Alabama doesn’t provide statistics after closed scrimmages for several reasons, one of which is that they don’t mean much when not in context. Quarterbacks are likely to do better when working with the first offense against the second defense, so the raw statistics of a quarterback working with the second offense against the first defense might not reflect his performance.

So there are no statistics for the quarterbacks (or anyone else) following Alabama’s first scrimmage of fall camp at Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday. And there won’t be any statistics when the Crimson Tide has its second scrimmage next Saturday. Those numbers will be there for all to see when the Tide opens its season in three Saturdays on Aug. 31 against Duke in Atlanta.

When Bama Coach Nick Saban was asked about the back-up quarterbacks following Saturday’s work, he limited his remarks to Mac Jones.

Mac Jones had good day in scrimmage

Third-year sophomore Mac Jones, the only quarterback with any game experience (and not much of that since Jalen Hurts was the back-up quarterback last year), is considered the front-runner to be first up behind Tua Tagovailoa this year.

Saban said, “Mac played well today. Mac had a really good day today. He had a high completion percentage, threw for some big plays, really did a good job, some of it against the first defense.

“I thought he did a nice job. He did a really good job of trying to lead the team when he was in there. He did a good job.”

Saban historically provides very good information to reporters even when he may not like the question. Saturday he got one that was from out in left field – which is not to say it was a bad question, just one that didn’t fit with Saban’s thought process.

The question:

“Last season, Tua’s completion percent when he had more than 2 ½ seconds in the pocket was 20 percent below than when he had less than 2 ½seconds. I wonder if you could explain why that might have been the case?”

The answer:

“I really can’t explain it. Where’d you get that stat? We don’t do those kinds of stats, so I can’t comment on something I don’t know about. It’s not a significant state to me, so I’m not spending any time worrying about it, thinking about it, answering a question about it, or anything else.

“I don’t think there’s any question about the fact that when you throw the ball on time and you have good protection, the quarterback is going to be more efficient and effective. When he gets pressure it’s going to affect himself in some cases.

“He has to learn to protect himself and we need to do a good job of protecting him.

“Every play has a time element as to when to get rid of the ball. Every play. Some plays are quick, some plays are medium quick, and some plays are a little longer. So the key to the drill is we protect and do those things on time.

“If it’s a quick pass and someone runs free through the A gap, it’s probably not going to work. Do we have any protections where we let people run free through the A gap? No.

So if we do things correctly, there is a timing element in the passing game that is very, very important. When we do it right, I would probably agree that we are probably more efficient and effective. That wouldn’t be a surprise to me.”

In considering everything about the quarterbacks, it should be remembered that Saban had a list of defensive players, several expected to be first team, who did not participate in the scrimmage. Thus, he said, in the front seven there were both inside linebackers (Dylan Moses and Josh McMillon) and two defensive linemen (LaBryan Ray and D.J. Dale) not participating, meaning the first defense had a number of second team players, the second defense more down-the-liners.