Nick Saban reveals who has emerged as leaders for Alabama this spring

With Alabama now having gone through three spring practices, Nick Saban is beginning to get a clearer picture of who the team leaders are. The Crimson Tide coach said not much has changed in that regard from last season with several key contributors back.

In a press conference following Alabama’s third spring practice, Saban noted several of the players who have stood out to him in the early going.

“We have four guys back from our leadership group last year and we’ve added one,” the coach said. “Henry (To’oTo’o)’s been a really, really good leader, Jordan Battle has been a really good leader. We added DJ Dale to the leadership group because he emerged as a leader in the offseason program. Bryce (Young) has been a really good leader and affected a lot of people in a positive way and has developed more and more of a presence as his confidence has grown to be more assertive and to get other players to do the things they need to do to be successful.”

To’oTo’o finished as Alabama’s leading tackler this past season with 111 total tackles. Battle was tied for first on the team in interceptions. But there is one key member of the defense that Saban neglected to mention: junior linebacker Will Anderson.

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Anderson is coming off of a sophomore season in which he recorded 101 tackles (31 for loss) and an FBS-leading 17.5 sacks. Anderson said he wants to do a better job of not being afraid to speak up this season, and Saban thinks the team has done a good job of listening so far.

“It’s not just how many leaders and who they are. It’s how do the other players respond to leadership?” Saban said. “You can have really good leaders on your team, but if players don’t respond to it because they don’t respect the importance of doing things right, then that’s an issue too. So far, this group has responded fairly well.”

While Anderson, To’oTo’o, Battle and Dale will focus on leading the defense, Young will take the reigns of the offense. The 6-foot, 194-pound Young became the first Alabama quarterback to ever win the Heisman Trophy this past season after throwing for 4,872 yards, 47 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. He will have to do without his top two receivers from last season, however, as both Jameson Williams and John Metchie III have moved on to the NFL.

Alabama will get the chance to show off what it has been working on to Nick Saban and the rest of the Crimson Tide faithful in its annual spring game set for April 16. After that, the Crimson Tide won’t be back in action until their season opener on Sept. 3 against Utah State.