Alabama Finding Five Best on Offensive Line

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama's quarterback battle takes most, if not all, of the headlines during fall camp, but the offensive line battles are just as, if not more, important than who the leading signal caller will be.

Get our free mobile app

Alabama has three starters penciled in: Left tackle Jackson Lloyd, center Racin Delgatty, and right guard Michael Carroll. The other two positions, left guard and right tackle, are still up for grabs, with William Sanders and Mal Waldrep Jr. competing at left guard and Javin James competing with Nick Brooks at right tackle.

Following Thursday's scrimmage, head coach Kalen DeBoer mentioned continuity helping Alabama's offensive line after the line struggled early during the Tide's first scrimmage.

"Close" was the word of the day for offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb on Monday, using it to describe the quarterback battle, and again using it to describe Alabama naming a starting five on the offensive line.

"Not yet. We're close. We're close. There's still a couple battles going on, you know, and you still want to give a guy like Will Sanders - you know, he's had a really good couple days, you know, and he hasn't been able to fully be out here," Grubb told reporters on Monday. "They had to reevaluate him for a little bit, so he missed a little bit of time. Got back out there, and I really feel like, you know, he had the last couple days where he got back out there and felt comfortable. It's first time I've seen Will doing that in a while, so I think there's guys like him, and then, you know, Nick [Brooks] and Jayvin [James], and then, you know, those guys have really started to turn that into a real battle.”

Alabama seems to have turned a corner on offense over the last two practices, with the offensive line progressing nicely since the first scrimmage.

"I’d probably locate more with the ones. I thought, again, in the last two days, we’ve really kind of finalized our run game package, got all our gap scheme in, so we’re able to expand some of the things that we didn’t do in the scrimmage and really took advantage of all those," Grubb said.

"And when they’re able to put everything together with the ones, I thought they gelled really, really well today and ran the ball really well. Probably the best we have all camp, honestly. Especially today. It was hot. A couple long drives, starting on the 20, went all the way down the field. So it was really, really good to see. Super encouraged after today.”

Alabama will return to the practice field on Tuesday, August 18, for the 11th practice of fall camp. Alabama's second scrimmage of camp will be this Thursday, August 20. The first game of the 2026 season is scheduled for Saturday, September 5, when Alabama hosts East Carolina.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.