Not a moment goes unnoticed.

Then, after the spring speaking engagements and charity golf tournaments, the spotlight fades in a sense -- even in football-mad Alabama. Updates cease.

The black hole of the summer news cycle opens an abyss to the absurd.

But, quietly, things are happening. Behind the green-tarped fences of Alabama's football complex, players are working outside the view of everyone. Even coaches can't watch these summer workouts that former Crimson Tide quarterback Greg McElroy said mean more than outsiders realize.

"It's probably the time that I miss most," said McElroy, now an analyst on ESPN and the SEC Network. "That is when your team is built. You can talk about spring and fall camp. The team is built when they're away from the coaching staff. The team is built when you come together because you have a lot of free time."

There are multiple elements to the offseason routine. Of course, it's primetime for strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran. Summer classes are taken. But it's the voluntary drills that current and former players say matter the most.

They offered insight into the often discussed but rarely explained 7-on-7 games. They built unity, confidence in the playbook and a learning environment for freshmen and transfers.

"They're really good for the young guys," said current Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Allen. "They help the young guys get experience going through the plays without the coaches, so there's no pressure right now. It helps us teach them how things are on the field and how to see it on the field. To see it on the chalkboard is different from actually going through it in real life."

There's also a degree of football Darwinism for the most important position on the field. McElroy explained the importance of June and July to aspiring starting quarterbacks.

It rests on the 7-on-7 field.

These pick-up games are organized by quarterbacks who rise to an alpha position. It's also a mental exercise because the quarterbacks would put together a play script and call all the plays from the field. They work through in-game problems without the safety net of a coaching staff since NCAA rules bar them from instructing.

Either they earn the respect of teammates or they don't.

"You're running it," McElroy said. "And when you kinda practice calling the plays, it can allow you to be a little bit more seamless when you get to the fall."

In his day, McElroy said they'd start slowly and build up the 7-on-7 drills. They'd go once a week early in summer, working mainly on specific plays. Games would last about an hour and 15 minutes. It would pick up in frequency as the summer progressed. They'd also become more game-like as preseason camp approached.

"But as the summer progresses and the freshmen get a little more versed in the offense and they know a little more about what we're doing, we do a little more 'move the field' to make it game-like but that was late summer as we moved into fall camp," McElroy said. "I liked to make it game-like. I didn't want it to feel like we were going through the motions. I like making it competitive too."

Games operate on the no-blood-no-foul principle. Receivers still complain about pass interference, and defenders moan about quarterbacks holding onto the ball too long without a pass rush. McElroy said he liked to keep it light to keep things from getting monotonous. It got scrappy at times with jobs on the line. Still, backups were given first-team reps to gain comfort in the system.

They'll practice important situations like 2-minute drills and goal-line scenarios in preparation for August scrimmages.

"It's just a basic 7 on 7," said Alabama safety Eddie Jackson. "We compete and play fast. We have a play sheet that consists of plays that we have to do."

Not much leaks from the proceedings. A grainy 21-second YouTube video of recently-transferred Jake Coker throwing a single pass to Amari Cooper in 2014 received more than 59,000 views. But it was that summer that his competition, Blake Sims, won the team and eventually the starting job.

McElroy said coaches wouldn't meddle much in the proceedings. At least when McElroy played from 2006-10, they didn't even ask many questions.

"But in August, when we were back and we were going through camp, you would occasionally get with the coaches and say these guys were really working it," McElroy said. "The leaders of the team get with the coaches and occasionally talk about their positional group and say hey, that guy really stepped up and maybe that guy will be rewarded with a few extra reps in the fall."

Coaches return to the fortressed practice fields when camp begins Aug. 4. Kickoff countdown clocks will have ticked under a month at that point.

With it, preseason mania. Speculation, depth chart projections and starting quarterback tealeaves.

But as vacation season raged, things were quietly working themselves out in Tuscaloosa.

"You're the only people on campus," McElroy said. "It's a ghost town in Tuscaloosa during the summer, so you're together all the time. I think that's really when the relationships and the backbone of the team -- from a chemistry standpoint -- is really built."