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Jumbo Package: Gump Day

Incoming players and a little bit of hoops speculation

NCAA Football: SEC Championship-Alabama vs Florida Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

As expected, Jones, Robinson, McKinney, and Wright all joined the other early enrollees, just a month later, at the start of the spring 2 semester. It’s a new thing that we haven’t really seen before, so you can bet Nick Saban was all over finding a way to making it happen.

I would expect to see more of this is the future, if it’s possible. It allows a kid to wait until NSD to make a decision and still get to enroll early.

This was such a great class for the wide receivers. Obviously, yours truly will be writing up a big Meet the New Guys piece on the receivers in the upcoming weeks, but for now, here’s a little taste to get your appetite ready.

Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, Devonta Smith, and Tyrell Shavers all bring unique skill sets to Alabama. With ArDarius Stewart and Gehrig Dieter leaving, they will all be vying to supplant incumbent backups in Trevon Diggs, Cam Sims, and Robert Foster to be the second option behind Calvin Ridley. And if not, they will absolutely be the future of this receiving corps in 2018.

If you only click one link today, check this one out. The guys at Bleacher Report really did their homework on the intricacies of Alabama’s depth chart, and got some key interviews and quotes with quite a few Tide players.

They talk about Diggs making a push at receiver, Lester Cotton overcoming his benching and recent marijuana charge to fend off incoming Elliot Baker and Alex Leatherwood, and who will be replacing Jonathan Allen and Dalvin Tomlinson.

We also get a really good quote from Hale Hentges about what all is required of a TE in Alabama’s offense, and some of Marlon Humphrey talking about the 4 young secondary members that came in last year.

Many of us have already given up and packed this season away in eschew for dreams of next season, when incoming freshmen Collin Sexton, John Petty, Herb Jones, and Alex Reese all look to make a huge immediate impact.

However, don’t totally count the Tide hoops team out this season just yet. Last season featured a strong showing a push for an NCAA tournament bid during the final stretch of the season, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Avery Johnson have his team playing above their talent level to close out the season.

That said, it’s definitely going to take some major heart and a lot of work to pull it off.

That’s about it for Gump Day this week... There isn’t much news happening out there right now. Enjoy it. The media will blow up again once we hire an offensive coordinator.