The Alabama football team held its first workout since coming back from Spring Break and while there was a little rust head coach Mike Shula was pleased with the effort put forth by his squad.

“We were rusty as you might think, especially the guys throwing and catching, the guys handling the ball,” said head coach Mike Shula. “I thought our effort was good and I thought for the most part we didn’t lose too much in the conditioning area.

“We talked to our team about really focusing hard this week on finishing the week out strong. We’re going to do some more things on Thursday, get in a little bit of. For the spring game, basically what we’re going to do is our first offense is going to go against our first defense, if they’ve got to punt the ball, we won’t punt it we’ll just move it 35 yards and then the second offense will go against the second defense and we’ll kind of go back and forth.”

Shula added that they would mix special teams into the scrimmage as well.

Bama will go through one final workout on Thursday in full pads before Saturday’s A-Day Game.

Mike Shula Quotes
ON A-DAY GAME
“I told the players I thought this was a great way to end spring practice. I thought the crowd was great. It’s by far the largest since we’ve been here. I told our players these fans are really interested to see what we’re going to be about. I thought we did some good things and our effort was great.”

“Our execution was good at times and not good at times. Overall I was pleased with the way our younger guys handled the crowd today and kept their poise.”

Player Quotes
DJ Hall
ON A-DAY GAME
“It felt good. It was good to see all the fans come out today to support the A-Day game. It makes you feel excited about the season because it was only the A-Day game and there was a bunch of people out there. You just want to go out there and make plays and make the fans happy.”

ON HIS TOUCHDOWN
“I was running down field and John Parker (Wilson) stepped up because he was getting blitzed. He threw it short and I came back to the ball. Simeon (Castille) thought I was still running when I came back. I didn’t see anyone across the field. Then I got a couple of great blocks and just sprang it.

John Parker Wilson
ON A-DAY GAME
“I think we had a good day. We had too many interceptions and it left a sour taste in my mouth, but I think we did good overall.”

ON DJ HALL TOUCHDOWN PASS
“My arm got hit and they said it was a sack but I don’t think it was. DJ came back and got it. We talked about throwing it under like that and him stopping and coming to get it. He did it and made the whole defense miss.”

Alabama’s Juwan  Simpson is one of the 42 top defensive players in the nation who have been named  to the 2006 Lott Trophy Watch List, it was announced  today.

Named after Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, The Lott Trophy is awarded to college football’s Defensive IMPACT Player of the Year.  Now  in its third year, The Lott Trophy is the first college football award to  equally recognize athletic performance and the personal character attributes of  the player. 

Simpson had 64 tackles and two interceptions last season for The Tide.  

Sponsored by The Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation, the award  is given to a player who exhibits the same characteristics Lott embodied during  his distinguished career: Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community  and Tenacity. 

David Pollack of Georgia and DeMeco Ryans of Alabama were the winners of the first two Lott Trophies.  Both Georgia and Alabama received $25,000 for their general scholarship funds.  In  two years, the Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation has donated $170,000 to various  charities, in addition to the two universities.

Voters for the award include selected members of the  national media, previous finalists, the Board of Directors of the Pacific Club  IMPACT Foundation and Master Coaches, a distinguished group of former head  college coaches. 

The winner will be announced at a gala black-tie banquet at  The Pacific Club Dec. 10.