TUSCALOOSA — Alabama left guard Mike Johnson never hesitated to credit his performance to the players flanking him last season.

But tackle Andre Smith and center Antoine Caldwell were missing when spring practice opened Friday for the Crimson Tide, which must replace those two All-Americans, plus right guard Marlon Davis.

Competition to fill those spots will come from veterans who backed up the starters last year and several young newcomers. Among those new faces are players who started school this semester. Two of the four early enrollees are offensive linemen — James Carpenter, a junior college transfer, and true freshman Chance Warmack, who graduated from high school last semester.

“Already it’s been really intense,” Johnson said of the battle that’s taking shape. “James Carpenter has stepped in and done a really good job playing tackle. (Sophomore) John Michael Boswell has played some great tackle.

“Expect Chance Warmack and guys that are true freshmen to really compete for jobs. It’s a wide open race. Guys are coming out with that attitude. Everybody’s working to get better, … hours and hours trying to learn their assignments and what they need to do to get on the field.”

Alabama coach Nick Saban said the early work should be an advantage to the newcomers. In addition to Warmack and Carpenter, defensive lineman Kerry Murphy and running back Jermaine Preyear joined the team this semester.

“They’ll probably be more prepared relative to what’s expected of them physically in terms of conditioning, strength, those kinds of things,” Saban said. “We’re looking forward to see what those guys can do. Obviously, we have questions to answer in the offensive line and we have two of those guys in the offensive line. We’ll obviously learn as much about them as we do the quarterbacks or any other
position.”

Johnson said the oversized Warmack hardly looks like a true freshman.

“Not at all. I was telling somebody he looks like Marlon Davis right now,” the rising senior said of the 6-foot-3, 325-pound tackle from Atlanta. “He looks like a fifth-year senior. He’s a growing boy.”

Johnson said the advantage over the other freshmen who will join the team in June for summer conditioning will be obvious in the fall.

“I don’t think there’s any question, just leaps and bounds ahead of everybody else,” the guard said. “Those guys are getting in with (offensive line) coach (Joe) Pendry. They’ve already been watching film and just acting like we have. We’ve all been pushing them, trying to work with them, all been telling them what kind of calls we make, what we expect out them and what we expect as an offensive line.”

Johnson said he also expects a lot of experimenting with different combinations and players at different positions this spring.

“It’s not the five best guys, it’s the five who make the best team,” the rising senior said.

Saban confirmed that coaches will look at players at several different positions — not just the offensive line — this spring.

“We have guys who were outside ’backers (playing) inside ’backer. We have guys who were corners playing safety, we have guys who were safeties playing corner. We have guys who are guards who might play tackle, tackles who might play guard,” the coach said Friday. “Sometimes we have to experiment and see what guys can do.”

Johnson said that working as a cohesive unit is just as crucial as being physically dominant and technically sound. Just spending time together, learning about the other guys is important.

“You can’t say enough about that, especially in the system we run, when you’re running zone plays and stuff like that,” Johnson said. “It’s important for us to get a group of five guys that we feel close with and we feel we can work with in order to come out with the best results next year. We need to go ahead and start right now. There’s no time to waste. Go ahead and start right now, and get level heads and start working toward making ourselves better.”

He said he felt that sense of urgency as players hit the ground running on Friday.

“It was very intense,” he said of the first practice. “When you’ve got a lot of fresh legs — not necessarily fresh legs, but guys that are just ready to get back into football — you’re always gonna have guys hitting. Even though we didn’t have pads on it was a really intense day. I’m bruised up from head to toe. I think everybody is. But that speaks a lot for our team and the intensity we bring.”

Johnson was asked if it’s too much to expect this offensive line to be as good as last year’s.

“I don’t think it’s too much to expect at all. We’ve got a lot of talent, as far as the guys that were backing them up last year and the new guys that have come in,” he said. “Coach Saban has done a really good job of recruiting guys that can come in and replace people, especially in areas that we needed help. But we’ll make leaps and bounds towards next year. There’s still a few months left. Hopefully, we can get some things done before then.”