Alabama DE Dalvin Tomlinson injures knee, will undergo surgery | AL.com
Alabama defensive end Dalvin Tomlinson, a promising redshirt freshman who made his debut Saturday, injured his knee in Wednesday's practice and will undergo surgery, coach Nick Saban said Thursday.
Saban said he would provide a timetable for Tomlinson's return once the surgery is completed.
Alright, you guys. /deep breath
When we were planning our first podcast, we had possible topics we were going to discuss, and one of those topics was "name one player that might a bit under the radar that you expect to burst onto the scene this year", and we ended up cutting that question, but my answer was going to be "Dalvin Tomlinson", and I was going to talk at length about how excited I was about him and all the good things he was going to do, and now he's had knee surgery, and they didn't say it was minor, which means it probably wasn't minor, and now he's not going to get to do all the awesome things I was looking forward to this year, and if I'm being honest, I'm a little bit upset about it, and no, those aren't tears, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop staring at me now.
Alabama punter Cody Mandell makes most of busy season opener | AL.com
If Cody Mandell's busy, something's probably going wrong for Alabama's offense.
That was the case Saturday's 35-10 win against Virginia Tech, when the Crimson Tide's offense sputtered and stalled throughout most of the game. With Alabama gaining just 206 yards of offense and scoring just two offensive touchdowns, Mandell punted a career-high nine times -- almost 20 percent of his total in 14 games last season.
Ugh. While it was certainly a good outing for Mandell, it's still tough to see his numbers. The number of punts we had in the past game was almost equal to one fifth of all 14 games last year. Simple math says that's almost three games worth of punts. Yikes.
Stanford coach David Shaw doesn't want his team compared to an SEC team | Yahoo
Despite the fact that many pundits (this one included) think Stanford is the closest thing to an SEC team that’s not in the SEC, Shaw doesn’t think the similarities are favorable.
“I don’t necessarily take it as a compliment,’’ Shaw said of the comparison to the SEC.
“We play the style of football I grew up with. It’s not because that’s the way they play at Alabama or LSU. That means nothing to us.’’
No. Don't make me stop loving you, Shaw. I don't really see the benefit of these comments. What do you stand to gain by saying "No, we aren't anything like those guys that keep piling up national championships"? Shaw has a nice gig going over there at Stanford, but I wouldn't be surprised if he gets lured away to the SEC (ONE OF US) by some big dollar signs in the next couple of years, as I think he's a heck of a coach.
**Practice Report**
The team officially began preparations for the September 14th game against Texas A&M. It sounds like Kenyan Drake is positioned to play in the upcoming game, while freshman Altee Tenpenny (who had the most carries by a back not named T.J. Yeldon against Virginia Tech) seems to be working with scout team, possibly indicating that the staff doesn't anticipate him playing.
**Video**
Nick Saban press conference
Running backs swinging heavy bag
Punter Cody Mandell