This is an opinion column.

Let’s be clear, crystal football clear about the state of the Alabama Crimson Tide today because clarity was in short supply Saturday during the lo-def, lo-fi, no-respect ESPN- production of A-Day 2023. Seriously. Did they shoot the video with a toaster? Run the sound through tin cans? Is this what you get when you go two whole years without winning a national championship?

Coach Prime got the prime slot on ESPN’s mothership for his first spring game at Colorado. When they threw it to commercial in between incompletions and interceptions in Tuscaloosa, the Aflac duck was hanging out with a couple of new sidekicks, basketball coaches, no less, in Coach K and Dawn Staley.

If the Crimson Tide fails to win it all for a third straight season, which would be a dubious and unprecedented distinction in the Nick Saban era, next year’s spring game might be relegated to ESPN the Ocho with a couple of camcorders and a megaphone.

Like almost all spring games, what we were able to see from Bryant-Denny Stadium was intriguing but, for the most part, inconclusive in terms of the big picture. For the last 15 years around here, since the 2008 Alabama team set the standard, the big picture has been big ring or bust.

On that score, there are a few conclusions to draw from Crimson 30, White 21.