Hale Hentges kinda laughs when he lists off the nicknames given to his Alabama teammates.

They all follow a pattern. And the same person is behind them.

It's the new guy.

"Daboll has a lot of nicknames that he calls people," Hentges said, referring to first-year offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. "I think that's probably like a New England thing. He'll like shorten people's names."

Hentges is Hentch.

Freshman receiver Devonta Smith = Smitty.

Fellow rookie Major Tennison is Ten.

The one player who couldn't possibly have a shortened first-name nickname is Tua Tagovailoa. Nope.

"Honestly," Hentges said, "he just calls him 'Tu.'"

Offensive lineman Ross Pierschbacher (or Piersch) sees the same pattern.

"Yeah. It's like Naj, Tu, Rid," he said in reference to Najee Harris, Tagovailoa and Calvin Ridley. "Coach (Jeremy) Pruitt is Pru. I thought that was kind of funny."

And Nick Saban?

"Coach," Pierschbacher said to some laughs.

But seriously, Hentges sees a little something behind the fun of the short names Daboll assigns his players.

"No, but that really just explains how personable he is with all of us," Hentges said. "We're not numbers to him, we're actual players and we're people. That just shows why we love him so much. He knows all of us genuinely and he wants the best for us. Just things like that make it seem like he really cares about us and that's why we love him so much."

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande.