Alabama Crimson Tide Football A-Day “Victory” Thread

For the first time since 2016, Alabama entered the spring with a true QB competition on it’s hands, so almost all of the focus this year was on the performances of Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson. And, for whatever it’s worth, Simpson led his White team to 30 points, which is the second-best offensive scoring output in an A-Day in Nick Saban’s tenure (Mac Jones got 31 points as a backup in 2019 when he torched the second team defense.)

Milroe, on the other hand, led the way 245 passing yards and a 35 yard rushing TD, but he also took 7 sacks and threw a couple of bad interceptions. Of course, he was also trying to throw against Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold, who both looked near-impossible for any of the receivers to shake. So take from all of that what you will.

In any case, 51 total points is the most scoring we’ve seen in an A-day game under Saban. So maybe Tommy Rees’s new offense proved it can score a lot of points? Or maybe Kevin Steele’s defense is just bad? That’s the fun of scrimmages, nothing good can happen without it being equally bad for the opposite side of the ball.

With the game a 1-score affair most of the way through, Simpson nailed a deep bomb to Jermaine Burton in the final 5 minutes and freshman RB Justice Haynes capped it off with a short yardage TD run to give the white team a 16-point lead. Milroe did lead one final scoring drive capped off by four straight explosive catches from JUCO WR Malik Benson, but the game was over at that point.

We’ll be along later with more in-depth analysis pieces on both the offense and defense, but for now, here’s some stats for you:

Final score: White 30 - Crimson 21

QBs

Jalen Milroe: 245 passing yards, 1 TD, 2 interceptions, 20 rushing yards, 1 TD

Ty Simpson: 155 passing yards, 1 interception

Dylan Lonergan: 79 passing yards, 1 TD

Eli Holstein: 61 passing yards, 1 interception

RBs

Jase McClellan: 37 yards, 5.3 per carry

Roydell Williams: 23 yards, 5.8 per carry (plus 20 receiving yards)

Justice Haynes: 27 yards, 2.4 yards per carry, two goal line TDs, 40 receiving yards and a TD

Jam Miller: 23 yards, 2.9 per carry

WRs/TEs

Malik Benson: 5 catches for 70 yards and a TD

Kendrick Law: 2 catches for 63 yards

Jermaine Burton: 2 catches for 66 yards

Kobe Prentice: 3 catches for 27 yards

Ja’Corey Brooks: 2 catches for 52 yards

Emmanual Henderson: 2 catches for 32 yards and a TD

Jalen Hale: 3 catches for 27 yards

Miles Ketselman: 3 catches for 36 yards

Amari Niblack: 3 catches for 12 yards

Danny Lewis Jr.: 4 catches for 30 yards.

Defensive standouts

Malachi Moore: 9 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 pass defended

Caleb Downs: 8 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 intercption

Kool-Aid McKinstry: 2 passes defended

Keanue Koht: 5 tackles, 2 sacks

Jake Pope: 10 tackles, 1 sack, 2 passes defended.

Kendrick Blackshire: 8 tackles, 1 sack

Jeremiah Alexander: 1 sack, 1 TFL

Earl Little: 1 amazing diving interception

Dezz Ricks: 4 passes defended