Nick Saban isn't willing to compromise, nor concede anything at this point.

It's the spring, after all. And there are five months separating Alabama from its date with Louisville in the season opener on the first day of September.

So when he was asked earlier this week whether he will change his approach toward coaching a secondary that is in the process of being overhauled, Saban shot the question down.

"To say because we don't have much experience we're going to take things slow, not expose the players to the things they need to get exposed to, then next fall you're behind," Saban said. "I think I'd rather do it the way we do it and expose it to the stuff and then decide if they don't have it, they can't get it, they're not ready to do it, don't do it than not try to do it."

Saban is in the experimental phase, tinkering with an incomplete depth chart missing four freshmen due to arrive in the summer. So much has yet to be determined, which is why there are questions about whether the secondary will ever advance to the level where it was last year, when it was the foundation of a defense that was among the most aggressive in the SEC.

In 2017, Alabama blitzed at a 40-percent clip, according to ProFootballFocus.com. Only one other team in the conference -- Texas A&M -- sent extra rushers more frequently.

Former defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt had the wherewithal to implement that kind of strategy because he understood the players on the back end -- most notably Minkah Fitzpatrick and Ronnie Harrison -- were reliable. Fitzpatrick was a versatile cog who was capable of playing all six positions in the secondary and could attack from the edge to harass the quarterback. Harrison was an RPO buster who forced four incompletions on the 19 passes directed his way last season.

They were sound in coverage, providing Pruitt the latitude to dial up the pressure, which he was already predisposed to do. In the two seasons Pruitt called the plays, the average blitz rate for Alabama was 35.5 percent -- a 16-point increase over what it was in 2015 during Kirby Smart's last stand as the coordinator.

Pruitt is now gone, having moved on to become Tennessee's coach. But there is a sense among the players that his successor, Tosh Lupoi, won't deviate from the approach that helped the Tide accumulate 94 sacks in its last 29 games.

"Tosh is really eager," said outside linebacker Terrell Lewis. "He'll dial up a lot of blitzes and stuff like that to make our guys feel more comfortable and get a lot of pressure and stuff like that. I feel like we've got a lot of length, a lot of guys who can do it -- Raekwon [Davis], Christian [Miller], a lot of guys who have good pass rushing moves and have experience in practice. So, we'll be straight."

That's the hope.

But in order to send extra rushers, fewer players are left in coverage, which can strain a secondary and potentially compromise it. That's especially true when the defensive backfield is populated by a bunch of newbies trying to master Saban's nuanced system.

"You have to understand what's going on, like, on the playbook side before you can get the big game experience," rising junior safety Deionte Thompson said.

It's a process, as they like to say inside this program.

But how it unfolds could affect Alabama's defensive strategy in 2018. For now, Saban isn't ready to make any concessions.

Instead, he is determined to transform this secondary into a formidable unit that can give Lupoi the license to blitz.

"I kind of enjoy the challenge," the Alabama coach said.

Rainer Sabin is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin