USA Today Sports' Nicole Auerbach on how Alabama’s ability to reload on the fly is an exception to the theory that the best teams are stocked with returning starters.
PHOENIX — Richard Mullaney wasn’t cleared to officially join Alabama’s football program when he arrived on campus this past June, so the Oregon State transfer spent his first practice on a stationary bike set along the sidelines, pedaling away in 30-second intervals in punishing summer heat.
Thirty seconds on. Thirty seconds off. Maybe it wasn’t the heat; it gets hot in the summer in Corvallis, Ore.