TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — AJ McCarron threw for 319 yards and five touchdowns, while T.J. Yeldon rushed for 101 yards and two scores Saturday in the defending national champion University of Alabama football team’s second scrimmage of the spring season at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The scrimmage lasted roughly 140 plays and was just over two hours under sunny skies and temperatures in the upper-70s. The Crimson Tide will have today and Monday off before returning for practices Tuesday and Thursday before A-Day on Saturday..
“In this week’s scrimmage we wanted to focus on more game-like situations,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “There were some really good things in the scrimmage, probably mostly offensively. I thought we did a really good job offensively. AJ (McCarron) had a really good day. We ran the ball effectively. I thought the offensive line played pretty well, and we had some receivers step up and make some plays and didn’t have a lot of dropped balls.”
McCarron was 23 of 28 for a completion percentage of better than 80 percent. Yeldon eclipsed the 100-yard mark on 14 carries, including a 65-yard burst up the middle early in the scrimmage.
Redshirt freshman Chris Black and sophomore Amari Cooper both cracked the 100-yard mark receiving. Black, a Jacksonville, Fla., native led the way with 10 catches for 113 yards. Cooper, from Miami, Fla., had six catches for 108 yards and four touchdowns.
HaHa Clinton-Dix, Denzel Devall, and Ryan Anderson each had six tackles to pace the defense, while Vinnie Sunseri added five stops. Devall and Belue had sacks and Sunseri broke up a pass.
“Defensively, we’ve got quite a few guys banged up, so we had a lot of new guys in a lot of places,” Saban said. “I don’t think we tackled real well, and I don’t think we played the kind of responsibility football we need to, so we have a lot of things that we can correct on that side of the ball.”
Alabama’s 2013 A-Day Game will be at 2 p.m. Saturday Bryant-Denny Stadium. ESPN2 will televise the game, which is free to the public.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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