Alabama football demands excellence, whether it be on the field, in the weight room, or in the classroom. But this preseason, there’s been another way for Crimson Tide staffers to measure a player’s dedication to the program: their tongues, or more appropriately, their saliva.

“The hydration never really stops,” sophomore Tyler Booker told The Next Round on Monday. “We have these tools. You’ll put the little tab on your tongue and it’ll tell you how hydrated you are. The strength coaches are roaming (with) those around every day.”

With repeated heat advisories across the state this month — and constant 100-plus degree days in Tuscaloosa as the Sept. 2 opener nears — Alabama has monitored the team’s hydration levels with a tool it started using last fall.

In preparation for the 2022 Texas game, UA associate athletic director and head of football sports medicine Jeff Allen broke out a device like Booker described and started recording the results.

Players had been given sodium shots, salt packets and a supply of Pedialyte. But the saliva test provided a clearer read and helped the Tide for its first game in Austin in a century. Some devices, like the MX3, upload results to an app to be reviewed by a team official. It can let a player know if they are hydrated based on a scale, according to center Seth McLaughlin.

“Tongue’s looking great,” McLaughlin joked on Monday when asked about his recent results.

According to Dr. Sandy Fowkes-Godek, the director of the HEAT institute and professor of sports medicine at West Chester (Pa.) University, different positions sweat differently due to their different physiques. Linemen, like Booker and McLaughlin, can be labeled “heavy sweaters” and produce up to 3.5 liters an hour, up to five times that of their skill-position teammates.

Booker said he’s drinking 18 bottles of water a day, meaning about three per meal and three for each team meeting. During one preseason practice, Booker told The Next Round, offensive line coach Eric Wolford burst into the room and told Booker he needed to improve his numbers.

McLaughlin — talking about a story Booker referenced about Saban not taking a bathroom break in a team meeting in 41 years — poked fun at the head coach’s drinking habits.

“I don’t think Coach Saban has to hydrate as much as we do. We’re chugging water day in and day out. If you’re doing it right you’ve got to go to the restroom every 30 minutes.

“So we’re sitting in an hour and a half meeting and Coach Saban put in a rule you couldn’t go to the restroom otherwise the position coach is going to get into trouble. No one said that, I’m just assuming,” McLaughlin said. “It’s a different ball game running around coaching and playing.”

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].