Alabama was part of a confusing situation as the Southeastern Conference Media Days wrapped up last week.
The media selected the Crimson Tide as the favorite in the West Division. Not a surprise for one of the most dominate programs in the nation. The oddity is that Auburn. which was the second choice in the West, was picked to win the conference championship game.
Perhaps its the fact that Alabama has only two starters returning on offense and both of those are linemen.
Senior Jay Coker, who transferred to Tuscaloosa from Florida State, saw limited action a year ago behind starter Blake Sims. Sims led the Crimson Tide to a 12-2 mark a year ago and to a 42-13 win over Missouri in the SEC Championship tilt.
“Jay Coker has done an outstanding job for us,” Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban said during his media days press conference. “I think he’s made a tremendous amount of improvement.”
Coker appeared in seven contests last fall and completed 38-of-59 passes for 403 yards and four scores.
“We just want to see him continue to develop the kind of consistency to make the kind of decisions and judgments to process the information quickly and make quick decisions that allows him to play winning football at his position,” Saban said. “We’re encouraged by all the things that he’s done to this point.”
Junior Derrick Henry is the leading rusher returning after gaining 990 yards with 11 touchdowns in 2014.
Offensive linemen senior Ryan Kelly and sophomore Cam Robinson as the two offensive starters back. Kelly is a candidate for the Dave Rimington Trophy as the nation’s top center.
There are seven defensive starters returning for Alabama led by senior linebacker Reggie Ragland.
“Defensively, we have a lot more experience, a lot more veteran returning players,” Saban said. “We’re going to have a very, very good front seven, and I think it’s important that the secondary does not give up the kind of explosive plays we gave up at the end of the season last year.”
“It’s also important that, if we’re going to be a no-huddle team like we were last year, I think we have to manage the season better with our team, because I think at the end of the season last year, we ran out of gas a little bit,” Saban added. “We played more plays, I think by 170 on defense, which is like a couple, three more games. Our players showed it, so we’re going to have to do a better job of keeping our team where they need to be so that we can finish strong.”
Ragland had 95 tackles last season to earn a spot on the All-SEC First Team.
Kenyan Drake
Senior running back Kenyan Drake, who gained 112 yards last fall, feels the team is ready to compete for more than the SEC title.
“We are definitely hungry,” Drake said. “The last couple years we haven’t finished exactly where we wanted to. We won the SEC Championship, which is definitely the first move, but the next goal is definitely the national championship.”
“We have a lot of players who didn’t have the opportunity to play a lot last year that will have the opportunity to do so this year, especially on the offensive side of the ball,” Drake continued.
Alabama starts the season in Dallas against Wisconsin on Sept. 5. The Crimson Tide will be at home the following week with Middle Tennessee on Sept. 12. They open their SEC slate against Mississippi in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 19.
Quotes and photos courtesy of CollegePressBox.com.