Published On: 03.03.21 | 

By: Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Football preview: West Alabama set to begin the state’s shortest football season

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West Alabama coach Brett Gilliland, center, says he believes his team will benefit from spring play, even a two-game season. (West Alabama Athletics)

Do two games constitute a season?

“That’s a good question,” replied coach Brett Gilliland, whose West Alabama Tigers play the first of two spring football games at 1 p.m. Saturday as Limestone comes to Livingston.

“It just makes two games for us,” the coach said. “We just wanted to line up and go against somebody else.”

Gilliland’s plan this spring was to play at least one game and perhaps as many as three. The Tigers were already set to take on Savannah State in the Gulf Coast Challenge on March 13 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.

“We’re glad we had the one, and then this one (against Limestone) kind of fell in our lap,” the coach said. “We’re glad we got it.”

West Alabama is an NCAA Division II program that competes in the Gulf South Conference. Five of the eight conference football teams are sitting out the 2021 spring campaign, opting instead to wait for what they hope is a closer-to-normal fall.

Mississippi College is playing three games and Shorter five games.

“There’s one reason I wanted to do it,” Gilliland said of the Tigers’ abbreviated spring schedule. “I wanted to lengthen our schedule a little bit and I wanted to be able to compete against a different opponent than going against ourselves every day. I think it has a chance to help us improve.

“Everything we do is to try to find ways to improve and get better,” he continued. “The more times we get to practice this spring and still keep our conditioning and strength aspect of it, the better I think we’re going to be. It’s also going to continue to grow the bonds between our players, which is the vitally important part that a lot of people skip out on and don’t always see. The bond that we’re able to create within our team from player to player and from coach to player will help determine how good of a fall we have.”

Alabama NewsCenter: How do you feel about your team going into this two-game spring stretch?

Brett Gilliland: The good thing for us is we have such a senior- and upperclassmen-heavy team. These guys have all been here doing what we’ve done. We haven’t changed schemes or anything, so there’s a lot of carryover from last year and even the year before. That part of it is good, but as a coach you’re always a little nervous. Are you fully prepared (for) all a game can throw at you? At some point, you just put the ball down and let the guys go play and see what happens.

ANC: What is the strength of your team this spring?

Gilliland: The defensive line has been a strong point on that side of the ball. Offensively, it’s kind of been day by day. Some days our receivers have played really, really well. I love our backfield and our running backs as far as the skill positions.

ANC: Who are the standouts among these Tigers?

Gilliland: Undraez Lilly is a defensive end who has been playing really well. He’s been here for five years now; we signed him out of high school. He’s been playing really well on the defensive front. The guy is a very good leader. (Others are) Bayley Blanchard and Tyriq Martin at the wideout spots, and then probably Derrick Underwood at running back. Those guys kind of would be at the forefront. We have a senior quarterback coming back in Jack McDaniels. He finished off the 2019 season playing really well and then did the same through the practices we were able to get last spring and then again last fall. I feel good about him. We’ve got a really old offensive line, an older group that’s been together for a long time.

ANC: With only two games on your spring schedule, is one more of a “key” game?

Gilliland: We’ve never played Savannah State, so that’s interesting. We’re playing them in Mobile, which would be a new stadium that we haven’t played in, at Ladd. There’s a lot of camaraderie around that game. This (Limestone) game kind of got – I don’t want to say thrown together – but it was in the last 10 days before the game that we got the deal signed. There’s been a lot of emphasis put on the Savannah State game this spring, and this one kind of just popped up. It’s gonna be the first one in Tiger Stadium in 475 days. That gives it some importance right there, so, you know, we’re just excited about both opportunities.

ANC: What is the lingering question as you go into your spring games?

Gilliland: The biggest thing that we want to know as coaches through these two games is, ‘Where are the holes? Where are the things that we need to show great improvement on through development throughout the rest of spring and into the fall? Are there areas that we need to continue to find five guys to bring in here?’ That’s the biggest thing we’re looking for throughout these two opportunities.

Read spring season football previews for Huntingdon College, Samford University, Jacksonville State University, Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University.