Jumbo Package: Former 5-star OL Landon Dickerson transfers to Alabama

Happy Monday, everyone. The big news of the day involves a transfer.

A former five-star prospect, according to 247Sports, Dickerson started at right guard for the ‘Noles in 2016 as a true freshman (the first true freshman offensive lineman to start at home for FSU since 1982). Dickerson injured his ACL after making seven starts, missing the remainder of 2016. Despite the shortened season, Dickerson earned Honorable Mention Freshman All-American honors. Dickerson returned to the field in 2017, but injuries plagued him once again, forcing him to miss the last nine games of the season. The Tar Heel State native played in two games during the 2018 season before missing the rest of the season with an injury, ultimately using a redshirt year.

This poor kid has had an awful time staying on the field. Coming to Alabama with so much competition inside seems to be something of a head scratcher, but with Deonte Brown suspended he may be able to push Matt Womack at RG, and will certainly have a chance to start in 2020. Four of five projected starters on this season’s line are draft eligible after the season, though only Womack is a senior. Landon also provides some additional veteran depth to the unit and likely allows Evan Neal to be Leatherwood’s understudy at LT in anticipation of starting there next season.

College football attendance is struggling, and power brokers are looking for answers.

Waters said he was part of the team a few years ago that was tasked with coming up with a plan to replace the old BCS system. His team came up with an eight-team playoff with first-round games played on campus Jan. 1. There was blowback from college presidents.

“They didn’t just tell us no, but hell no,” Waters said. “You are not bringing this thing to our campus during exams and all the hotels are already sold out for graduation. So you have to shrink this thing down to about 21 days.”

This is the part that most expansion advocates, particularly those “all other levels of football do it!” types don’t seem to grasp. When FCS schools host playoff games, they are typically expecting attendance numbers of fewer than 10,000 fans and minimal media hype. Giving a campus less than a month to prepare for the circus that would be a home FBS playoff game is unreasonable and a far greater disruption. They could obviously play all of the games at neutral sites, but as the piece also notes, that simply creates another costly trip for fans who already spend silly amounts of money traveling to football games. You’d probably see an awful lot of empty seats in those venues.

You can expect people concerned about dwindling attendance in some parts of the country to keep pushing for playoff expansion in hopes of keeping more teams in the race later into the season, but unless university presidents start to hop on board, it will be a non-starter. That seems unlikely for the foreseeable future.

Cecil Hurt has the postmortem on the 2018-19 year in athletics.

So what, exactly, does a second-place finish in the College Football Playoff denote? The only right and fair answer is that it was a tremendous season, one that saw offensive records fall and netted another Southeastern Conference championship trophy to be jammed into some overflowing trophy case. At 95 percent of the college programs in America, a season of such magnitude would be a cause for rejoicing — and it would certainly cast a warm glow on the perception of the school’s accomplishments for the year.

Alabama is not most schools in that respect.

Outside of football and softball it was a pretty rough year overall, though the baseball program showed some improvement. Hopefully Brad Bohannon keeps the momentum going and Nate Oats is as impressive in the winter as he has been thus far.

Quindarrius Robinson has his head on right.

“Give me a reason not to pick Bama,” Robinson said. “As I’ve heard before, history is a great predictor of the future, and I want to be a part of that future. I feel like I can trust Coach (Sal) Sunseri, and I believe if I follow in his footsteps, he’ll lead me to the place I need to be.”

Coach Sal is a hardnosed, no nonsense type. He will make you work.

Demouy Kennedy has an outstanding recruitment story.

Perhaps even more memorable was Saban’s pitch to Kennedy during his visit.

They were standing next to two tables, he said. One was clear of anything. The other had championship rings on it.

“I liked when he said, ‘Would you rather gamble on this table (pointing to the ring table) or the other table?’ I said, ‘I’m gambling on the ring table.’”

Love it.

We appreciate Baltimore DC Gregg Williams’ contribution to Alabama recruiting efforts.

“I really wanted him,” Williams said after this week’s minicamp in a video posted to the Jets’ official Facebook page. “And (he’s) one of the guys that he played for is a very good friend of mine, Nick Saban, so I understand the whole philosophy of what he’s gone through.

Thanks, Coach.

Last, Quinnen Williams is showing out.

“From a coach’s perspective there is a reason why he is a first-round draft pick,” Carter said of Williams, who was the third overall pick in the NFL Draft in April. “He’s explosive and definitely has a knack for the ball. Obviously he was taught well and coached well from one of the most prestigious universities in the United States, so that stands out.”

He’s going to be a fun one to watch.

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

Roll Tide.