While much remains unsettled at Bama, Ryan Coleman-Williams gives reasons for Tide fans to smile

 

 

 

 

 

 

TUSCALOOSA — In its first formal appearance before the public since being emasculated by Indiana in the Rose Bowl, Alabama gave no clues that it could be a great football team based on what transpired in Saturday’s A-Day game.

But, after all, it was A-Day, and a spring practice game can often be a mirage and does not determine who wins the national championship, not unless a star player gets hurt.

The running game still needs a lot of work. Crimson Tide fans celebrated when last season’s offensive line either graduated or transferred but the new one doesn’t look much better, at least not yet. In fact, it is alarming that the offense scored all its touchdowns on short passes and couldn’t hammer the ball into the end zone inside the 5-yard line several times Saturday.

“Maybe we’ve still got some work to do on the offensive line,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer conceded afterward. “Their communication, technique and execution is getting better. It’s not something that happens overnight.”

There were some positives among the negatives and when it comes to the Tide’s running game, you try to find them wherever you can.

Former Jackson star E.J. Crowell — a man amongst boys in high school and who is widely viewed as a back in the same class as Derrick Henry or Najee Harris — showed an impressive burst in the pregame Saturday while rolling his knee scooter along on his one good leg. The other is attached to a calf that was injured early in the spring, which denied Crowell his much-hoped-for chance to quickly assert himself in the running game.

DeBoer said it is still too early to determine how much Crowell will contribute as a true freshman once he is fully healed.

“But the athleticism, the speed, he’s got the strength, so you are optimistic,” DeBoer said. “There is a lot of promise. But it’s going to be pedal to the metal for him learning the schemes, getting comfortable with the guys around him. Obviously, there is pass protection that’s highly important for a running back as well.”

The starting quarterback is also unsettled, although redshirt freshman Keelon Russell would probably start ahead of redshirt junior Austin Mack if one had to be named today. Russell, who was unofficially 21-of-33 passing for 240 yards, threw two touchdown passes in the scrimmage and three more in red-zone work and clearly moved the offense better than Mack, who DeBoer said was limited by an unspecified injury.

Mack, however, threw the best pass of the day when he found Ryan Coleman-Williams adjusting on a skinny post for a 36-yard gain. And that put an exclamation point on perhaps the day’s and the spring’s best development — the receiver formerly known as Ryan Williams caught everything that was thrown his way after catching nothing but hell from the fans for treating the football as if it had been coated with the bubonic plague last season.

On Saturday, he caught three passes for 60 yards and was targeted five times. The only two he didn’t catch were an interception and a deflected pass, both in the end zone.

Afterward, the Hollywood smile and the jaunty self-confidence had returned after a long winter.

“Every day is just a joy to come into practice,” the former two-time Mr. Football from Saraland said.

DeBoer said Coleman-Williams is determined to put his sophomore slump behind him.

“Ryan’s consistency was something all spring long that he should be feeling good about but Ryan’s expectations are like all of ours — we expect elite performance,” DeBoer said. “He’s going to just continue to grind. He’s a leader for us because he works as hard as anyone that’s out there. It’s paying off, it’s showing up. There has been a consistency — and I know people always ask about catching the ball and that’s what I am talking about, not making just the easy ones but also making the hard ones.”

Coleman-Williams said he had to find the fun in the game again.

“I got here by having fun playing football, so I’m just continuing to do that,” he said. “Doing the extra. The game is a child’s game and I just want to continue to keep it a child’s game. We literally just play catch sometimes.”

Coleman-Williams said his family’s support and his faith in Jesus sustained him through the gloom of his sophomore season.

“I focused on removing the distractions, putting up the blinders and just focusing in on what’s important to me,” he said. “It hasn’t been too hard.”

Coleman-Williams has also become a leader, perhaps someone who will one day have his hands set in cement at Denny Chimes.

“You don’t just wake up one day and become a leader,” he said. “It’s something that I’ve been working on since my freshman year. Throughout my sophomore year, you know, some things might not have been going my way but I was stepping up and just showing the team that I am here for what’s best for the team. There’s a bunch of different ways that leadership shows. I’m accepting that leadership role and trying to have as much influence on the team in a positive way as possible.”

Coleman-Williams is also heavier (up to 182 pounds) and stronger going into what he hopes will be his best collegiate season yet.

“Now I can lean into a couple more guys,” he said. “I’m feeling my triceps. My shoulder pads are sitting right. You can see my muscles on the big screen. You used to not be able to see that.”

Coleman-Williams is seeing more of the little things that go into a go-to college receiver from new position coach Derrick Nix, who came from the failed Hugh Freeze era at Auburn and is already making a difference at Alabama.

“He helped me break down the little things ’cause obviously there’s little things that I want to clean up,” Coleman-Williams said, “whether that’s route detail, using my hands through contact, just blocking. There’s plenty of things. He does a great job of helping me focus in on those things day in and day out. It’s just continuing to stack and not thinking I’m too big for the little details because that’s what separates good and great.”

Turning good into great is priority No. 1 for the man wearing jersey No. 1 and he wants to take the Tide with him.