The Alabama Position Battle I'm Keeping an Eye On
With several starting jobs secured, the left guard battle between Mal Waldrep and Williams Sanders is really important.
Video Transcript
With just over a week until the Alabama football season begins, a lot of the position battles have been determined.
Quarterback, obviously the big news of this past week with Keyen Russell being named after Austin Mack, Kane Wamnick named Luke Metz, the other starter inside linebacker besides Caleb Woodson.
So a lot of the big position battles have been settled, but there's one that I think is going to be really important moving forward that has not yet been determined or at least not publicly announced heading into game week, and that is left guard, and that spots between William Sanders and Mal Waldrop.
William Sanders is a guy who had some rotational minutes for the Crimson Tide.
Last season along the offensive line, kind of was presumed to be a starter coming into this year, but he missed the spring with an injury, which allowed Mal Waldrop some time to play at that left guard spot.
And then, um, Ryan Grubb also revealed William Sanders was dealing with a little bit of injuries in the fall.
And so that's kept him out of practice, but he's a guy that when you hear the coaches talk about him, they keep bringing his name up, even though Mal Waldrop's been getting most of the first team reps. And so one of those two guys is going to be a left guard.
The reason why I think this is so important is that offensive line play as a whole, Alabama's ability to run the ball has been a big focus this offseason, and a lot of that starts with consistency and cohesion.
Over the last two years, they've just had so much rotation along the offensive line, and Ryan Grubb has said he wants to kind of find a 5 and stick with it.
So whoever this left guard's going to be, it's really important that they figure it out.
And, um, which they obviously are going to name someone.
I think maybe it could change throughout the season.
And Grubb said, obviously, it's never locked in stone what it is.
Things can change, not just because of injury, but because of other reasons, whoever the best guy is, whoever's available.
But I think that this left guard position is going to be very key to how well Alabama runs the ball this season.
You're also breaking in a new young quarterbacks, you just want to have that consistency in front of him along the offensive line.
So left guard is the position battle I'm still keeping my eye on with Kicker being a runner-up, but I think based on what they've said about kicker, it sounds like they really like both guys in Connor Tulty and Larkin Quinn.
But let me know in the comments on social media, what do you think?
What are you still keeping an eye on as we head into game week here in Tuscaloosa.
That wraps up today's just a minute.
Thank you so much for watching.
