Crimson Red Sports

Good morning guys, sorry for being MIA this past week, had a flu bug at the 1st of the week and at the end of the week when I got home I was so worn out from getting over it, yesterday was the 1st day I felt back to normal, but it was still a struggle so I went home last night, watched "Casino" on Starz, then crashed.

So anyway wow was the scrimmage a lot more fun than the 1st, Saban called out the leaders on D and they def responded

1st to mention is DEFINITELY Hightower , MAN, he was an absolute monster yesterday, flew around making tackle after tackle, yesterday was a warning by him to the rest of the NCAA and SEC that he's back to the 08 DH form, no doubt that he's THE leader of this team and shows it as a VERY vocal leader all day. The other 2 standout LBs yesterday were CJ and Upshaw. It was easy again yesterday for Courtney because of the hard work of the DTs keeping the middle clogged. Dial got a lot more PT and really looked good, he's a massive body already

2nd the QB battle continues and I'll tell you through 2 scrimmages I'll stand by what I said about Sims, he looked REALLY good again yesterday, made great decisions etc and McCarron continued to struggle a little bit, his mental game still suffers a bit and I know the 4 TDs with 0 ints looked good on the stat line, bu he also got more reps in goal line sets and the TDs he had were not against the 1s, BOTH of Sims TDs were against the better D group and from further out. Sims really took some more steps forward this past week and the 1 int he had was a GREAT play off a tipped pass

Oh my, Saban came out and challenged his group, Dre especially and they really responded, Dre and Menzie were both impressive and Fulton and Milliner did a good job again yesterday as well, and the head turned yesterday was Vinnie Sunseri, he had a couple hits that reminded me of John Lynch (the Tampa Bay Buc Lynch) very impressive and delivers a serious smash on tackles. In the words of Mark Barron "He looked small to me 3 weeks ago, now nobody messes with him, he's a bad white boy with pads on" I'm expecting GREAT things from Vinnie in the future and wouldn't at all be surprised to see him work his way onto the field this year, knowing the D is DEFINITELY NOT a problem for him, just a very impressive fball player so far.

The O had more of a spread feel to it in the passing game yesterday and a lot of WR's had productive numbers. Maze continued to impress, really expecting a HUGE year out of him, Kenny Bell also was probably the best looking WR, a speed demon and great hands and D White had a good day as well. Hanks did a goo job yesterday exposing a lot of zone an catching a lot of passes he's the undisputed leader of the group and also wants a huge year, Sims found Vogler and he ha a few nice catches he's better after the catch as well very athletic, like I said though the most interesting development was the schemes and groupings etc an how the passing game was used, also bread and butter play the HB screen was used a lot and TR was amazing and to that end......

Man TR is so ready to smash some heads, very impressive again yesterday, had a long run similar to 08 Arky where he looked pinned down and squirted through for a good 18 yd gain, and the BEST RB yesterday was Lacy he had improved so much gonna really impress you guys at Aday, Dee and Fowler both are steadily improving as well, great group of RB's

The D was a LOT faster as a whole unit yesterday, starting to gel together and made it tough for the O all day, we're getting there guys really starting to become a great team I feel

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Man I don't know what to say. This is a great report and it sounds so great with the players rising to another level. RTR

Thanks for another great report Toxik.  Good insight on the QBs.  From just looking at the stats last night I though AJ might have pulled ahead a little bit, but it sounds like Sims may be just a little bit ahead at this point.