AU fans are excited for Gus Malzahn’s first season and they showed it by the attendance figure which was over 83,000, the highest attended spring game in the country. Pretty impressive.

Jonathan Wallace and Kiehl Frazier took the snaps at quarterback, and while Khiel was still inconsistent, Wallace showed he’s a pretty capable quarterback. Wallace was 18-of-26 for 191 yards with no TDs and one int, but he moved the offense pretty well. Kiehl is just not there yet. You can see he has talent, but just hadn’t put it together so far. With the arrival of heralded freshman Jeremy Johnson from Carver-Montgomery and JC transfer Nick Marshall, there should be some excellent competition at quarterback. Most of the time, I don’t love freshman quarterbacks starting in the SEC, but Jeremy is one outstanding football player. First of all, he has the size at 6’6″, 215. He threw for 3,183 yards last year with 31 TDs and seven ints. He also ran for 705 and seven TDs. I’ve watched film on him and am highly impressed with his arm strength, his accuracy and his ability to see the field and make the right throw or tuck it and run it. Awesome athlete.  Also watched an interview with him after the Army high school all-star game and he’s definitely a leader. Awesome kid. Jeremy could step in and play immediately if he has a good summer. Marshall needs to work on his arm strength and his accuracy. He threw for 17 TDs but 20 ints last year at Garden City Community College in Kansas.

There are quite a few good players on this team and a highly impressive recruiting class coming in. One of the ’13 recruits, junior college running back Cameron Artis-Payne, was a four-star player. And Artis-Payne didn’t disappoint in the spring game,. He ran for 117 yards on 18 carries and had some tough, grind it out runs and some long runs. Artis-Payne could take the starting job away from Tre Mason, though Tre is a good player himself. Corey Grant didn’t play in the spring game, but he’s got incredible speed, almost world class, and he was quite a player at Opelika High School. He should be in the mix. Four-star signee Jonathan Ford will be another guy who plays a role. These freshmen coming in are fantastic. They should be competing for many roles this fall. Another incoming freshman running back is 5.7, three-star Peyton Barber. The coaches are high on him as well.

O line looks pretty solid to me. Reese Dismukes is the leader and anchor at center, and Greg Robinson will be a force at left tackle. There is a lot of talent like Jordan Diamond and Avery Young at tackle. Both were five-star signees in the class of 2012, but were injured last year. They should make a big impact. They’re both massive. Veteran guard Chad Slade will be in the mix for starting time. 2012 four-star Alex Kozan, 2012 four-star Patrick Miller and Shon Coleman, a four star in 2012 who has recovered from leukemia, a pretty amazing story, will also be in  the mix. I really like backup center Tunde Fariyika. He’s a good player. He had a fine spring game.

At wide out, Sammie Coates will be a go-to guy. He’s quite an athlete, and at 6’2, 201, a very nice target. Also liked Ricardo Louis a lot. He can be a factor. He got belted with an illegal hit above the shoulders by cornerback Jonathon Mincy which knocked him out of the game. Looked like he suffered a concussion. I’m not sure why Mincy would do that to a teammate. MIncy looks like a really good player, but if he does that in a game, he’ll be ejected, and really, you don’t do that to an opposing player especially when it’s your teammate. Louis looked good. Jaylon Denson did some nice things also. He’s 6’3″, 216, so he’s a big, tall target. Quan Bray is kind of playing the Onterio McCalebb role this year. He’ll catch some passes and make some speed sweep runs. Quan’s a potentially explosive player. Trovon Reed dropped some passes in the game. Just don’t know why he can’t get it done, but it hasn’t gotten any better. There are a couple of talented four-stars coming in in Earnest Robinson of Pinson Valley (6’3″, 200) and Tony Stevens (6’3″, 175). Dominic Walker is 6’2″, 195 and a high three-star. Jason Smith is a four-star athlete at 6’1″, 187. Not sure where Malzahn will put him, but he could make a good wr.

