Alabama’s opener against East Carolina gave Ryan Grubb a clear read on where his offense still has work to do, and the list starts with the little things that can turn into big problems on the road.
After the Crimson Tide’s 48-10 win, the offensive coordinator pointed to what he called “honestly a little disappointing” first-game execution. That was against East Carolina at home. Now Alabama is headed into something far less forgiving: its first SEC game, its first road game, and its first real stress test with a new quarterback and a rebuilt offensive line.
The setting is Kentucky on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT, where No.
13 Alabama will try to keep building with sophomore quarterback Keelon Russell and a line that looks nothing like last year’s group. Kentucky is 1-0 and comes in after a 5-7 season, with first-year head coach Will Stein, but the environment alone makes this a different kind of challenge.
Grubb made it clear the Tide is treating practice like a pressure cooker this week.
"You gotta push them on the mechanics at practice," Grubb said. "Make it loud at practice.
Make it disturbing, a lot of chaos. When you get to the game, it should almost feel easier than what you did at practice.
We want to raise the level of creating some urgency and some forced communication through loud practices and things like that because we know the fan base up there is super excited, and I think any time Bama comes to town, people are pretty wired up. So we've got to get the guys ready for those environments."
That emphasis makes sense after Alabama’s first game came with some sloppiness before the snap. The Tide was flagged three times for pre-snap penalties, including two delays of game.
There was also an illegal formation penalty on the opening play, though East Carolina declined it. Alabama also burned multiple timeouts as the play clock ran down.
Those kinds of issues get louder on the road, and Kalen DeBoer said the Tide has to be sharper when the crowd is working against it.
"Handling noise now, on the road, we've got to work on that this week," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBeor said. "Just communicating.
We always talk communication. You've heard me say it over and over again.
And so communicating becomes a little more difficult. We've got to communicate not just with them but also the guys on the outside at times.
So just that's where it starts. Being able to build off of what we did this Saturday, I think, we've got some good things out there on film that we can take advantage of and understand where we're at and what we need to improve on, but I like some of the things that we also did from a physicality standpoint.”
The challenge is even bigger because Russell is still early in his development as a starter. He showed off his playmaking against East Carolina, and the tools are obvious, but he has only one start under his belt.
Up front, Alabama is also breaking in a center and three other new starters. Cal Poly transfer Racin Delgatty handled the center spot, and Grubb came away encouraged by what he saw.
" I thought that he built momentum throughout the football game, and he's one of the guys that I thought had juice on the field and played with some passion, some emotion, made some really good late calls, corrected a couple things at the line of scrimmage for us that I thought made a big time difference," Grubb said. "Still working on some of the consistent communication that needs to happen and be even better. But I thought he played well, and honestly, I think he's just going to keep getting better every single week."
The rest of the line is just as new. Jackson Lloyd, a sophomore, is at left tackle.
William Sanders, a junior, starts at left guard. Mississippi State transfer Jayvin James is at right tackle.
The lone returning starter is Michael Caroll, who moved from tackle to right guard.
So Alabama’s first road trip of the season is about more than just traveling to Lexington. It’s about seeing whether the Tide can clean up the timing, the communication and the noise issues that showed up in Week 1 before they get magnified in SEC play.
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