By outreach@cw.ua.edu (Elliott Propes)

After a shaky first quarter last weekend, Alabama’s offense finally came together and began to produce. Both quarterbacks, freshman Jalen Hurts and redshirt freshman Blake Barnett settled down after more snaps and put up 52 points on the board.

“We’re excited about trying to develop a productive offensive team based on the skill set of the players that we have, which I think [offensive coordinator] Lane [Kiffin] has done a really good job of in the past,” coach Nick Saban said. “…We’re just going to keep on keeping on and it’ll be interesting to see how these guys continue to respond and play in the game.”

This week Saban has not announced whom he will start yet, but whoever it is will likely hand the ball off a fair amount. Sophomore Damien Harris busted a few runs last week including a 73-yard run that helped him finish with 138 total yards on the ground.

“Anytime you’re a running back you see a bit hole like that, you’re eyes kind of light up,” Harris said. “It’s plays like that you really want to thank your O-linemen for and make sure you give them all the credit because without them the play would have never gotten started.”

Harris said that he could thank the quarterbacks for opening up those running lanes as well. Hurts kept the ball for himself sometimes against Southern Cal and finished with two rushing touchdowns.

“[Hurts] can throw the ball; he can run just like all of our quarterbacks. They can all do a good job of that,” Harris said. “So defenses have to prepare for that run-pass threat. That opens up a few more running lanes for the running backs.”

The offensive line took a little while to gel last week. The group really started to find its rhythm though and the team took off. Guard Ross Pierschbacher said going against linebackers like Tim Williams and Ryan Anderson in practice really help the line prepare for whoever comes to town.

“Those guys are great,” Pierschbacher said. “Just to have them give the look that they do makes Saturdays easy I think. Those guys are some of the best in the country so it makes it really fun and an intense practice. We try to push ourselves to compete with them and it’s tough.”

Despite the large margin of victory, Saban said the offense has room to improve, and Pierschbacher agreed.

“Watching the film, I mean the coaches even said, ‘Does it look like we won by this much?’ We all thought that we didn’t,” Pierschbacher said. “We shouldn’t have blown them out that bad, There’s a lot to correct. We were pretty sloppy I think. Like coach Saban said, he nailed it on the head, that we have a lot to improve, and Week 1 to Week 2, we need to have a really big improvement.”

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Source:: The Crimson White Sports