What stood out on the defense to me was the play of the cornerbacks. Mincy played very well and Chris Davis had a very good spring. Joshua Holsey is a good player as is Ryan White. Cornerback looks good. Robenson Therezie and Jermaine Whitehead are highly capable safeties. Demetruce McNeil will play a role. I like him. He plays hard and has talent.  There will be some incoming frosh coming in who could make an impact. This freshmen class is fantastic.

Linebacker looks somewhat thin, but there are some very good players in the group. Kris Frost played well in the spring after being hurt all last year. He was a five-star out of high school. He could be special. Cassanova McKinzy is a beast. Justin Garrett is excellent and has had a dominant spring. Incoming junior college lb Kenny Flowers should provide immediate help. He didn’t play in spring game. Also, freshman Cameron Toney will probably be needed. Flowers is 6’2″, 225 and Toney is 6’3″, 225. LaDarius Owens (6’2′, 248) is a good player. The linebacking corps needs to stay healthy, but there are some very good players, just not a lot of them.

Dline looks pretty good but somewhat thin too. Jeffrey Whitaker hasn’t performed up to expectations so far in his career, but he’s 6’4″, 307 and maybe defensive coordinator  Ellis Johnson can get through  to him and get his motor cranking. Dee Ford and Nosa Eguae are good players at defensive ends and Ken Carter is an undersized (6’4″, 287), but talented defensive tackle. Heralded five-star defensive tackle Montravius Adams (6’3″, 290), five-star d end Carl Lawson (6’2″, 253) and four-star d end Elijah Daniel (6’3″,249) should provide some immediate help. They look physically ready to play college football.

Cody Parkey was erratic kicking the ball in the spring game, but he had a pretty good year last year, so kicking should be OK though incoming freshman Daniel Carson will give him a run if Parkey remains as inconsistent as he was in the spring game. Steven Clark will be back to punt. He wasn’t that great last year, but maybe another year will make a difference. Punt returner looks like it will be Quan Bray. He’s explosive. Auburn didn’t do any live kickoffs, so not sure who’ll be back there.

AU opens at home with Washington State, Arkansas State and Miss. State in the first three, then go to Baton Rouge in week four. Ole Miss and Western Carolina are at home, then the Tigers go to College Station to face A&M. The Tigers are at home vs Florida Atlantic, then go to Arkansas and Tennessee before playing the Dawgs and the Tide at home to finish the season.

@LSU, @A&M and Georgia and Alabama@ home will be tough. There are some tossups with Ole Miss @ home and Arkansas and UT on the road, though I believe AU can beat a rebuilding Tennessee team and Arkansas too. Ole Miss looked pretty good in their spring game, so that’ll be a tough one. Eight wins looks possible though it could be a game better if AU can upset Georgia or any of the other three. Seven, six or five wins is also possible. Just need to get the qb position cemented by Washington State, though that may not happen, and stay as healthy as possible on defense. The freshmen will have to make an immediate impact as well.

T.J. Yeldon looks like he can run for over 2,000 this year if S will let him. Backup at running back looks pretty stacked also. Derrick Henry, the early enrollee freshman who looked very good in the spring before breaking the tibia bone in his leg, could be the heir apparent as backup to Yeldon. A Yeldon-Henry combo would be much like the Ingram-Richardson, Richardson-Lacy, Lacy-Yeldon combination. Could be pretty lethal. Henry’s 6’3″, 240 pounds. A potentially dominant running back. Trent Richardson-type. And there are plenty of others in the wheelhouse. Jalston Fowler and Dee Hart will be back from injuries. Coming in are four-star freshmen Tyren Jones, Alvin Kamara and Altee Tenpenny. Running back is fine.

