Grades for Alabama football after dominant win in 2023 season ...

Alabama football did its job Saturday, beating Middle Tennessee State 56-7 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The win was dominant across the board, but there were still areas the Crimson Tide could stand to tighten up before Texas comes to Tuscaloosa next week.

Here are our grades for Alabama’s performance against MTSU.

Jalen Milroe was stellar. He earned the chance to start against the Blue Raiders and he made good, throwing for three touchdowns and running for two more.

Texas presents a much more difficult challenge next week, and Milroe had a few throws that wouldn’t be complete against the Longhorns. Still, he seemed to be on the right track in the quest to replace Bryce Young

The big deal: no drops. That was a huge issue for Alabama throughout last season, and one that the Crimson Tide worked hard to eradicate during the offseason.

Mission accomplished, at least for now. There were plenty of contributors all over the field, though not one clear star, with Isaiah Bond, Jermaine Burton, Kobe Prentice and more all pitching in.

This was a much-improved performance from last season and Nick Saban knew it. He said the group is better than the Tide have had in the past few years.

Amari Niblack was a major player in the passing game, grabbing a touchdown catch and the rest of the tight ends were a huge help in run blocking. If that continues throughout the season, it will be extremely helpful, especially given that the Tide don’t yet have a clear top receiver.

Alabama doesn’t seem to have a feature back with Jahmyr Gibbs off to the NFL. Still, the running backs looked solid against the Blue Raiders.

Milroe actually led the team in rushing with 48 yards along with two touchdowns, but Jase McClellan chipped in with 39 and a score and several other backs had meaningful carries as well. Overall, Alabama rushed for 205 yards and five scores.

It wasn’t the cleanest of evenings up front for Alabama. Even on one of the highlight reel plays of the night, Milroe’s first touchdown run, it came on a bad snap by center Seth McLaughlin.

Still, the Tide blocked well enough. Things will need to improve next week, but the offense was able to fully function against the Blue Raiders.

Middle Tennessee State just couldn’t get anything going and there’s not much need to separate this into postions. Dallas Turner and company applied pressure and shut down the run game up front.

Meanwhile, the MTSU receivers couldn’t get open against the Crimson Tide secondary, which came up with an interception. The Alabama defense dominated.

No issues here. Kool-Aid McKinstry had some big punt returns, and even his shortest one got moved up 15 yards due to an MTSU targeting penalty.

James Burnip wasn’t used much at punter, but averaged 46.3 yards on his three kicks. Will Reichard never attempted a field goal, but was perfect on his extra points.