As Kalen DeBoer watched Alabama football practice in front of a sparse Bryant-Denny Stadium crowd at A-Day on Saturday, he gave an idea of where the Crimson Tide team stood ahead of the summer.

Last season, 72,358 fans showed up for Kalen DeBoer’s first A-Day, according to Alabama. The high water mark for the event came in 2007, when over 92,000 were on hand for Nick Saban’s Bryant ...