Note the observation on Alabama's special teams lineups.

---------

Q: How much special teams do you think you'll be able to do this spring and how much will the guys getting here in June help that?

BK: Well, I think we'll definitely get some depth out of it. Here's what I know. Standing on the sideline for the national championship game, we're ready to kick off and Alabama has 11 starters on kickoff return. Kickoff return, which nobody wants to be on kickoff return. So the emphasis for us in this spring is to really embrace their roles. I want starters to be part of our special teams units. The spring is really for us to integrate frontline guys in ST. And that kind of decision has to come from me. So I 've made that and we're going about it in the spring to really put our best players on ST.

Q: Is that for returners? Coverage?

BK: It would go for all of those things. Every single position is going to have the best players that we can get out there. We're going to make them compete for those positions.

Q: Why haven't you done that before?

BK: Depth, injuries, you're running guys down there that are so central and critical. Now that we've been able to build some depth on both sides of the ball, I believe we can move more toward getting our front line guys out there.

Q: Does that mean you'll have to give guys breaks on offense or defense?

BK: You'll need some depth. I think we're starting to accumulate some depth at those positions that we're not afraid to put a number of different guys out there if they need a blow on defense or they need a blow on offense. As I told them, they're not going to take a blow on special teams. If you want to sit out a series or a few plays on defense, that's up to you. But we're going to get our personnel on the field as well in special teams.

Tags:
special teams