Jumbo Package: Alabama DL enters portal, and is Mac Jones a potential first rounder?

Happy Thursday, everyone Biggest news from overnight was Ishmael Sopsher apparently entering the portal.

Sopsher was reportedly making big strides in camp but hasn’t seen the field through four games. If he ends up leaving, best of luck to him.

Saban held a very brief Wednesday press conference yesterday.

“He’s done a really good job consistently kicking,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Extra points, field goals have been good in practice and games.”

It’s the type of production the Tide had hoped to get from Reichard, an Under Armour All-American under Niblett at Hoover who was ranked as the No. 1 kicker in the 2019 recruiting class within the 247Sports Composite rankings.

For the year, Reichard is now 4 for 4 on field goals and 26 for 26 on extra points.

It comes after Reichard was 4 for 5 on field goals during the second of the Tide’s two preseason scrimmages. His only miss that day was on a 55-yard attempt.

“Somebody needs to close the barn door before the horse gets out,” his father would say.

Saban explained that his father was talking about anticipating problems before they occur.

“Well, once they tell you you’re positive, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Saban said. “I was fortunate it was a false positive. So I would encourage everybody out there to do everything they can to practice social distancing and wear a mask and manage their personal space so they don’t have to ever hear the fact that you have this.”

Being that nobody is perfect, Will Reichard will undoubtedly miss a kick or two as we go along, and when he does it will set off a storm of “Alabama ain’t never got no kicker, Pawwwwlll” nonsense that will be just that. Reichard kicks the ball confidently, foiks. There is little doubt in my mind that he will go down as the best kicker of the Saban era. Also, since he played in fewer than four games last year, he will have four years of eligibility left after this one.

Saban also spoke about the team’s need to handle success this week in how they prepare for Tennessee. As he notes, it’s easy to keep everyone focused after a loss but much more challenging after a big win. On the injury front, Carl Tucker and LaBryan Ray will be questionable again for this week. As usual I will embed the video at the bottom for you.

CBS put out a mock draft featuring seven Alabama players in the first round, including one that we haven’t seen.

Round 1 - Pick 22

Mac Jones QB

ALABAMA • JR • 6’3” / 214 LBS

Don’t laugh! Jones has been a lethal deep-ball passer this season and he always makes good decisions with the ball. The Bears are in the market for their next franchise QB and while Jones may not end up going in the first round he is generating some buzz around the league.

This would shock me, but the way Mac is playing, who knows?

The Big Ten is finally about to play some football.

“You know, it’s strange where you find allies in certain things, and I think we had an ally at Ohio State to try to get the season played,” Frost said on Monday. “I don’t think it would have gotten done without [Ohio State] Dr. [Jim] Borchers there, without [OSU coach] Ryan Day continuing to push it, Eugene Smith continuing to push it.

“We certainly fought for it, too, because we thought it was the right thing to do to have football,” he said. “Our kids wanted to play. We thought we could do it in a safe manner. We weren’t satisfied with the decision to not play and kept trying to find opportunities to find a way to get it done and we’re grateful to Ohio State for having done the same thing.”

Last, Tua Tagovailoa and incumbent starter Ryan Fitzpatrick were both apparently blindsided by the decision to change QBs in Miami.

“You never know when your opportunity is given,” Tagovailoa said during a Wednesday press conference. “When Coach Flo (Brian Flores) called me, I thought it was like any other call. We usually watch film on Tuesdays, and so I thought he was calling because he wanted me to come up and watch some film. I usually get with him to watch film, but it was different.

“I just think that you need to be ready every time. Opportunities come and when they come, you’ve got to take them and run with them.”

The only explanation has to be that the bye week allows some extra reps with the first team. Fitzpatrick had been playing very well, and the Dolphins have surprised many with their competitiveness.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.