Joe Medley: A-Day best forgotten
For a time Saturday, it felt like Alabama’s A-Day game might come down to penalty kicks.
And if it did, Adam Griffith would miss.
Break out the vuvuzelas and sing “Oley!” It was like that.
A scoreless game through three quarters turned into a game with points, finally. Jalen Hurts, the second quarterback to play for the White team --- which featured the second team offense --- threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Derek Kief.
Fittingly, Crimson starter Cooper Bateman led his team down the field in response, only to throw an interception in the end zone.
Final: White 7, Crimson 3 and worries many for the announced crowd of 76,212 that attended this mess in Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.
The good news? It’s not August.
“I don’t think any conclusions can be drawn about anything that happened today,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said.
This marks a good spot to remind everybody how awful Blake Sims looked in his 2014 A-Day start, only to set records the following season. Alabama won an SEC title and entered the inaugural College Football Playoff with the No. 1 seed.
Jake Coker didn’t look so hot this time a year ago, but he came back for Saturday’s halftime battle of former Alabama quarterbacks as a national champion. He also beat Sims and John Parker Wilson, ending his turn with a 65-yard heave.
So give Saturday starter Cooper Bateman benefit of the doubt. A horrible day for him and Alabama’s first-team offense meant a good day for the defense.
In particular, Batemen’s miserable day owed partly to his facing the first-team defense. Those would be returnees from the bunch that changed the Heisman Trophy race to Derrick Henry’s favor last season.
They spent a lot of time in the backfield Saturday. Bateman spent a lot of time rolling away from the rush, throwing into the grass or out of bounds or dumping off.
Bateman went 9-for-24 for 86 yards with an interception and two sacks.
So it went for the apparent leading quarterback. So it went for Alabama’s offensive players Saturday.
With all standard caveats considered, A-Day felt like a soccer match. A friendly, at that.
Top tailback Bo Scarbrough had a Leonard Fournette kind of day against Alabama’s first-team defense … 20 yards on nine carries.
Calvin Ridley dropped a potential catch-and-run touchdown pass on Crimson’s final possession.
Griffith showed early-season form, missing four field goals before making a 21-yarder.
Hurts showed flashes. So did second-team running back Damien Harris, who rushed for 114 yards, but they did it against the twos and threes of Alabama’s defense.
Saban admitted the second-team offense is better than the second-team defense.
Speaking of Saban, things seemed so off Saturday that he showed up for a Crimson-and-White game in a royal blue jacket. He accentuated with a striped crimson tie, but folks of Alabama stripe don’t like blue.
It only seemed appropriate that Saban got a fourth-quarter sack. In a game where quarterbacks wore black non-contact jerseys and were down by touch, Blake Barnett scrambled right into his coach, who kept his customary A-Day position behind the offense.
Johnny Dwight got credit for the sack, but Saban took credit for his presence.
“More than on occasion, when there’s a scramble, everybody seems to get attracted to me,” he said. “Sometimes, when there’s an interception, there seems to be an unusual attraction for players to converge on me.
“I think it’s intentional to some degree, but as long as I don’t get hurt, I don’t care. I usually can get out of the way, but I didn’t do a very good job of that today.”
Why should he? It was that kind of A-Day.
Joe Medley is the sports columnist for the Anniston Star. You can write him at jmedley@annistonstar.com. On Twitter, @jmedley_star.
This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Joe Medley: A-Day best forgotten."