David Ballou has spent no shortage of time around high-level football teams and high-level athletes.

Alabama’s director of sports performance has been in Tuscaloosa since 2020. Before that, he led or took part in strength and conditioning programs at Indiana and Notre Dame. So, Ballou knows how to evaluate the condition of a football team.

Including the 2025 Crimson Tide.

“My understanding is that it’s about the best (Coach Ballou’s) ever seen a group come in as far as coming into June and in shape, which I had no doubt about that,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer told AL.com as part of the latest episode of “Beat Everyone” an AL.com Alabama football podcast. The full show will be released Monday night, accessible on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

“We’ve had a great month so far,” DeBoer said as part of the interview in mid June. “I think based on just kind of where we’re at, I expect the trajectory to continue on, through the month of July, and making sure we are fresh not just for August but for November and December because that’s really what it’s about is continuing to have this climb.”

It’s a good thing the players seem to be in the shape they are because DeBoer explained to former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy on his podcast “Always College Football” that the summer wouldn’t be an easy one.

“We’ve cautioned them not to do too much (in May) because the summer is going to be as hard as one they’ve ever been through,” DeBoer said in May.

That caution stems from what he saw from the players heading into the 2024 season.

“What I saw a year ago is our guys will just go and go and go and go,” DeBoer said on Beat Everyone. “It’s a long year. It’s a long season. We’ve been pushing the guys from winter to spring. Even when we got done with spring ball, we were still hitting it hard for a few weeks leading right up to finals. What I want to make sure of is our guys, they’re going to go. I know they’re going to work in the month of May. We have a program for them. But what they like to do, and I’ve seen is they want to go to their trainer. They’re excited about the direction that we’re going come the end of this spring. They go work with specific people. You’ve just got to make sure you’re not overtraining because when they come here, they’ve got to be where we need them to be to hit the ground running in June.”

Based on what Ballou expressed to DeBoer, the players returned to Tuscaloosa more than ready.

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