Spinning a football in his hands, Terrell Lewis had a sense of confidence a select number of Alabama football players carry into the media interview room.

A larger-than-normal crowd was waiting since Tua Tagovailoa was also meeting the press Monday afternoon, but that was cool with him. It isn’t hard to see how eager Lewis was to get back to football after a year sidelined with a torn ACL. Even seven-plus minutes with reporters and cameras seemed like a bother.

Jumping right into it, the outside linebacker’s first topic was the live scrimmage Alabama held Saturday. It was the first full-contact opportunity for this full-contact player in quite some time.

He made it count.

"It was fun just being back out there and being in the mix and stuff,” Lewis said. “And getting that confidence back like, 'OK, you haven't done this in a while,' but I kind of went into it with the mindset of 'don't think about it, just play.' And just go in with that mindset that nothing ever happened."

Well, maybe after that first pass-rush situation.

Before Saturday, the last time Lewis was truly unleashed on a quarterback was in the 2018 national title game when he sacked Georgia’s Jake Fromm in overtime.

Standing in the way Saturday was redshirt freshman offensive tackle Tommy Brown.

“That play's pretty interesting,” a chuckling Lewis said. “You should ask Coach (Saban) about it."

Saban won’t meet with the press again until Thursday, so Lewis gave the quick version.

"It was just my first pass rush in a minute,” he said, “so I kind of wanted to be a little more physical than I have been."

That doesn’t sound fun for Brown.

"Nah, Tommy good,” a laughing Lewis said. “Tommy's good."

Since this occurred in a closed scrimmage with mostly just family and friends in Bryant-Denny Stadium, the precise amount of force used is known to few witnesses.

It sounds like the boss had a good view and there weren’t any complaints.

“Nah, Saban don’t say anything,” Lewis said. “He ain’t going to kiss nobody’s ass. That’s Saban. Actually, he was right in front of it, so it’s kind of like he just saw it and was like ‘Oh, whatever.’”

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