Alabama football assistant coach Colin Hitschler starts many of his defensive back meetings off the same way.

Talking physicality, per DeVonta Smith.

“I feel like that was a big part of why scrimmage 2 was very, very physical for us,” Smith said.

Boy was it.

The defense as a whole, and in particular the secondary, crunched some bones and pummeled some offensive players this past Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The scrimmage was closed, but each onlooker AL.com spoke with afterward talked about how hard the defense, and the defensive backs specifically, hit.

“I thought it was an incredibly physical scrimmage,” defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said Tuesday. “Probably the most physical that I can remember being a part of. I thought I saw a gear from our players, another gear, another level of intensity that I had not seen yet.”

Safety Malachi Moore had one of the biggest hits, smacking receiver Cole Adams at one point. To Adams’ credit, it sounds like he held onto the football. But he certainly paid for that catch as the recipient of a bone-crunching hit from Moore.

“He’ll definitely hit you,” Hitschler said.

Moore will also rally the team. As a team captain in 2023 and now one again in 2024, his hard hits have a ripple effect. So it’s no surprise his tackle inspired other smackdowns from the defense in the second scrimmage of the preseason.

“For the team, when Malachi makes a hit like that, it brings the whole team, the sideline, more together,” Smith said. “It just intensifies everything. It makes me want to go out there and get a big hit and make a play. It just brings momentum to the defensive side most definitely.”

The Alabama defensive backs made receivers earn just about everything over the middle during the scrimmage, and that wasn’t by accident. Hitschler said physicality was a point of interest with the season around the corner. The goal as a defensive back is to make an impact, Hitschler noted, and you can do that in multiple ways; you can get your hands on the ball. Or you can hit the guy who catches the ball.

The Crimson Tide defense did plenty of the latter, with some of the former as well. One example: defensive back King Mack had another scrimmage interception. Takeaways weren’t the main story out of the second scrimmage, though. Hard hits received that honor.

Offenses: Consider the physical performance a warning.

“The message is, you’re going to get hit,” Smith said. “Regardless however it comes down, you may catch the ball, you may not, but you’re going to get hit. You’re going to feel it. We just want to make sure people know that we’re there and we’re ready to play.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.