Heading into the 2024 season and the first year under Kalen DeBoer, one of the primary concerns for the Alabama football team was the secondary.
This concern wasn’t due to a lack of talent, but rather a lack of meaningful experience. After Terrion Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry turned pro, new players stepped up.
At least four true freshmen are now playing significant snaps in the secondary on a rotational basis: Zabien Brown, Red Morgan, Jaylen Mbakwe, and Zavier Mincey. While each player is highly talented, their collective lack of experience raised questions going into the season.
Former Alabama safety and current SEC analyst Roman Harper shared his thoughts on the group’s performance through two games during an appearance on The Next Round:
The secondary was the primary concern for most @AlabamaFTBL fans this offseason.@Harp41 gives his thoughts through 2 weeks: pic.twitter.com/YAuSkXLoTg
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) September 12, 2024
“I like it, I like that they’re rotating a lot of guys. If somebody goes down in the secondary where they’ve had injuries in the past couple years, the next guy up we didn’t know how much game experience they had,” Harper said, referencing the fact that the secondary was beaten and not punished numerous times on Saturday due to inaccurate throws. “That’s okay…it just comes with the game territory, a lot of game experience, and the only way to get better at it is to do it.”
Harper went on to say that teams will continue to expose issues in the secondary and that Alabama will have to key on the things that had them getting beat by South Florida on Saturday. While it’s a young group as a whole, there’s a ton of promise.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
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