There's only one way to get over last season: reps, reps and more reps.

And thankfully for Alabama's defensive backs, there are plenty to go around this spring with top cornerback Cyrus Jones out with a hip injury and reserve corner Anthony Averett now experimenting at wide receiver. Meanwhile, both starting safeties from last year's squad, Landon Collins and Nick Perry, are off preparing for the NFL draft.

What coach Nick Saban says he wants is competition, and that's exactly what he'll get as he prepares to restructure a secondary that allowed 16 passes of 20-plus yards against Auburn, Missouri and Ohio State to end last season, more than double its previous average of 2.45 such plays per game.

"I want guys to compete to be the best," Saban told reporters in Tuscaloosa this week. "I don’t want them to feel like ‘Oh it’s my turn to play now because I’ve been sitting behind these guys for a while' and I want to see a lot of energy and enthusiasm and intensity in the way they compete. Those are the kind of guys we want to play with."

That current cast of characters includes veterans Eddie Jackson, Bradley Sylve, Tony Brown and Marlon Humphrey at cornerback. Geno Smith, Maurice Smith, Hootie Jones and Ronnie Harrison are the top candidates at safety.

Saban said, "If you're going to be a starter, you have to act like a starter and you have to play like one." But one such former starter, Jackson, has seen his share of ups and downs. The rising junior started as a freshman, tore his ACL the following spring and somehow made it back to the starting lineup by Game 2 of last season. But in that three-game stretch where Alabama allowed big play after big play, it was Jackson who was often the victim of getting beat over the top.

"Eddie's got to improve, in my opinion, as all players do," Saban said. "[We] probably gave up too many big plays last year, and that's something we've got to improve on. You've got to believe, trust in the technique that you're being taught and go out there and try and execute ... and I don't think we did that last year enough in the secondary. That's something that I think we need to make a big improvement on for next year."

Helping that cause is new assistant Mel Tucker, who went from running the Chicago Bears' defense as its coordinator last year to coaching Alabama's defensive backs this spring.

Saban, who has plenty of familiarity with Tucker having employed him as a grad assistant at Michigan State and then as DB coach at LSU, said, "Mel's a really good coach."

"He knows the system, he knows a lot of the adjustments," Saban said. "Obviously, his experience in the NFL with some of the things that he’s done since that time are things that may be good additions and adjustments for what might help us systematically. I think he’s done a really, really good job with the players, and I think the players have responded very well to him."