Down to business... again

TUSCALOOSA | This was no formal introduction.

When the time came for University of Alabama junior quarterback John Parker Wilson to meet new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Jim McElwain, there was a simple knock at the door, and one of them said 'Hi.'

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Then they got down to business, McElwain beginning to work with his third different quarterback in three years, Wilson learning from his third offensive coordinator over the same time frame.

'I've kind of gotten used to it, learning new people, learning new offenses,' Wilson said. 'I've gotten good at learning if anything else.

'I like him a lot. I like everything that we're doing, everything we changed up. He has a different teaching style, and I like it a lot.'

McElwain, Wilson and the rest of the Crimson Tide will take the offseason to the practice field beginning Thursday for a month of coach Nick Saban's intense conditioning 'Fourth Quarter' program. Besides 15 practices, the traditional A-Day scrimmage will be April 12.

Offensively, the new coordinator is the biggest change this spring, even though at least one new starter needs to be found on the offensive line, and UA is without three veteran wide receivers, including DJ Hall.

But talk still surrounds Wilson, who only needs 732 yards to become Alabama's all-time passing leader.

Last season, Wilson completed 255 of 462 attempts (55.2 percent), for 2,846 yards, with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in a campaign that, at times, lacked consistency.

Compared to his SEC counterparts, he was fourth in average passing yards per game (218.9), but eighth in passing efficiency with a 114.6 rating, which was barely ahead of Ole Miss' Seth Adams and Vanderbilt's Mackenzi Adams, both at 113.4.

Despite that, Saban made it clear Tuesday that Wilson is still his starter, ahead of freshmen backups Greg McElroy and Nick Fanuzzi.

'How many game did he start last year?' Saban said. 'I think there's competition at every position, but John Parker is our quarterback until somebody beats him out.

'Our emphasis is going to be on taking each one of those guys and getting them to play as well as they can play, and I think he has the capabilities of being an outstanding quarterback for us. I think he played outstanding at times for us last year, and there were other times his consistency wasn't what we would like it to be.

'I think he played an outstanding game at the bowl game, where he was the player of the game. Hopefully we're going to build on the positive things that John Parker can do. I'm very much in support of his leadership, he's done a great job in the offseason program.'

Wilson is roughly at the same playing weight as last season -- 214 pounds -- but believes he's stronger due to the recent weight-lifting sessions head strength coach Scott Cochran devised.

Instead, most of Wilson's work this spring will be on the mental side, learning to work with his new coach and getting more comfortable with the receiving crops sans Hall – with Nikita Stover, Mike McCoy, Derrick Alexander, Will Oakley, Brandon Gibson, Darius Hanks and Marquis Maze.

'We have some different packages in right now that we didn't have before, some different things we can do to a defense,' Wilson said. 'It will be more spread around. We have a bunch of guys who can catch balls, and it seems that we don't have one [feature] guy, but we have bunch of guys who can come in and get open, and hopefully some new guys who can do it as well.'

Saban estimated that up to 70 percent of the terminology, formations and cadences haven't changed, with McElwain incorporating about 30 percent worth of changes into the head coaches' system.

'He's intense, he's tough, but he also slides a little joke in every now and then, he mixes things up,' said junior center Antoine Caldwell, who believes fans will see more misdirection from the running game and attack the edges. 'I can just tell by him being out there, the guy's a winner. He knows how to score points, he knows what he needs to do, he puts a big emphasis on forgetting the last play, no matter what it was, good bad or indifferent, set on this next play, and that's something this offense needs to improve on.'

Reach Christopher Walsh at Christopher.walsh@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0196.