Jumbo Package: Tua walks back transfer comments, Tide women dominate the weekend

Happy Monday, everyone. The softball team dominated Oregon State in their regional championship game and will now move on to the super regionals for a NCAA-best 14th consecutive season. The Tide has now won 37 consecutive games in the regional round, also tops in the country. Things get really tough now as they have to play a three-game set at Washington, who beat them twice at the Husky classic back in March by a combined 12-1 margin. Opening game of the series is Friday night at 8pm CT, televised on ESPNU.

Not to be outdone by their counterparts on the diamond, women’s golf tore through the first three rounds of the NCAA championships and hold a commanding eight stroke lead heading into the final round, which will set the seeding for the 8-team match play tournament to determine the team champion. The individual national champion will be crowned today, and Alabama junior Cheyenne Knight is currently tied for the lead with one round left.

In football news, Tua Tagovailoa says his comments about transferring were taken out of context.

Take that as you will. It had to be a spectacular weekend for Tua back in Hawaii, as he was honored with a parade and celebration where he got to show off his dance moves.

Singing, dancing, quarterbacking. The man is a legitimate triple threat. As an aside, I’m sure that poor Simone was brokenhearted to get this assignment.

Dallas Warmack made it official that he will be joining Mario Cristobal and the Oregon Ducks.

“I feel the same way I have always felt about Coach Cristobal — great guy, great coach, a coach that I will love to go to war with this upcoming season,” Warmack told Oregon Live.

“Oregon has the best facility I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of facilities,” he added.

Good for Dallas. Hopefully he will be able to get on the field and make some noise out there.

Upon arriving in Birmingham, Slive demanded the SEC change its culture of rogue behavior, and as former Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long put it, “do things the right way, within the rules.”

It seemed wishful thinking to skeptics who had a front-row seat to the ruthless, no-holds-barred competition that existed within the league.

”Not long after he got here, he said the SEC would be probation-free in five years,” said ESPN personality Paul Finebaum. “I ridiculed him on my show. I said this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

That worked out pretty well until Ole Misdial and Hugh Freeze found one another. Seriously though, Slive’s legacy is one of unprecedented success for the conference. He will be missed.

This is a great piece, video included, about Alabama St. DB coach Amp Campbell, who miraculously recovered from a spinal injury to return the next season for the Michigan State Spartans 20 years ago under Saban. I would provide a quote for you, but WSFA apparently has disabled the ability to copy and paste from there. In any event, it’s worth your time.

Next up, SEC Country has a few notes on linebacker recruiting:

Alabama has a commitment from 4-star prospect Shane Lee. The Crimson Tide are in the mix for 5-star prospect Nakobe Dean and 4-star prospects Christian Harris, Kalen Deloach, Mohamoud Diabate and Kane Patterson. There’s also a good possibility of the Tide starting to pursue 4-star, in-state inside linebacker Vonta Bentley more.

I think the Tide are in good position for both Dean and Harris, who are the team’s top targets at ILB. Dean has visited Tuscaloosa around five times already, but he is strongly considering numerous schools and isn’t close to narrowing his choices yet. Harris has been close to committing to Alabama a couple of times now. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to see him on Alabama’s commitment list before the start of the season.

Top juco ILB Lakia Henry committed to Tennessee after visiting there, but that was the first FBS school he had seen. If Saban can get him to campus, the Tide should have a great shot with him. Dean is the huge prize here, though. His highlight reel will remind you of Rashaan Evans.

Alabama’s NFL rookies are getting paid, y’all.

For Alabama’s 12 players, including four first-rounders, those contracts will be worth $76,355,427.

Ohio State finished second in the bottom-line standings at $59,095,963. The Buckeyes also tied for second for the number of players picked at seven. LSU and North Carolina State also had seven players drafted, but the Wolfpack finished seventh and LSU came in 14th in the bottom-line standings.

There you go, 76 million more reasons to come to Alabama, ‘croots.

Poor Trent Richardson just can’t stay out of his own way, it appears.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced that they have placed running back Trent Richardson on that list as they open training camp for the 2018 season. Head coach Chris Jones said earlier this month that the team did not expect to have Richardson at the start of camp because he had “some situations going on at home.”

Last, the Orlando Sentinel needs to be investigated for violating child labor laws.

Instead of clucking like a little hen about how UCF didn’t earn the right to claim a national championship, Saban should have said, “If UCF really thinks they’re in our class, then let’s schedule a series. And let’s make it fair and square: We’ll play them once at our place and once at their place, so there will be no excuses!”

But, of course, Saban would never say that because he is part of the privileged Power 5 Playoff Invitational. Question for the Crimson Chickiepoos: Does winning a national championship without even winning your conference championship really qualify as “earning” it?

“Crimson Chickiepoos?” That had to have been written by a 12-year-old, right?

Thanks to the offseason doldrums, that’s about it for today. Have a great week.

Roll Tide.