Jumbo Package: “Nasty” Landon Dickerson among seven OL starters according to Saban

Happy Friday, everyone. I know you’ll be shocked to hear this, but sportswriters didn’t care to write previews of a game with a 54 point spread and predicting scores is just as ridiculous, so we won’t bother. Still, we have a few nuggets for you, starting with an OL that Saban seems very pleased with based on his radio comments last night, despite some run game issues.

The 6-foot-6, 308-pound lineman is skilled in martial arts, earning a black belt at 10 years old and serving as an assistant instructor during high school. Dickerson is also an Eagle Scout. And he plays football through the whistle, though he has matured over the course of his career.

“I would say earlier on, he could be nasty or whatever you want to call it,” Tim Dickerson said. “I think now he still plays very aggressive, but I think he has more of a mature mindset that he knows when to call it quits. But he will absolutely push it to the limit. I don’t think there’s a thing wrong with that, but sometimes the result is you get too aggressive or your opponent gets a little ticked off and those things happen. But hey, that’s a part of the game.”

— Alabama has seven players it considers starting-caliber along the offensive line and the team is still in the process of trying to find the right starting combination, according to Saban. Alabama used four different players at center throughout the game against Duke, per Saban.

— New Mexico State plays with four receivers on the field most of the time, per Saban.

— Saban felt like freshman defensive lineman D.J. Dale and freshman inside linebackers Shane Lee and Christian Harris all played “well” against Duke.

Dickerson definitely has a mean streak, and was the third highest rated player on the line on Saturday per Pro Football Focus, behind only Alex Leatherwood and Jedrick Wills. It’s actually kind of strange to hear Saban talk about having seven guys at this stage of the season. Every year it’s been three or four that were ready to, in his words, “play winning football.” The whole line was outstanding in pass pro, and hopefully the run game kinks get worked out. They certainly should with the talent on hand.

Check out Jerry Jeudy in practice:

Enjoy him, folks, and be thankful that we have Tua Tagovailoa to get him the ball.

Hey, the football stadium is getting even fancier than we thought.

“We realized this is an aggressive construction schedule we are going to be talking about. However, our contractors are confident. They have expressed they will deliver this on time,” Byrne said of the plans for the football stadium.

The project remains slated to begin construction after the 2019 season and be completed in time for the 2020 season, Fajack said.

The university accepted low bids from Premier Elevator Co. of Stock Bridge, Georgia, for the elevator package and from Daktronics of South Dakota for the scoreboard package. However, the lowest responsible bid for the main construction package from Caddell Construction Co. of Montgomery came in higher than expected.

The bids came in higher than expected because of the complexity of the project, the strict timeline for completion, and the current demand for construction services, Fajack said.

Before you ask, no there is not word one about Coleman in that there article.

Tony Brown got a start last night for Green Bay, and you will like the way he introduced himself.

Roll Tide, Tony.

Jalen Hurts amused himself using a Saban quip with the media.

Hurts, fresh off setting the record for total yards in a debut by an Oklahoma player, sounded like his former head coach when he was asked about his team’s Week 2 matchup with an inferior opponent on paper.

”We’re going to treat every game the same,” Hurts said earlier this week. “We’ll let y’all (the media) talk about the rat poison of it (laughs). We’re going to focus on what we need to focus on, and, you know, try to get better; fix our mistakes.”

The Hurts for Heisman train is rolling.

OK, this next one isn’t Alabama related, but it was an iconic moment in college football history and it involves Tennessee getting trucked, so we’ll allow it.

Last, this clip is simply awesome. You must watch.

Everything about this, down to the northern plains accent of the announcer, is simply spectacular, and it never would have happened if the kid who scored had known the rules. College football, folks.

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

Roll Tide.