Jumbo Package: Early enrollees benefit the team in more ways than you think

Teams turning early enrollees into signing day strategy

Really interesting story about the benefit of early enrollees. This year 11 of the 15 five-stars were early enrollees. Over a third of the ESPN 150 arrived on campuses early. Of course some benefits are obvious: players help themselves; it provides some certainty for your signing class. In other ways it’s not quite so obvious — early enrollees have a positive impact on your recruiting class downstream. Players want to play with other good players. Alabama certainly benefited from it this season, as Tua Tagovailoa and Alex Leatherwood were super cheerleaders for other members and helped finally secure Najee Harris’ commitment.

2017’s projected 130-team college football rankings, from Bama through UAB - SBNation.com

Not the normal advanced data look at 2017’s projected top squads, Bill C examines 5-year trends, recruiting impact, and returning productivity. Alabama is number one in all of those categories, and is far and away the No. 1 team in projected S&P+. That leads to the Tide being your too-early No. 1. Other names will be familiar from New Year’s and playoffs: Oklahoma, Clemson, Ohio State, and FSU. Of SEC teams, only LSU (4) and Auburn (9,) are in the early Top-10.

Why Alabama's incoming wide receiver class is so impressive | AL.com

Yes. I’d say that is impressive..

Of the top 12 wide receivers in this year's recruiting class, one-third of them are going to Alabama.

Alabama Crimson Tide Football's early offseason checklist for 2017

A to-do list for the 2017 team — Number Four really struck me.

All four of the Tide’s permanent team captains -- Allen, Foster, Jackson and Cam Robinson -- will not be back, and members of its senior class that boasts the most wins in college football history will be looking to earn a spot on an NFL roster this spring. So younger players will need to become more vocal and responsible for their actions on the football field and around the facility.

Jalen Hurts is obviously on the list, but who else? And the defense will definitely need some captains and leaders to emerge. Minkah Fitzpatrick, maybe Shaun Dion Hamilton, strike me as the most obvious candidates. What about you?

Hoops preview: Alabama Crimson Tide Basketball begins tough, two-game stretch at South Carolina

That’s where Johnson started the team’s Monday video session, by showing players the end of the game and the way it rallied back. After playing the tape, Johnson posed this question to his team: “But the bigger question was why were we down double digits?”

“Yeah, great. We came back. But why didn’t we have that type of energy throughout the whole game?” Johnson said. “… We’ve had stretches where we played like we’re a pretty good basketball team.”

Good question, Coach. The Tide travels to South Carolina tonight against a ferocious Frank Martin team that is top-5 in points allowed and defensive efficiency -- Points are going to be hard to come by for a team that is already streaky shooting. CAJ said, “it’s a game for men. No boys allowed.” Another bad effort a la Arkansas and the second half of the Auburn game will get Alabama ran out of the building. This would be a good time for Alabama to put together another full-forty effort as they did on the road against Georgia.

Finally, let’s point and laugh at Tennessee!

Report: Ex-Michigan coach Brady Hoke will coach Tennessee's defensive line - CBSSports.com

It apparently didn't take long for former Michigan coach Brady Hoke to find work.

According to Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports, Hoke is expected to become Tennessee's defensive line coach. SEC Country reported over the weekend that the Volunteers were "in discussions" to hire Hoke.

Hoke is actually a competent defensive line coach...the greater issue is that he’s a lazy-to-mediocre recruiter. Not that it’s an issue for Alabama fans; to us it’s just another five-star heart and ten-cent head in Knoxville. Keep it up, Butch!