Jumbo Package: Who will be the running mate for Dylan Moses?

Happy Monday, everyone. We covered this pretty well back in 2016, but Brett Hudson over at TideSports has a brief history of Alabama’s games against USC for your enjoyment.

Moving on, 247sports has a few questions for the season, including what will be a spirited battle at ILB.

The Crimson Tide has to find a new quarterback on offense, but it will have its quarterback back on the defensive side of the ball with Dylan Moses choosing to return after missing last season with a knee injury he suffered a week before the opener against Duke. His decision is a huge boost to an Alabama defense that lost a lot of experience this offseason (more on that later), but it also creates an interesting question — who starts alongside him at Will linebacker?

Last year, with Moses and Joshua McMillon out, true freshmen Shane Lee and Christian Harris stepped into the starting lineup and continued to do so for the rest of the season. They improved from Game 1 to 13, especially Harris, and could take that next step as sophomores. Then there is McMillon, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility and chose to return. For now, we’ll have to wait to see who has the best shot at the Will, but UA has some options.

I think Harris probably has the inside track since he is a freakish athlete in his own right, but McMillon’s experience will certainly be a factor. Ale Kaho is another guy who could make a move here, in his third season.

A couple of former Alabama players and current Denver Broncos marched with protestors in Denver.

“How can we get out and how can we impact the Denver community?” Jackson had asked during an online press conference on Tuesday. “Maybe we can get out and put together a march as a team or something like that. I feel like we have to get out in the community and be heard, just with the opportunities that we have as professional athletes. I think it’s huge for us to be heard, and it’s huge for us to be out in the community so everyone can see us and know that we stand behind them and as a team we’re not only unified on the field, but we’re unified off the field as well.”

Good for them.

Alabama is trying to steal one from Jim Harbaugh.

The 6-foot-3, 275-pound defensive tackle verbally committed in December to Jim Harbaugh’s program at Michigan, where big brother Ben VanSumeren is heading into his junior season.

The big-time offers keep rolling in, as VanSumeren added Michigan State University and Penn State University to his options in the past two months. But any resume is going to look a little more flashy when Alabama is added to the list.

I don’t know if Alabama has any legitimate shot at earning his signature considering his brother, but we will keep an eye on it.

Last, the Tennessee Titans hope they can lighten the load on Derrick Henry this season.

We got a lot of explosive guys on our offense,” Smith said during an online press conference on Wednesday, “and I got to do a good job of finding ways to make sure different guys get touches that are naturally spread out. To me, that’s what helped us in the red zone. We had multiple people score touchdowns to spread it out.

“We’ll just see how it goes game to game, but if we got a lot of guys doing it and we can win games and more guys are touching the ball, it’ll be better off for us as a team and as an offense. And I think that will naturally work itself out as we build up, and we want to be improving and peaking as the season goes along.”

It’s always a good idea to diversify the scheme, but as a coach it’s tough not to ride that horse.

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

Roll Tide.