Alabama Football: 5 things to watch during 2019 A-Day game

5. The subtle differences of the offensive gameplan 

In case you didn’t hear, Alabama has a mostly new coaching staff (you heard). Steve Sarkisian is back in Tuscaloosa after being let go by the Atlanta Falcons after two years as their offensive coordinator. Sarkisian served as Alabama’s OC for one game, a national title loss to Clemson two years ago, before bolting for Atlanta.

Sarkisian takes over Mike Locksley, who is now the head coach at Maryland. Sark has the blueprint for offensive success that Locksley laid down last season; there’s no need for a lot of change for a unit that set numerous school records and averaged the second most points per game in the entire country.

There’s typically not much to be gleaned from the offensive play calling during the A-Day game because Saban makes sure, regardless of the coach calling the plays, that everything is vanilla so as not to reveal too much to onlooking teams scouting the Tide for the upcoming season.

Still, though, there will be tiny glances of new wrinkles that might point to the kind of subtle differences the offense will have with Sarkisian in charge. He comes from a more west coast offensive background, and he has a tremendous track record working with quarterbacks, but it would be foolish to change too much.

The run-pass option was the offense’s bread-and-butter in 2018, with Tua slicing apart defenses with quick hitters to a quartet of talented receivers who are all back for more. That won’t change in 2019, although there could be some different wrinkles mixed in.

One area I’ll be tracking is if Alabama goes with more four wide receiver sets next season, and we could see some of that on Saturday. With Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, Devonta Smith, and Jaylen Waddle, there’s too much talent to leave any of them on the sideline. That’s not to mention several others who have begun making noise like redshirt freshmen Xavier Williams and Slade Bolden, and true freshman John Metchie.

This is probably the most talented group of receivers in school history, and also one of the thinnest group of tight ends. Currently redshirt junior Miller Forristall is the only tight end with much game experience, and there’s such little depth that former heralded outside linebacker Cameron Latu has shifted over to tight end to help during the spring.

That could lead to more sets with a fourth receiver or even fifth receiver on the field instead of a tight end splitting out wide like Irv Smith often did last year. Spring is the time for experiments, so don’t be surprised to see some of that this weekend.