If Jonah Williams, Ross Pierschbacher, Lane Kiffin, Terry Saban and Harvey Updyke trot out to protect the Crimson Tide’s quarterback on the team’s opening play from scrimmage Saturday night, it would still qualify as Alabama’s most experienced season-opening offensive line since 2012, with 71 combined starts among them.

All 71, of course, come from Williams and Pierschbacher – Alabama’s most experienced returning duo on the offensive line under Nick Saban. Pierschbacher has started 42 games, the third-most of any offensive lineman in Saban’s tenure, and Williams has started all 29 games of his college career, having moved from right tackle to left tackle after his freshman season.

Despite all the acclaim they’ve received as two of college football’s premier O-linemen and future NFL players, neither is allowing it to go to his head.  

“I think we’re both very hard on ourselves, as far as watching film,” Pierschbacher said. “You know we’re not going to go watch the highlight blocks or whatever happened; we’re going to watch what we did wrong and why we did it wrong.”

For some NFL scouts, there’s not much to nitpick about Williams’ game. Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller said the junior left tackle could contend for the No. 1 pick in next April’s NFL Draft and called him the best offensive tackle prospect in three years.

“Jonah’s an absolute freak athlete,” said senior tight end Hale Hentges. If you go back and look at him in high school, he set all kinds of records, I think, in discus and shot put and something like that. When you watch him on tape and we’re running some sort of play where Jalen [Hurts] or a running back breaks free into the secondary, you see Jonah running stride by stride with them.”

Pierschbacher made 40 consecutive starts at guard before missing two games in 2017. But with a surplus of talent at both guard spots and at right tackle, he bumped inside to center in the spring.

It’s not a position the redshirt senior is unfamiliar with, having worked out at center throughout spring and fall camp in 2016 before ultimately moving to right guard to start the season.

“I think flexibility in the offensive line allows you to put the best five players out on the field so that means somebody has to play guard, somebody has to play tackle, somebody that plays guard might have to play center or vice versa,” Saban said.

When Williams was injured early in the third quarter of last year’s national championship game, then-freshman Alex Leatherwood stepped in and performed admirably, earning postgame praise from media and players.

His fellow freshman Jedrick Wills Jr. also flashed potential in limited playing time throughout his inaugural year in Tuscaloosa. When Matt Womack – who started every game at right tackle last year – broke a bone in his foot in March and did so again in mid-August, it opened the door for both Leatherwood and Wills to sneak into the starting five.

Both were recruited as tackles, but with Williams’ spot at left tackle set in stone, one would have to move to guard. For most of the spring and the fall, Leatherwood manned the right tackle position while Wills kicked inside to right guard and senior Lester Cotton Sr. slid across from right guard to left guard.

Wills and Leatherwood swapped places two weeks ago, however, and the starting lineup now appears set for Saturday’s opener against Louisville. From left to right: Williams, Cotton, Pierschbacher, Leatherwood and Wills.

“I think Jed’s more of a rangy guy, so I think that’s why tackle suits him better,” Pierschbacher said. “Leatherwood’s really good in short spaces, so I think that was a good move for them. I think it’s been really good as far as signaling and doing that, and having communication not just among the five up front, but as far as running backs, tight ends, having all them on the same page, which is crucial to having the play [become a] success.”