A.J. looked pretty sharp Saturday completing 19-of-30 passes for 223 with a 40-yard TD pass to Kenny Bell and two ints. Vinnie Sunseri and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix each picked off McCarron. Clinton-Dix also recovered a fumble and returned it 55 yards for a TD to put the Crimson team up on the White, 14-10, with 2:01 left in the game. But McCarron brought the Tide back on the next drive hooking up with Christion Jones for 50 yards which set up a Yeldon seven yard scamper for the decisive touchdown to put the White over the top as they won 17-14. Behind McCarron, the best player looks like redshirt freshman Alec Morris. Morris was 10-of-18 for 141 yards. He has a very good arm and good mechanics. Blake Sims just doesn’t look like he’ll get it done at least at quarterback. Maybe in a wildcat package, but he can’t throw it accurately. He had two passes picked off. The defenses forced seven turnovers, which was good for the defense, but not so swift for the offenses. There were six passes picked off. Freshman Cooper Bateman, an early enrollee, had his struggles, but is highly touted. We’ll see how he develops over the summer. Phillip Ely, Parker McLeod and Luke Del Rio need some more reps. Del Rio actually looked like the best one behind McCarron and Morris.

Wide receiver is loaded, much like running back. Kenny Bell had a very good game. Amari Cooper is going to be an All-American, Christion Jones, Chris Black, Raheem Falkins (an early enrollee), DeAndrew White, back from injury, and tight end O.J. Howard, an early enrollee and a five-star recruit, have this position extremely well-manned. The Tide has so many good wide receivers that S moved a couple over to the secondary. Cyrus Jones is in the secondary now.

O line looks like they haven’t missed a beat. Ryan Kelly will be an excellent replacement for Barrett Jones at center. Kelly is listed at 6’5″, 290, but should be over 300 by the time the season starts. The Kuoandijo brothers will man the left side of the line. Cyrus will be an All-American and a top five draft pick if he goes out in the 2014 draft, and Arie has been hurt in previous years, but looks like an NFL player too. Cyrus is 6’6″, 310 and Arie is 6’5″, 315. They’ve got a handle on the left side. Anthony Steen will be back for right guard duty. Pretty underrated player last year because of Barrett, Chance Warmack and D.J. Fluker, but he’s fantastic. Steen is 6’3′,309. At right tackle, Leon Brown, a 6’6″, 313 junior college transfer, and Austin Shepherd, a 6’5″, 315 pound junior, will battle it out. Both looked good in the A-Day game. Tide will need to develop some depth on the line. Freshmen Grant Hill and Brandon Hill will help. Grant is 6’6″, 301 and Brandon is 6’7″, 290.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing Jonathan Allen play college football. The five star defensive end signee out of Virginia is a destroyer. One of the most physical high school players I’ve ever seen. He’ll be dominant. Defense looked very good to me. Inside linebacker Trey DePriest was hurt so he didn’t play, but he’ll be there in August. C.J. Mosely is another All-American at linebacker in the string of great linebackers Alabama has produced. C.J. has been doing it for three years now. It’s pretty impressive he came back for his senior year rather than go out for the draft. He made a wise decision because with a huge senior year, C.J. will be a first rounder in ’14; possibly a high first rounder. Ryan Anderson also impressed me at linebacker. Like him a lot. Reggie Ragland was a five-star two years ago, so he should make a pretty big impact at lb. There’s plenty of depth. Xsavier Dickson is going to be fantastic at a hybrid linebacker/dend position. He’s terrific and will dominate. Also really like Denzel Devall, another hybrid lb/dend. Line looks pretty powerful. Adrian Hubbard is another lb/dend hybrid who should have a huge year and see his draft status go to first round. Brandon Ivory is a guy who stood out to me at defensive tackle. Ivory is 6’4″, 310. Some guys need to step up in the interior; it may be a position that will need to develop as the summer progresses and the season starts. Jeoffrey Pagan has all the physical tools (6’4″, 290) to be an All-American and first round pick;  just needs to put it together this year. He could be dominant. Darius Page, a four star freshman out of Foley, could help  early in the season. A’Shawn Richardson, a five star out of Fort Worth Texas, could bring in some immediate help at dtackle. He’s 6’4″, 320. He had committed to Texas originally, but switched to ‘Bama late in the process. Looks like a beast.

