How many Thoughts and Prayers were circulating yesterday around this time? The Process sleeps for no infirmity. There are skulls to be crushed underfoot by college football’s T-1000.
Fortunately, Nick Saban will be back soon to do exactly that.
Dr. Lyle Cain, an orthopedic consultant with the athletic department, said the robotic-assisted procedure was successful on the 67-year-old coach.
”Coach is resting comfortably, and we anticipate a full recovery,” Cain said in the release. “He should be able to return to work in the very near future, and we’ll have him back out on the golf course, with hopefully a few more yards off the tee, as soon as possible.”
Go ahead and get those Nick Saban robot/borg jokes out of your system. Today is the day for it.
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Outstanding feature on Q’s road to the draft. Sure, it’s sponsored by Hyundai, but the video is awesome.
Quinnen Williams (Alabama) – William’s childhood was shattered when his mother was diagnosed with and then passed away from breast cancer when he was just twelve years old. Though Williams never showed emotion outwardly, he kept his mother in his heart and in his soul as he competed on the playing field and in the classroom. His on field talents in high school led to an instate recruiting battle that saw him decommit from Auburn, instead choosing to play at Alabama where he became a standout player — working his way up the depth chart to start this past season at Defensive Tackle with a chance to be one of the first players selected.
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Yesterday, Greg Sankey staked out the SEC’s position on playoff expansion. And, as expected, the commish wants to keep it at four (as does his counterpart at the ACC, Mike Swofford — not coincidentally, those two conferences have had a participant all five years of the playoffs, and have won 80% of the titles.)
As the PFT story points out, Sankey may get his wish too. The SEC just wields too much clout, too much money, too many viewers to be ignored.
...Slive was on board to kill the BCS and berth the CFP. Never before in college football’s history of evolving postseason formats has change been brought against the SEC’s wishes, and that’s unlikely to change… now or in 2025.
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Amari Cooper. Remember when the Raiders said he didn’t love the game and didn’t want to play? Maybe he just didn’t want to play for a tire fire in Detroit with an Ocean, for a coach whose schemes literally predate the birth of most of its players? As a Bills fans, the Cardinals and Raiders give me life.
Anyway, here’s Cooper on spending all off-season to develop chemistry with Dak Prescott. Cooper makes a lot of marginal talents look a lot better, and teamed up with the Belly and the offensive line, the Cowboys have zero excuses for not lighting it up on a pedestrian NFC East.
“I feel like the only way to go is up with me and Dak,” Cooper said this weekend, via the Dallas Morning News. “We just have a natural chemistry. That’s rare, because you can’t just combine two players, a receiver and a quarterback, and say, ‘Hey, just go out there and have a good game.’
”It takes the quarterback and the receiver, their skill-set has to match. And it just happened like that.”
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Given the timing of this announcement, I would very much expect this construction project to begin right around football season. It’s the Tuscaloosa way — can you imagine 82 under construction on football Saturdays?
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced Monday that the Alabama Department of Transportation will expand McFarland Boulevard from Highway 69 to Rice Mine Road.
Ivey said ALDOT is purchasing the right of way on that stretch of McFarland Boulevard, which runs through parts of Tuscaloosa and Northport, as part of the Rebuild Alabama Plan funded by the gasoline tax increase the state legislature approved earlier this year.
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AL has a two-parter on Irv Smith
The story is here.
The vidya’ is here.
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PAYWALL: ESPN1000 Oklahoma commit, Drew Sanders (ATH), has decided to shop and is scheduling an OV to Tuscaloosa.
I’ll operate under the assumption that most of you don’t have a 247 subscription, so instead let’s watch some of his highlights.
This 6’5” white boy can flat-out smoke people from his linebacker position, and he has tremendous speed (4.48). He also dabbles in QB and some wildcat RB.
I have decided he’s way too physical for the likes of Oklahoma.
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Alabama is closing in some seriously impressive NFL draft stats:
In each of the last two years, Alabama has had the most first-round picks of any college team, with four each year. And it may happen again this year, as defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and guard Jonah Williams are both viewed as sure things to go in the first round, and running back Josh Jacobs and tight end Irv Smith may go in the first as well.
Alabama also had the most first-round picks in 2011 and 2012, and was tied with Florida State for the most first-round picks in 2013.
If Alabama has the most names called on Thursday night, we’ll be in a stretch of nine NFL drafts when Alabama had the most first-round picks in six of them.
Of further note, Alabama has had a first-rounder every year for the past 10 years. If the Tide does it for four more seasons, inclusive of this year (and that seems likely, looking at the roster), then Alabama will break the dynasty Hurricanes’ consecutive-years-with-a-first-rounder record.
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CBS takes a different approach with their mock — drafting the first round based solely on collegiate production. And it is not an implausible or indefensible mock (except anyone that drafts the Ewok is going to be hating life. He’s a runtier Akili Smith waiting to wash out back to baseball in three years. I rarely pull against someone, but I greatly want to see Murray subjected to weekly beatings.)
4. Quinnen Williams, DL, Alabama: Like Murray, Williams exploded onto the scene and jumped up these boards and rankings with just one year of significant work as a regular starter in college. My excitement about seeing Williams at the next level comes from his versatility. Williams worked inside and outside on the line during his career at Alabama, adjusting his body and workout routine like a prize fighter depending on what his team needed. He credits Craig Kuligowski and the NFL players ahead of him at Alabama for showing the path to elevating his game between 2017 and 2018, and the evidence is on the game tape.
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Your first-place Tide Softball team has a weird one today...Belmont...in Cullman. wut. Alabama’a RPI has rebounded after back-to-back sweeps of two ranked foes, tougher conference play, and the fact that the Tide boast an incredible 45-4 record a week out from May. Can you believe the season is almost over?
Alabama is up to No. 8 in this week’s NCAA RPI, its highest mark of the season with remaining series against Kentucky (16) and LSU (7)
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Kiper and McShay, the sentient potted meat that they are, spitball on draft positioning for Tide players. Here’s an excerpt:
KIPER ON DAMIEN HARRIS
What kind of running backs do you think are still going to be around for the Bears in the third round? Or do you think they have to move up to get something of quality?
“Yeah, I think Myles Sanders is a second-round pick, and I think he will be. Third-round possibilities would be Damien Harris from Alabama, who we thought back in August would be a first. Could drop into the third. Could go in the second, but could possibly be there in the third.”
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And, finally...
Bruh.
Thank You, Baton Rouge! pic.twitter.com/WUYlt18kP9
— LSU Gymnastics (@LSUgym) April 21, 2019
This is serious, Auburn-level moral victory territory right here.
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I think that’s about it for the day. We are fast-approaching the Dread Months. So, I’ll let you folks get to commentin’ and we’ll start working on our NFL Draft profiles for the now-absurd four-day ESPN red carpet event. In Nashville. With all the bro country. If anything defines the modern NFL, it’s this year’s draft: A commercially-safe and prepackaged bland event held out as a gala, highlighted by commercially-safe and prepackaged bland music, in a commercially-safe and prepackaged bland town.
Blech.