elitist and pushing a large portion of their fanbase to the corner. The pushiness of our AD on giving more money, not allowing fans to do certain things if they don't pay more, and the rising cost of everything is making it very difficult to do normal 'fan' things. We drive to games, stay in hotels, buy food, merchandise, tickets and then they still want us to donate more, more, more. I'm not sure how sustainable it is for the have-nots.
Hey Derek: On campuses all over the country, fans vote with their wallets. As the in-person game experience gets pricier, the appeal of watching a game from the couch with a bowl of chips grows larger. At Alabama, conference games still pack Bryant-Denny Stadium, but there's a reason why tickets for nonconference games against lighter competition go as cheap as $15 each online.
Jane from Birmingham writes : I think our defense is going to have to carry the day, at least in the early part of the season. I thought the defense was solid last year, except for the Vanderbilt game, and it ought to be even better this year.
Hey Jane: As much as Alabama will miss Jihaad Campbell at linebacker, I agree that the 2025 defense should be improved. The returning talent and experience should make the Crimson Tide defense one of the very best in the SEC. There's one critical unknown, however: the pass rush. Applying heat on the quarterback wasn't a strength for this defense a year ago, and it must be in 2025, with largely the same personnel on hand.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Mailbag: Alabama football fans sound off on spring practice, A-Day
