Jumbo Package: Gump Day!

Alabama Football Recruiting: The Dead Period feels like a Dead Zone

How dead is the Dead Period?

The Dead Period is not really a dead zone. The recruiting process slows a bit because there can be no in-person contact between recruits and coaches. It does not stop. Communication is ongoing between recruits and coaches. It is just accomplished electronically or theoretically by regular mail, to whatever extent it is still used.

What happens next?

Long before the oppressive heat of a southern summer relents, the Tide will add commits. It could happen anytime. Top 2020, 4-Star recruit, Jayson Jones will announce on July 2nd.

Spoiler: it’s really dead. It’s really just not fair to us writer-folk that they scheduled in a dead period in recruiting right during the slowest sports month of the season.

I would say that means its a good time for everyone to get outdoors and do some hobbies like fishing or wrestling gators, but it’s really too hot for that. 121 degrees heat index in Mobile last Sunday was enough for me. I’m done with summer already.

Alabama gets 2020 quarterback commit from Carson Beck

Alabama has two quarterbacks in the 2019 recruiting class. Now it has a commitment for the 2020 version.

Carson Beck, previously committed to play baseball at Florida, flipped to Alabama before his junior year. The Jacksonville, Florida product made the announcement via Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.

Beck did not have a 247Sports star rating or class ranking. He’s listed at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds.

He will play both baseball and football, according to the Twitter announcement.

Despite the dead period, fortune has favored me with one tidbit of football news in that Alabama picked up a new commit from a 2020 QB. Obviously, that’s still a ways out, but the fact that he’s already 6’4” 225 as a sophomore is promising. Plus he’s committing early enough to get a real big “Bama Bump” over the next couple of years.

Kareem Jackson OK with position change with Houston Texans

In the eight NFL seasons since the Houston Texans drafted Kareem Jackson in the first round, the former Alabama standout has started 108 games and tied the franchise’s career interception record.

Almost all of that work came at cornerback. But during this year’s offseason program, Jackson practiced at safety, too, and that position will be the priority for him when the Texans restart their preparations for the 2018 season in training camp in about one month.

For all the hyped first round picks and busts in the NFL from Nick Saban’s dynasty, the consistent success of Kareem Jackson has been ignored more than any other. Even Alabama fans are guilty of forgetting about him. Yet he’s quietly been an unquestioned starter for nearly a decade and will likely become the Texans’ all-time leader in interceptions this year.

As with most talented, aging cornerbacks, they end up moving to safety near the end of their career. A position where pure athleticism is not as important as a quick mind that understands a defensive backfield and can react instantly to a changing offense. Hopefully this move can extend his career another 3 years or so and really get him set financially for life.

What makes college football coaches paranoid, and how things are changing

“Well, it’s definitely changed because back when I played,” said Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt, a former Alabama player and defensive coordinator. “You used to have a wide receiver that you’d say, ‘Hey, run 24 iso,’ and he’d run out there and tell the quarterback because everybody was in the huddle. Nobody huddles up anymore so you have to get the information somehow.”

And that -- among other things --is what can keep coaches awake at night.

One might even call them a little paranoid.

This is a good, long article that I can’t really encompass it all in one quote, so give it a click and a read. A lot of it has to do with stealing playcall signals, and how that has become a problem because of hurry-up offenses. And though they make sure to point out that nothing has been proven, we all know that someone who’s name rhymes with “Derby Cart” is the main inspiration behind writing this.

Alabama Football: Six Crimson Tide Records that can be broken this fall

Damien Harris needs 1,397 yards to break all-time Alabama football rushing record set by Derrick Henry. The prime-time Heisman winning running back accumulated 3,591 yards during his three years in Tuscaloosa.

Back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons is not an easy task at Alabama where a running back committee is utilized to maintain freshness through the game and the season. Turning down the opportunity to play in the NFL, the Kentucky native decided to return for his senior season injecting inspired leadership and experience to a young Alabama team.

The senior running back will challenge another record. Bobby Marlow set an Alabama record under head coach Harold “Red” Drew by averaging 7.5 yards-per-carry in 1950. The running back rushed for 882 yards on 118 rushes.

Harris already is in second place for yards-per-carry with a minimum 100 rushes with 7.4 when he rushed for 1,000 yards on 135 carries last season. In 2016, he averaged 7.1 yards a carry with 1037 yards on 146 attempts.

Another week, another chance for me to give a plug for just how underrated Damien Harris has been the last two years. I hope he breaks every record he can by the end of 2018... and wins all the Heismans.