It’s going to be a sad day in college football if spring games fold up and vanish on a widespread, permanent basis.
I don’t want to see it happen. Players don’t want to see it happen. Fans don’t want to see it happen. And Tuscaloosa businesses most definitely don’t want to see it happen, because crowds won’t gather for an open practice — not even at Alabama — the way they’ll flock to a full-scale, score-kept scrimmage.
Unfortunately, what’s missing in all that collective sentiment for competitive April spring games are the decision-makers on the topic: coaches. Their only interest is advancing a team’s progress as much as possible on the spring’s 15th and final NCAA-allowed practice, whether it comes in game form or not. And as much as Alabama football’s annual A-Day game is a fine tradition that deserves not to be dumbed down, the Crimson Tide’s continued string of injuries leaves me no choice but to support second-year coach Kalen DeBoer’s decision to scrap an A-Day game in favor of something that will look more like a practice.
The latest of those injuries, to tight ends Josh Cuevas and Marshall Pritchett, leave the Crimson Tide utterly decimated at that position. Are there four healthy bodies that could be deployed two each to Crimson and White teams? Sure, but that doesn’t mean they can all play at a first-string level. And in a live scrimmage, when first-stringers can make fourth-stringers look like just that, it can be disruptive for team progress as a whole. Elsewhere, offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor is only participating in individual drills this spring, leaving DeBoer’s staff with Wilkin Formby on one side and a cast of unproven options on the other. That’s not a recipe for a fair competition in a game-like setting against Alabama‘s best pass rushers.
When legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban was the coach at LSU, he conducted one particular spring game without sufficient available talent at offensive tackle, then watched his edge pass rushers fly unimpeded into the offensive backfield so often they destroyed any chance of his offense taking a step forward on the day. When he later re-told that story in a press conference at Alabama, he stopped short of saying he regretted conducting the game, but he made it clear that the Tigers would’ve benefitted more overall from a standard practice.
DeBoer’s primary concern, as it should be, is for the program to take as big a step forward next Saturday as possible. Under normal circumstances, that means a full A-Day experience for players. But 2025 circumstances aren’t normal.
Maybe this spring, the scoreboard shouldn’t be lit.
Maybe this spring, the Dixie Howell Award, given to the A-Day MVP, needs to skip a year.
DeBoer was hired to win football games, period. And by his own acknowledgement, he didn’t win enough of them in 2024. Embracing tradition is important, too, but if the coach who will earn more than $10 million this season believes his team would be better served by an A-Day that looks more like a practice than a game, he’s obligated to conduct it exactly how he sees fit.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
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