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How Alabama is dealing with thinned linebacker room during spring practice

63571867_t466o7i5ncby:Blake Byler•about 12 hours•

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Alabama LB Deontae Lawson
Alabama LB Deontae Lawson (Courtesy of UA Athletics)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama’s inside linebacker room is limited and extremely inexperienced entering 2025 spring practice.

The Crimson Tide’s two most experienced players in the room — Deontae Lawson and Justin Jefferson — will be severely limited. Lawson will be out for all of spring still nursing his season-ending leg injury from the Oklahoma game last year, while Jefferson will be no-contact for the entirety of spring.

That leaves six inside linebackers fully available for the spring, and only two returners from last season. Colorado transfer Nikhai Hill-Green is the most experienced player available, followed by returners Cayden Jones and QB Reese. Alabama has three early enrollee freshmen in the room as well in Adbuall Sanders, Duke Johnson and Luke Metz.

All three early enrollees were able to participate in the Crimson Tide’s bowl practices ahead of the ReliaQuest Bowl back in January, which head coach Kalen DeBoer says was quite helpful.

“Really those guys being here for the pre-bowl practices, that was really good,” DeBoer said after Alabama’s first spring practice on Monday. “Abduall, Luke, Duke— all three of those guys really got a feel. It’s a social thing, too, just getting comfortable with some of the relationships. And then they get here, and they’re already kind of off and rolling. In some ways it ain’t gonna be long, and we’re not going to think of all of these early enrollees, not as freshmen any more. We’re going to think of them as almost sophomores.”

The absences of Lawson and Jefferson create some difficulty regarding defensive signal-calling, as those two are the only players in the room with in-helmet communication experience. With neither of them available, DeBoer said the coaches have been less concerned with abiding by the rule of having just one in-helmet communicator on the field at a time.

“Right now, we’re not concerned about how many are on the field, so multiple guys can hear the communication,” DeBoer said. “We’re not under those regulations in practice. It’s good for all of them to get that experience. We’ll go with the veteran guys. Deontae this fall will probably be the primary guy. Justin will be the No. 2. Both of those guys are out, so there’s a lot of stuff being thrown at some new faces on the defense when it comes to communication and the green dot.”

Though injuries are never ideal, the next month-plus of spring will serve as a massive learning opportunity for the myriad of inexperienced players in the Crimson Tide linebacker room.

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