Snap count analysis from the first five games

With Alabama enjoying a weekend off, this is a great time to take a look at the snap counts to see who has earned the coaching staff’s trust. Thankfully, user Chum26 invested a whole bunch of his time to painstakingly compile the data for us.

First, a primer:

• To the left you have total snap counts per game. He then breaks down the percentage of first-team snaps played in column AJ.
• Offensive personnel groupings are expressed as two digit numbers, with the first digit representing the number of RBs and the second digit the number of TEs. “0” personnel would be better expressed as “00” and it means there are five WRs on the field.
• On defense, Alabama runs a 3-4 despite the fact that you often see four men with their hands in the dirt, the weak side end man designated as a LB. “Nickel” removes one LB in favor of a DB, and “Dime” installs a sixth DB, leaving just one standing LB. He also observed “rabbit” packages in both sets, which indicates lighter DL personnel on passing downs.

On to it.

Offense

Notables:

• The starting five on the OL is well established, though Deonte Brown has an opportunity to shake it up. Chris Owens missed some time due to injury but still logged over 80% of the first team reps, and the other four stalwarts have logged north of 87%. Outside the top five, only Matt Womack has logged significant reps.
• Jaylen Waddle has only been on the field for 36.5% of the first team snaps. This is mainly due to the personnel groupings, which as you can see have featured at least one TE over 90% of the time. We did see “red” aka “don’t call me 10 personnel around Saban” a shade more against Ole Miss. Expect to see more of it in the bigger games in effort to get someone’s #3 or #4 cover guy matched up on a member of the fab four.
• Speaking of TEs, Miller Forristall has outsnapped Major Tennison by more than a two-to-one margin.
• Devonta Smith is billed by most as the #3 WR, but he has more reps than Henry Ruggs III or Jerry Jeudy.
• Najee Harris has been on the field for roughly 55% of the first team reps and Brian Robinson 39%. Two-back sets have been almost nonexistent, and as noted earlier in the week there is basically no depth at this stage.

Defense

Notables:

• The secondary stalwarts are clearly Xavier McKinney, Patrick Surtain II, Trevon Diggs, and Jared Mayden as each has logged a full 99% of first team snaps. Shyheim Carter has led the battle for the fifth slot at 58%, but Josh Jobe isn’t far behind with 38% and freshman Jordan Battle (30%) has been making his presence felt recently, outsnapping Jobe in three of the last four.
• Shane Lee plays pretty much all the time at Mike LB, which as we saw Saturday isn’t ideal in dime against a speedy QB. No other ILB outside of Christian Harris has made a notable impact. At OLB, we have a solid three man rotation of Anfernee Jennings, Terrell Lewis, and Christopher Allen.
• The DL has been a five man rotation with Raewkon Davis logging the most snaps. We need him to step up his game along with the others.

Great stuff, and thanks again to Jon for putting it together. Anything that surprises you?