Nick Saban, Bryce Young on the development of Alabama's offensive line

While Alabama head coach Nick Saban had his qualms about the way his team practiced last week and fared against FCS opponent Mercer on Saturday, he was largely complimentary of the work his offensive line has done to date. 

Alabama has one of the youngest offenses in the country and lost three offensive lineman to the NFL. Darrian Dalcourt won the battle for starting center, and Chris Owens moved over to right tackle after starting at center at the end of last season when center Landon Dickerson was injured in the SEC Championship Game. 

“I think [Dalcourt and Owens] have done fairly well,” Saban said in a Monday press conference. “We’ve just gotta focus on improvement and development of more depth in the offensive line, which we tried to get a few guys in the game last game to get them some experience. But I think both guys have played well. I think both guys will probably tell you that there’s things that they can do better, and I think both are probably focused on trying to get those things corrected so they can play better.”

First-year starting quarterback Bryce Young is pleased with the work the offensive line has been doing, saying the group meshes with him well.

 “It takes a lot of reps on the field [to perfect the relationship with the center],” Young said Monday. “With whatever rotation we had up front, it was never really any issue chemistry wise. I’m tremendously lucky to have one as good of an o-line as I do, but also one that works really well together, communicates well together. I don’t think people understand how rare that is, and for me to be able to have that up front, that really made the transition of whether we were rotating or shuffling really any position, it made it really seamless for me.”

Offensive line looks better on paper than it has been in real time

The inexperienced line has done a decent job protecting Young at first glance; he has been just sacked twice this season. But in last weekend’s 48-14 win, he seemed to be constantly scrambling. He was sacked less than two minutes into the game. Young is an elite quarterback and can make plays against an FCS team, but continuing that pattern of success will be more difficult as the Tide move into conference play. 

While the passing game is their strength, thus far, the Crimson Tide have run a balanced offense: 70 pass plays and 72 run plays. They are averaging just 152.2 yards per game on the ground, which is 10th in the SEC. Top running back Brian Robinson is averaging 6 yards per carry, but has not had a rush longer than 19 yards. The offensive line will look to open up larger holes for the running backs as the Tide move into their SEC schedule. 

Alabama travels to Florida on Saturday for their second ranked matchup of the season. The game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET, and Alabama is currently a 15.5-point favorite.