Rise of the Poppers.
No. That’s not the name of the latest M. Night Shyamalan film. It’s the story of Alabama’s Tuesday afternoon practice with sophomores Courtney Upshaw and Mark Barron serving as the main stars.
During individual drills, assistant coach Sal Sunseri had his Jack linebackers go through a popping – for lack of a better word – drill. From a stationary standing position, two players gradually ease toward each other with one of the players assigned to unleash a bone-jarring pop on the other one.
Players took their turns. The pops? Uh … very much on the mild side. And Sunseri apparently saw the same thing and made sure the players knew as much. One player, however, was different. Not just a little better. In a class of his own. At least in this drill and on this day.
Upshaw.
The 6-foot-2, 249-pounder unleashed hits that would have made Dick Butkus cringe.
“That’s a pop, Courtney!” Sunseri yelled out. “We’re going to do this again until everyone does it like Courtney!”
Second time through? Again, it was Upshaw who was the clear standout.
Next, Sunseri altered the drill slightly where the popper had to do what the assistant coach referred to as “machine gun” popping. He had to unleash a lick on three guys back-to-back-to-back. Who excelled this time?
Take a wild guess.
“There it is!” Sunseri called out to Upshaw after seeing more of the same from everyone else. “That’s how it’s supposed to be!”
If there was a second-place finisher in these drills, the silver medal would probably go to Milton Talbert. Again, though, Upshaw was far-and-away the champ on Tuesday.
When Sunseri ordered his ones and twos to head over to the other side of the field to go through some tactical work under the guidance of head coach Nick Saban, Upshaw was one of the ones who trotted away. The other three were Eryk Anders, Corey Reamer and Chavis Williams.
Interestingly, once the foursome joined the other ones and twos on defense, and the apparent ones went out to receive instruction, it was the guy considered to be one of the hardest hitters on the team, Barron, not Robby Green, who was at one safety spot opposite returning starter Justin Woodall.
Of course, it was just one two-minute period of a two-hour practice, and there is no depth chart at this time, as Saban preaches, and there’s still some shuffling going on, particularly at the safety spot vacated by Rashad Johnson. However, it’s clear Barron, whom Saban hinted Tuesday night could be in line for "a lot more time" on defense this fall after playing mostly special teams last season, is rising fast.
And fellow pack-a-punch-popper Upshaw may well be doing the same thing at the Jack linebacker spot.
