Alabama began preparation for its SEC opener at Ole Miss (6 p.m. Saturday) under cloud cover Monday afternoon. Here are some observations from Monday’s brief viewing period:

The defensive backs split into two lines, the corners in one and the safeties in the other. One player at a time from each line ran forward and lightly collided with the other player. The order of the corners was Trevon Diggs, Saivion Smith, Patrick Surtain II, Josh Jobe. The order of the safeties was Xavier McKinney, Deionte Thompson, Jared Mayden, Daniel Wright.

The offensive linemen worked on “exploding” up out of their stance by crouching under a covering and bursting up on OL coach Brent Key’s signal. It’s not uncommon to see the O-linemen work in groups of three or four instead of the full groups, as was the case today. From left to right, the first group was Jonah Williams, Lester Cotton, Ross Pierschbacher, Jedrick Wills. The second was Chris Owens, Josh Casher, Deonte Brown, Alex Leatherwood.

The outside linebackers high-stepped in between pads on the ground, knocked over tackling dummies and swarmed to corral a ball tossed on the ground by OLB coach Tosh Lupoi. Anfernee Jennings, Christian Miller, Jamey Mosley and Ben Davis were the first four through the drill.