When reporters watched Alabama football’s defense stream into the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility during the Crimson Tide’s preseason camp practice on Tuesday, a change was evident. The defenders were wearing white practice jerseys.

Out on the fields, the offense was wearing crimson. That’s a total shift of what happened during Nick Saban’s tenure in Tuscaloosa.

Back before Kalen DeBoer replaced the retired Saban, it was always offense in white, defense in crimson, with non-contact participants in black jerseys. After Tuesday’s practice, defensive line coach Christian Robinson explained the change.

“A lot of it is just giving the quarterbacks and the receivers those reps visually seeing the jerseys that they’ll be throwing to that week,” Robinson said. “I think any coach is big on visualization and making practice like gameday. I think for those guys it’s just something the quarterback gets used to doing. I’ve seen that at other places, but it’s nice to be able to do that here and get those reps.”

Alabama is beginning to wind down camp as the Aug. 31 season-opener against Western Kentucky at Bryant-Denny Stadium approaches. The jerseys aren’t the only change DeBoer has implemented since arriving in Tuscaloosa from Washington, where he led the Huskies to a national championship game appearance last season.

DeBoer has moved UA’s practices to mornings, and plays music during the sessions. Alabama also named its 2024 captains on Tuesday, rather than wait until the end of the season to name the permanent group.

The jerseys were a first visible step toward moving into more game prep. Robinson and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said that shift will continue as the week goes along.

“We haven’t really gotten into full-in game plan mode for Western Kentucky,” Wommack said. “We’ve obviously looked at those things and had some preparation as a coaching staff, but we won’t finalize those things until the back end of this week.”

Alabama’s season opener is scheduled to kick off at 6 p.m. CT on Aug. 31. It will be aired on ESPN.