The secondary looks very good. Cornerback Deion Belue had an excellent A-Day game and is primed for a huge year. The other corner is not settled totally yet. There are some injuries right now. Nothing major; just some guys nicked up. Geno Smith looks like the favorite at the other corner. He should be stellar. He  played last year and performed  well. Will need to develop some depth at corner, but there is plenty of potential there. The Tide has four NFL safeties. Ha Ha, Sunseri, Landon Collins, who looked awesome last Saturday and was a five-star in 2012, and John Fulton, are all big time players. They’ll be some help with Nick Perry and others, but safety absolutely looks like one of  the strongest positions on the team along with running back and wide receiver. Ha Ha is terrific and Sunseri is stellar, but Collins and Fulton look ready to make a run at a lot of playing time. Should be pretty interesting competition this summer though nobody is going to beat out Ha Ha. He’s high first round material. Top 10 in my opinion. There’s going to be some NFL talent coming out next spring. I could see Cyrus Kuoandijo as the top pick in the draft.

Kicking game is fine with Cade Foster now handling place kicking and kickoffs and Cody Mandell punting. Those two are good. Looks like Christion Jones will get first dibs at returning punts. Kickoffs were basically half speed in A-Day, so nothing revealing there. Could see maybe one of the incoming freshmen returning kicks. Heard great things about four-star athlete ArDarius Stewart. Also Cyrus and Christion Jones should be involved.

The schedule looks pretty favorable. Open with Virginia Tech, August 31, a Saturday at 4:30 PM CT on ESPN. Don’t know a lot about Va. Tech except that they had a down year last year. They should be pretty good, but Tide will take care of business in the second half. Will get more on Hokies and try to find their spring game for a more detailed opinion.  The Tide then goes to College Station on Sept 14 to try and extract revenge against Johnny Football and the Texas A&M Aggies. That will be a classic. Pretty good to have a week off before that game. Will have more on A&M the first of next week. Manziel had a big spring game. At home vs. Colorado State and former oc Jim McElwain in week three. Ole Miss comes to Ttown in week four. Should be interesting to see if any of Hugh Freeze’s five star freshmen play significant time and contribute. Looking forward to seeing if Robert Nkemdiche can be the dominant player everyone is expecting him to be at defensive end for the Rebels. He was the number one ranked high school player in the country in 2013 by both Rivals and 247 sports.  At home vs. Ga. State, @ Kentucky, vs Arkansas, vs. Tennessee, vs LSU, @ State, vs Chattanooga and @ Auburn to close it out. Looks like it could be another special season. A&M is pivotal in week two and Ole Miss and LSU are no gimmes, but they are at home so  that’s a huge bonus. Auburn on the road will be interesting now that the Gus Bus is in command. But I like the Tide to get it done again this season and see South Carolina in the SEC Championship game. That should be a classic there. Not going to predict that one yet because I want to see South Carolina’s spring game. But I can absolutely see the Tide going all the way again and winning national championship number 16 and four in five years. Incredible stuff there if it happens. Three in four is amazing already.

In the draft tonight, four Tide players are potential first rounders. Todd McShay of ESPN has Dee Milliner going 10th to the Titans, Chance Warmack going 12th to the Dolphins, D.J. Fluker going 15th to the Saints, and Eddie Lacy going 22nd to the St. Louis Rams. I wouldn’t be surprised if Warmack doesn’t go higher. Other projections have Warmack going to the Buffalo Bills at eight. I’m positive Eddie should be a first rounder. Some are not sure, but after his performances against Georgia and Notre Dame he is a no-doubt first rounder in my mind. He’s struggled with some injuries, but a lot of running backs do. He’s stellar and should be picked in the first round. I like D.J. Fluker with the Saints at 15. Honestly, I think he should go higher. Milliner at 10 to the Titans is valid. He runs a 4.37, 40 and is so strong and is a playmaker at corner. I could see him going a little higher. Maybe seventh to the Arizona Cardinals or ninth to the Jets.

Will have plenty more spring games coming up. Auburn tomorrow morning.