Alabama Football: BOL Staff bold predictions for 2024 A-Day Game
Alabama will close out its spring football season tomorrow with the 2024 A-Day Game. Before the Crimson Tide makes the short trip to Bryant-Denny Stadium at 3 p.m. CT (on ESPN), the BamaOnLine Staff shares some bold predictions for Alabama’s spring game.
Charlie Potter
Multiple safeties will record interceptions
Like the captains being immortalized at Denny Chimes or the losing team having to eat beans for dinner, seeing multiple interceptions is almost an A-Day tradition. Last year, there were four picks in the 15th and final spring practice, and two of them were recorded by safeties. While Kristian Story isn’t around to extend his streak to three straight years with an interception, the safety room is more experienced than its cornerback counterparts. With Malachi Moore and Keon Sabb manning the back end and guys like DeVonta Smith and Red Morgan at Husky – not to mention the reserves – I like the tradition to continue in 2024.
Travis Reier
Dylan Lonergan will throw for multiple touchdown passes
Setting the BOL Round Table ablaze in the process. With starter Jalen Milroe and top backup Ty Simpson back and Austin Mack hitching a ride with Kalen DeBoer from Seattle, Lonergan has become somewhat of the forgotten man in a talented room of signal callers. He’ll send a reminder on Saturday that he’s anything but a fourth option.
Clint Lamb
Sophomore trio of pass rushers combine for at least five sacks
By now, everyone knows Alabama’s offensive line is hurting as far as numbers. Jaeden Roberts is likely out, and Miles McVay could be, too. Plus, Parker Brailsford is not practicing. The tackle numbers were already thin with Kadyn Proctor not expected to arrive until the summer, but Olaus Alinen potentially having to slide outside for Saturday leaves fewer bodies on the interior too.
Alabama’s top two Wolf options are Quandarrius Robinson and Keanu Koht. I’m sure they’ll have at least some level of success against Alabama’s current starting tackles (Elijah Pritchett and Wilkin Formby), but there’s not a lot behind them, especially if McVay is limited or can’t go. That gives the sophomore trio of Qua Russaw, Yhonzae Pierre and Keon Keeley at Bandit plenty of opportunities to feast against the second and third-team bookends, which will probably include a couple of walk-ons. Sacks are coming.
Jimmy Stein
Justice Haynes will be the A-Day MVP
It’s probably the nature of today’s college football or the landscape but second-year players, even those who did not play a lot of first-year snaps, now seem like veterans.
There’s a lot of belief in a player we have seen so little of in his time in Tuscaloosa. I also think this new staff is going to lean on the run game more so than many think. The running back room may be the strength of the offense, and the young sophomore from Georgia is the head of that snake.
Big days from Haynes on the ground — and in the air — will lead to his selection as Alabama A-Day Offensive MVP. While we are treading on the thin limb of Predictionville, let’s tab Deontae Lawson as the game’s Defensive MVP.
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