Wayne Davis noticed a difference while watching his son during Alabama's spring scrimmages.

"I see him being a lot more comfortable between last year and now and being a whole lot more confident in carrying out the assignments," Wayne Davis said.

That's along the lines of what people inside the Crimson Tide program have said about Ben Davis as well heading into the linebacker's redshirt freshman season.

While the former five-star recruit worked with just the third-team defense during the spring, word is that the Gordo product is working hard behind the scenes and continuing to make progress, both with learning Alabama's playbook as well as in the weight room.

"He's really focused in," Wayne Davis, the Tide's all-time career tackles leader, said of his son. "I know the redshirt year has really allowed Ben to mature and to learn the system even more so. His dedication has always been there. He's doing well in school academically, and now he's really looking forward to the upcoming year and looking forward to having a productive season and extremely excited about contributing wherever he can."

This is how deep Alabama is at linebacker, that it's possible that several talented, former highly-ranked recruits -- including Davis and fellow former five-star prospect Mack Wilson -- may not even be on the defensive two-deep this season.

Like Wilson did last year, though, Davis could make an impact on special teams.

The 6-foot-4, 237-pound Davis ran the 40-yard dash in 4.68 seconds during the Tide's spring testing, one of the top times among Alabama linebackers.

In addition, Davis bench-pressed 385 pounds, up from about 300 pounds when he was in high school. He also squatted 455 pounds.

"He's going to be very good," fellow linebacker Keith Holcombe said of Davis during the spring. "Y'all need to watch out for him in the next couple of years. He's growing into his role. Big kid. He knows how to play the game. And he's going to be very good."

Davis worked at both inside and outside linebacker during the spring, and coach Nick Saban said in late March that he was "very pleased" with Davis' progress.

With his dad in attendance, Davis finished the spring by posting three tackles during Alabama's spring game in April while playing inside linebacker.

"Anytime you come out of a smaller high school and go to a major college like Alabama, you're going to have a learning curve," Wayne Davis said. "But he's really zeroed in on understanding the system. Even myself coming out of a smaller school, when I came out of Gordo, you had to pick up on some things that you've never faced before, but he has really taken advantage of the first year learning and I can really see him contributing, more so this year probably on special teams. As you know, Alabama has a stable of (linebackers) over there and you have to wait your turn, and I'm sure his turn is going to come soon enough. Absolutely."