Gump Day after-Christmas open thread

Happy day after Christmas, everyone! December 26th is often my favorite day of the year, for reasons that have changed as I have aged. As a kid, it was the day when I finally got to spend time playing with the presents I opened. Later, it became a time when most of the hectic bits of life just kind of died down for a couple of days.

Whatever your day and situation looks like, be it a day of rest, a day of travel, a day of visiting family, or a day of work— do it to your best.

Anyway, this won’t be a full length Jumbo Package. No news has really changed in the last two days, when we learned that Deonte Brown, Kedrick James, and Elliot Baker were all suspended for “violating team rules.”

Alabama Football: 2019 early enrollees list and details

Four enrolled in December

Four players already enrolled in December: Pierce Quick; Paul Tyson; D.J. Dale and John Metchie. Quick decided to fully participate in Playoff practices, meaning he will miss his opportunity to play in the Under Armour All-America game.

Locked in for early enroll

The following list of new Crimson Tiders will enroll early according to 247 Sports.

Evan Neal – 5-Star OT

Antonio Alfano – 5- Star SDE

Amari Kight – 4-Star OT

Shane Lee – 4-Star ILB

Justin Eboigbe – 4-Star SDE

Jeffery Carter – 4-Star CB

Taulia Tagovailoa – 4-Star QB

Kevin Harris – 4-Star DE

Tanner Bowles – 4-Star OG

Darrian Dalcourt – 4-Star OG

Will Reichard – 3-Star Kicker

Some delay expected

4-Star, DE, King Mwikuta recently obtained an entry-level ACT score which is likely to mean a couple of weeks delay getting through the Clearinghouse process.

5-Star, Trey Sanders has been rumored needing to finish a couple of online high school classes. Sanders may not be allowed to enroll until early February.

Here’s your list on the early enrollees for 2019. Pierce Quick will for sure be running scout team in bowl practices, which bodes well for his chances of contributing early next year. It’s good to see so many coming in early this year after so few last year. That extra semester of being around the team and some practices go a long way in jump starting the careers of a lot of these guys.

Tua Tagovailoa feeling good as Alabama arrives in Miami

“At this point, we’re doing a lot better,” he said. “I got to move yesterday. I got to get a feel of of it before we come out today with practice. It feels good.”

Tagovailoa, who said he was limited in the first two or three bowl practices, has since been a full participant.

“Tua has been able to practice and get all the reps he’s been able to get,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “It will be interesting to see after having a few days off, with the additional rehab, how that impacts his ability to get closer to 100 percent.”

Tagovailoa is confident he will arrive at that point, although he acknowledged the aftereffect of his injury still enters his mind.

“I think this week I will be over it,” he said.

In the meantime, he is focused on refining much of work that has already been done in preparation for the clash with the Sooners.

Asked if the game plan has been adjusted to accommodate his injury with fewer rollouts and designed runs, Tagovailoa shook his head and said, “We’re running all the plays we’ve normally ran and if I wasn’t able to run some of the plays I don’t think I should be out there.”

The other major news hanging over us right now the ankle of a certain QB. Saban and Tua are saying all the right things to make sure Oklahoma expects a fully healthy Tagovailoa, but getting injury updates out of Tuscaloosa is equivalent to breaking into Fort Knox. We likely won’t have any idea until he gets out there against Oklahoma and either takes off running or starts limping around after one hit.

So, have great day after Christmas. We’ll start ramping up pre-game content leading up to the Orange Bowl very soon. In the meantime, use this as your open thread for the day.

Roll Tide!