Head coach Nick Saban held his third of 15 spring practices Wednesday, a practice riddled with injury problems. Running back Blake Sims, offensive lineman Arie Kouandjio, running back Eddie Lacy and tight end Corey McCarron were in black non-contact jerseys and did not practice due to various injuries. The four were seen on exercise bikes during individual drills.

Alabama brings back the pads The Crimson Tide put pads on for the first time in spring training Wednesday in another step out of the offseason. “It’s like putting on some new shoes,” offensive lineman Chance Warmack said. “You have some soreness and some getting used to it, but you work through it day-by-day.” Linebacker C.J. Mosley added, “Just like the coach says, ‘it separates the men from the boys.’ It’s all about hitting.”

The comeback kid Mosley is back in practice and says he feels good after suffering a dislocated hip in the third quarter of the BCS National Championship game against LSU. Mosley underwent physical therapy over spring break to ensure he would be ready for the continuation of spring practice. Mosley said now that he is nearing 100 percent, he has no problem looking back on the play. “At the beginning of the season, I dislocated my elbow, and surprisingly, it didn’t feel as bad as that,” Mosley said. “When they started yanking it to put it back in, that’s when it really started hurting. When they finally got it in, it was kind of a relieving pain. Mosley continued, “I would say it’s a 10 out of 10 as far as pain.” Mosley said he had a good idea of what the injury was from the moment he hit the field. “I knew it was in my hip,” Mosley said. “I could tell by the way it felt that it was a dislocation, so I wasn’t too worried about people thinking it was my knee or ankle or anything.” What he did not know was how lucky he was. “Usually, for a hip to dislocate, it takes a car accident or something, some serious trauma,” Mosley said. “They said I was lucky to get it put back in [on the sidelines] because normally, they have to go to anesthesia just to get it back in.” Looking past the pain from the play, Mosley said it is hard to complain too much about the injury. Not only is he back with his teammates for spring practice, but he also intercepted a botched Jordan Jefferson pitch on that play before injuring his hip. “It was a pretty good five seconds [before the injury],” Mosley said. Still, the injury did not keep him off the field as the team celebrated the program’s 14th national championship. “It was hurting, but I couldn’t miss that part,” Mosley said. “We were all together. Whether I was hurt or not, I had to be on the field with them.”