Alabama’s football practice fields are near a couple of apartment complexes in Tuscaloosa. From high enough floors of those buildings, people can get a good view of the fields:

But what those two guys were doing on Friday is, in at least some cases, a no-no, according to former Tide offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin and this Tuscaloosa man on Twitter:

(That might be a reference to Alabama’s athletic relations coordinator, Cedric Burns.)

It’s not clear if this apartment complex has an agreement with the Tide, but there are definitely people whose deck activities Bama restricts.

ESPN’s Chris Low reported on the arrangement in 2016:

Across the street from the Alabama practice fields are several apartment complexes, the upper units with porches high enough to provide a good view of the practice fields. Alabama has an agreement with one of the complexes that they will write into people’s leases that they not stand outside and watch football practice. Anything for the sake of privacy in college football, right?

While this might be Nick Saban paranoia to some extent, teams being ultra-sensitive about practice privacy is a sport-wide thing.

Lots of programs have on-campus practice fields that are visible from different vantage points, and it’s not uncommon for them to have staffers keep people away from areas where they could watch. That’s in addition to fence covering shielding the fields from ground view, and strict policies on who can attend practice when.

In 2017, Jim Mora’s UCLA cut short a pre-Week 1 practice because of concerns that someone might have been spying on the Bruins for Texas A&M from an outdoor terrace overlooking where UCLA practiced. Proof never emerged of any football espionage, and UCLA went on to beat the Aggies in the comeback of the year.