Jumbo Package: 2019 playoff schedule rolls out, and the layoffs are long

Happy Friday, everyone. Congratulations to the softball team on the opening win over Texas in the Super Regional round. Win today and they can relax for the rest of the holiday weekend.

ESPN announced the playoff schedule for this season, and as usual they screw up everything.

College Football Playoff Semifinals to be Played on Last Saturday in December for Second Straight Season

This season’s College Football Playoff Semifinals will be played on December 28, three days earlier than the originally scheduled date of New Year’s Eve. The date change to the last Saturday in December, which was announced in 2016 and began in practice last season, did not affect the date of the College Football Playoff National Championship, which remains on Monday, January 13, at 8 p.m. ET as originally scheduled.

The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (4 p.m. or 8 p.m.) and PlayStation Fiesta Bowl (4 p.m. or 8 p.m.) will host this year’s CFP Semifinals, with the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (noon) beginning the New Year’s Six slate earlier the same day.

For those keeping score at home, that is a full sixteen day layoff for the finalists, almost as long as the 21 day layoff from the conference championship games to the semis. While it may be good for healing up minor nicks, keeping the teams focused with all of that down time will be a challenge. Also, for the first time in a while, the title game will be played after Alabama students have started classes. At least Alabama and Clemson will only have to go to New Orleans this year instead of California. The real interest will be which gets to play in Atlanta for its semifinal game, and which has to fly out to Arizona.

This defensive line class is stellar, folks.

“I’d love to be a Freshman All-American. That would be one of my really big goals,” Young said. “Another one would just be to make an impact. Make an impact on the team, make the team better than it was and just represent where I’m from. … I think I bring a lot of versatility. I think I’m able to pass rush and run stop. I think I bring a really, really good work ethic.

“That’s been instilled in from all my brothers and my parents.”

In case you’ve forgotten Mr. Young from the recruiting cycle, he’s wearing the black uniform in the clip below.

I look forward to seeing that big fella in action.

Kira Lewis has a big opportunity this summer.

The training camp will be used to determine the official, 12-member roster for the 2019 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Cup Team, which will be selected by the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee. Finalists for the team are expected to be announced on June 18, and the team will be named prior to its departure for the 2019 FIBA World Cup on June 24. This year’s event will be held June 29-July 7 in Greece.

This is the team that Collin Sexton led and was voted MVP in 2017. Let’s take care of the knees and ankles though, OK?

Last, Kyle Henderson at Rivals examines Nick Saban’s place in college history.

Currently, Nick Saban is No. 8 on the all-time wins list of college coaches throughout history and is chasing Nebraska great Tom Osborne who finished his career with 255 wins. No. 1 on the all-time wins list is former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno who has 409 wins, then former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden who has 357 wins, and at No. 3 its former Alabama coach Bear Bryant who has 323 wins with six national titles.

Let’s see, if he can average 14 wins a season, he would only have to coach another 13 years to catch Joe Pa, who shouldn’t get to have the legacy of being the winningest coach. Let it be written.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.