Nick Saban addresses the vital importance of spring football at Alabama

Last year, Alabama had a younger team, and Nick Saban knew that coming into spring practice. After some NFL Draft departures, he’s working to get this year’s roster ready for the fall, as well — and that’s why spring practice is so vital.

The Crimson Tide bring back a good amount of pieces from last year’s group that made it to the national title game. However, they lost some star power as wide receiver Jameson Williams, offensive lineman Evan Neal and other key playmakers declared for the NFL Draft.

But given the players Alabama is bringing back, Saban said spring ball is a chance to continue their development to potentially make another College Football Playoff run.

“I think spring practice is always important because you’re always trying to develop the young players on your team,” Saban told reporters after Alabama’s Pro Day. “Our circumstance here doesn’t seem to ever change. We’d have had nine starters back on offense and nine starters back on defense. Last year was kind of a young, developing team. You have six guys go out for the draft, so now you’ve got five starters back and seven on defense.

“So you’re still trying to develop young players who need to be able to step up and maybe play a little earlier than maybe you anticipated they would because of those circumstances. I think that’s always the case, and I think that’s always something that’s really, really important to us especially in the spring, especially with young players. I think it’s even more important that they can self-assess so that they understand what do they need to do after spring, over the summer and in fall camp to even take the next step in their development so that they have a better chance to be successful in the fall.”

Alabama brings back plenty of star power in 2022

Plenty of key pieces are coming back for Alabama, notably quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young on offense. But on defense, the Crimson Tide bring back plenty of fire power. Will Anderson, Henry To’oTo’o and Jaylen Moody are among the big names to return on that side of the ball.

Last year, Saban led a younger Alabama team off a championship hangover to another championship game and a No. 1 ranking to end the year. That could bode well for this season with the amount of experience his team is bringing back.