Alabama’s first practice as underdogs since 2009 took place under dark skies on Monday afternoon.

In his press conference before practice started, coach Nick Saban praised Georgia for having two great running backs in Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. When Alabama began working in drills it was no surprise to see a handful of running backs wearing number one (Sony Michel’s number) jerseys and at least one wearing a number 27 (Nick Chubb’s number) jersey.

Practice notes:

• Saban worked with the defensive backs during the media viewing period. He threw passes while Minkah Fitzpatrick and other defensive backs worked on one-on-one coverage situations.
• Reggie Ragland and other linebackers worked on footwork again today.
• Jake Coker and the other quarterbacks worked on throwing short and medium distance passes to both tight ends, such as O.J. Howard, and wide receivers, such as ArDarius Stewart and Chris Black, today during the viewing period.
• The short passes seemed to mostly involve throwing to receivers cutting into the middle of the field while the longer passes were primarily thrown to pass catchers running towards the sideline. All of the observed passes seemed to be on target and caught for the most part.