Nick Saban addresses current state of Alabama cornerback competition after scrimmage

Nick Saban knows how important his defensive backs will be to the success of Alabama in 2022.

The Crimson Tide have sent a bevy of impressive ball hawks to the NFL over recent years, and their crop for the upcoming season looks solid. Following his team’s scrimmage, Saban addressed the current state of the Alabama cornerback competition.

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“Kool-Aid [McKinstry] did okay. Terrion Arnold has done a really good job so far in camp. Eli Ricks is still trying to learn the defense so we can go out there and play with confidence. Khyree [Jackson] is out, so he didn’t participate today with a little bit of a groin injury that hopefully won’t keep him out long. So some of the young players are coming along,” stated Saban. “We moved Antonio Kite to corner, which I think is a natural position for him and he’s done a pretty good job there. I’m sure that if you ask them, they’ll all say there’s things that they need to improve on. When I watch the film, I’m sure I’m going to be talking to them about what they need to improve on, as well.

“I think the big thing is keep people cut off, don’t give up big plays — that’s got to be a critical piece for what we have to do at the corner position.”

As you can see, there’s a bevy of talented players dealing with a myriad of different things as the season approaches. Still, the defensive backs for the Crimson Tide should be strong as any in the country for Nick Saban in 2022.

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Furthermore, Alabama is coming off of its seventh College Football Playoff appearance this past season, falling short in the national title game to Georgia. The Crimson Tide once again enter this season with championship aspirations, coming in at No. 1 in the preseason Coaches Poll.

Saban has led Alabama to six national titles in his 15 seasons as coach, so there’s no question he knows the right strategy for building a winning college football team. The coach went deeper into Saturday’s performance while also identifying the most important thing he hopes the Alabama players learn after their first fall scrimmage.

“I think the No. 1 thing you want all players to do after the first scrimmage is say, ‘This is a chance for me to self assess,’” Saban said. “‘Self assess my conditioning level, my ability to sustain, my mental toughness to be able to play the next play and continue to play with the kind of intensity that’s gonna help me play winning football. Am I a responsible, accountable player that everybody can count on to go out there and do my job in an effective way?’

“There were a lot of good things out there on the field today, but we got sloppy at times. Way too many penalties and a lot of undisciplined type penalties whether they were illegal formations, offsides on defense. So all things that were correctable. I thought the kicking game was good. The specialists executed very well. So I’m not disappointed in any way, but I think at this point you would expect to need to practice to improve on a lot of things. After only having eight, nine practices or whatever we’ve had to this point, I’m sort of OK with where we are, but also very much enthused about the challenges we have to try to work to get guys better so that we have more guys that can play winning football.”

Alabama has three weeks to work on the things Saban mentioned from Saturday’s fall scrimmage before kicking off its season on Sept. 3 against Utah State.