How Did Alabama’s Pass Rush Perform During the First Scrimmage?

Alabama's pass rush did a good job of pressuring quarterbacks last season but struggled to turn pressures into sacks during 2024.

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Alabama's sack leaders were Jihaad Campbell (five sacks), an inside linebacker, and Que Robinson (four sacks), who did not play after Alabama's victory over LSU.

Alabama returns two key starters along the edge in Qua Russaw and LT Overton, who the Tide needs to take the next step in their development to evolve Alabama's pass rush from good to great.

What did head coach Kalen DeBoer see from the Tide's pass rush during the first scrimmage of fall camp?

“I’d say the pass rush — and I think the offense does a good job of doing things to slow down the pass rush, to counter it, because we know there’s some guys that can get home, and you can’t leave them one-on-one," DeBoer said. "So offensively, there's some good schemes and things that are going to keep that in check, to keep our quarterback upright. That’s one of the staples and one of the most important things of our offensive success is being able to have that quarterback not sit back there and be completely comfortable, but we’ve got to keep them upright. We've got to have them out there. And so I think the offensive line probably did a better job when there was one-on-ones. Guys did a good job."

After he praised the offensive line for keeping quarterbacks clean, DeBoer talked about some young pass rushers, in addition to veteran LT Overton, who shined during the first scrimmage.

“I think LT continues to do a job. I'm really excited about Qua and what he can do. Yhonzae, over the course of camp, I think, has been consistent. You didn't really get a chance or see him today, really getting home, but he's around the quarterback. And even in the limited time early on, I felt like James Smith, and so he's an important piece of that, too.

“It’s just guys working together. I think that’s going to be the key for us. We had times where we got close, but we’ve got to continue to just work together and not leave the lanes for the quarterback to run through. I can just see everyone every practice as a defensive line, and linebackers involved in those fits, continue to be disciplined and upholding their job and responsibility to where all of a sudden these huge lanes for a quarterback doesn’t really happen. It happened maybe once or twice, and I would contribute that to some pretty good, instinctual quarterback play as well. So I think the offensive line probably did a little better job, but there's some scheme pieces to that too to take away so many one-on-ones and just make ourselves vulnerable.”

You can watch Kalen DeBoer's full press conference here.

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_.