Alabama Emerging With Serious 'Cracks' After Spring Football

The Alabama Crimson Tide entered spring football looking for some clarity in the quarterback battle between Austin Mack and Keelon Russell. That competition will continue into training camp this summer. The Crimson Tide also had new faces on the offensive line, backfield, and defense as the team looks to improve from a devastating blowout loss in the College Football Playoff to Indiana.

Last year's team had plenty of talent, but they struggled to run the ball, depending on quarterback Ty Simpson to save them. The Crimson Tide tried to fix those issues via the transfer portal, but they were often beat for players by rivals. Bill Connelly of ESPN has questions about the makeup of the Alabama offense after spring practice.

The offensive line is inexperienced, and that could hurt both the running and passing game. "Kalen DeBoer didn't load up on line experience in the portal either: Even with six incoming transfers, the O-line returns only 21 total starts from last season, and the offense could end up starting between five and seven freshman or sophomores overall. Yikes," Connelly wrote .

Connelly is predicting the Crimson Tide will choose Russell over Mack because of the team's inexperience, hoping his upside can help  them overcome issues (or "cracks") with the depth chart. "The battle for the starting job isn't over, and Mack certainly still has a chance to win the job," Connelly wrote. "But to overcome the massive uncertainty and inexperience on the depth chart, Bama might need the raw upside that Russell supposedly brings to the table.