They played the final scrimmage. They gave out the annual awards. They even enjoyed 78,200 at Bryant-Denny Stadium for A-Day on Saturday.

But wait, spring football’s not over yet for the University of Alabama. There’s still the 15th, and last, workout for the Crimson Tide today, which will be somewhat unusual for everyone involved, even coach Nick Saban.

“It’s going to be a little strange, but we’re committed to working,” sophomore linebacker Charlie Higgenbotham said. “We’re all into Coach Saban’s philosophy of working hard.”

At the urging of city officials and Tuscaloosa mayor Walter Maddox, Alabama moved up spring practices this year so A-Day wouldn’t overlap with next week’s triathlon weekend, which will include an Olympic trail.

Consequently, the first spring two practices, sans pads, were held prior to spring break, despite obvious concerns about continuity, and the final workout bumped to after A-Day.

It wasn’t ideal, but things appeared to go off without too much of a hitch.

“So far we’ve had a good spring,” Saban said during his press conference after A-Day. “A lot of guys have made a lot of improvement. We still have one more practice, but I was pretty pleased with the went things went for us [Saturday].”

At minimum, the final practice session will give coaches an opportunity to make some corrections after studying the game film from Saturday.

For example, they might closely look at is how well Higgenbotham relayed plays as the starting middle linebacker for the White Team. A good performance can only increase his chances of getting on the field in the fall.

“There were a few [gaffes], you have to get used to different coaches’ signaling styles,” said Higgenbotham, who finished with eight tackles (which tied junior safety Ali Sharrief for the team lead), a sack and a quarterback hurry. “At the beginning you see a few errors, but after we got that hammered out we did fine.”

Also, it’ll give someone like senior linebacker Jimmy Johns a little extra work at outside/strongside linebacker, where he saw live action for the first time Saturday and despite splitting duties with junior Eryk Anders, who had two sacks, finished with four tackles.

“I’ve never done it before, but I’ve heard teams doing it and we have a chance to go work on Clemson, our first game,” senior quarterback John Parker Wilson said about having a practice after A-Day. “It’ll help out so when we start again it won’t be the first time we’ve seen it.”

Oh, there’s one other thing, scheduled for Tuesday. The losing team from A-Day has to eat a heaping portion of beans.

“It won’t be that bad,” senior safety Rashad Johnson said.

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