Jumbo Package: Thursday Edition

The links are definitely on the random side today. There is NOT much going on in the world of college football. While looking for links, I googled "Alabama football news," and the top link was our very own Jumbo Package from Wednesday. The summer months suck.

Detroit's Wallace Gilberry talks AJ McCarron, says Nick Saban is 'best agent out there' | AL.com

"I made a statement at the bowl game that Alabama would compete for a national championship in the next three years. They did it in two. I saw it coming. I saw what he was doing."

But did he see the impact Saban would have on Alabama players getting to the NFL? The Tide has had 18 players drafted in the first round alone under Saban.

"He's the best agent out there as opposed to being a coach," Gilberry said. "He knows how to put his players in position, and he knows what to say when they are in that position. He's a great advocate for the University of Alabama, not only as a head coach but also as a guy who can give his guys the exposure they need."

Wallace Gilberry was one of the few bright spots from the end of Mike Shula's reign and the first of Saban's years. Though he only spent one year, Gilberry saw glimpses of just how special of a coach Nick Saban was going to be. And I'm still upset that Gilberry wasn't drafted in the 2008 draft.

C.J. Mosley talks wrist injury, goals for 2016

Former Alabama LB C.J. Mosley is finally ready to play football without wearing a protective cast on the wrist he injured in December – December 2014.

A year and a half later, Mosley still has his injured wrist on his mind. He had offseason surgery last year and wore a protective cast throughout the 2015 season, but is hopeful he can return to playing without it this fall.

"I’m hoping to try to stay out of it," Mosley told AL.com. "I went all OTAs without it. Once training camp comes and we actually get to hit, we’ll see how it feels. But for the most part, I feel pretty good."

Mosley has quietly become one of the best middle linebackers in the NFL, despite playing his entire second season with a cast on his wrist. Baltimore was a great landing spot for the former Tide great. Often, young NFL players see the greatest improvement between years 2-3 and between 3-4. If Mosley manages to harness his talent and become fully comfortable with the game, he could quickly ascend to the top of the NFL with players like Luke Keuchley and Bobby Wagner.

5. Jeremy Pruitt, Alabama

The 2013 campaign marked Pruitt's first season as a coordinator at an FBS program. All he did was guide Florida State to No. 1 rankings in S&P+ and scoring defense, and a third-best clip for yards. Then in 2014 and 2015, Pruitt helped Georgia record top-20 S&P+ marks.

More offseason power rankings. This time, its a ranking of the best defensive coordinators in college football. It's quite interesting that Pruitt is so high on the list already. He did a great job with Alabama's secondary, and then showed tangible improvements at both Florida State and Georgia. Though he'll be a change from the Kirby Smart defense we've become accustomed to seeing, the change might be just the spark needed to keep the Alabama engine from going stale.

College football: Council adjusts bowl selection process | NCAA.com

The Division I Council solidified the process for placing eligible teams into bowl games for the 2016-17 season during its Wednesday meeting in Indianapolis.

The Council determined that all bowl-eligible teams with 6-6 records must be selected for a bowl game before any teams with a 5-7 record can be considered. After all bowl-eligible teams are selected, the 5-7 teams – which will be considered alternates – will be deemed eligible in descending order from the highest multiyear Academic Progress Rate in the Football Bowl Subdivision for the most recent reporting year.

Those teams will then select the bowl in which they will participate.

Please insert your arguments below concerning the matter of "too-many-bowl-games."

While the rule change could be huge for many programs across the nation, we obviously won't have to ever even think about it here at Alabama. Roll Tide.

Ranking the country's 5 different kinds of college football recruiting states - SBNation.com

The Crimson Tide roster currently lists 37 players from Alabama. That's about all one needs to know about the underappreciated quality of high school football in the state, right? I'm surprised to see Tennessee higher than Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The latter are two of the Big Ten's most prized recruiting areas, while the Volunteer State's weird geography and lack of talent are often talked about as major hindrances for the Vols. Everything's relative, though.

The college football recruiting hub for SBNation put together a pretty cool article breaking down the blue-chip stats of every state, and then ranking them into tiers. The state of Alabama is 7th overall on the list, behind Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, Ohio, and Louisiana.

When you look at those top seven states, notice that Tuscaloosa, AL, is right in the middle of a compact geographical region containing Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana. Just another cog in system for what has become the best college football program in the nation.

The Case Against Ole Miss: How will the NCAA choose to punish the Rebels?

Miller says he spoke to the NCAA for more than 100 hours. He says he told investigators about Ole Miss arranging connections with boosters that led to money, free hotel rooms and lodging.

Not only did Ole Miss coaches break the rules, Miller claims, they were also brazen and calculating in how they did it. In its response to the NCAA, Ole Miss paints the boosters as rogue and stresses that there was no connection between their actions and the coaching staff. The distinction between those two will ultimately go a long way to determine the case against Ole Miss

"Are these multiple isolated incidents?" says Buckner, the independent lawyer. "Or is there a pattern of behavior or one or two networks involved? Is there coordination between coaches and boosters? Or were they independent? If I were a hearing panel member, I'd be concerned about it."

This case won't be resolved for some time, but it certainly doesn't look good for Ol' Buckteeth and his band of Black Bears.