Jumbo Package: Three consensus All-Americans for Tide, Will Anderson on track for unanimous selection

Happy Tuesday, everyone. Alabama basketball has another tough test tonight, this one at Memphis. We will have full coverage of it later today.

In football news, the AP decided that Evan Neal is not a first team All-American, as three Alabama players made the list: Bryce Young, Jameson Williams, and Will Anderson.

Young cannot make unanimous status since Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett was selected as its first-team quarterback. He can still achieve consensus status by making three of the five teams with The Sporting News version coming Tuesday and the AFCA’s on Wednesday. Young was also named AP national player of the year last week before winning the Heisman.

Evan Neal, a first-teamer on both from Walter Camp and FWAA, made the second team for AP while Jordan Battle was on the third team. Only first-team picks count on the official All-American teams.

Alabama had six make consensus All-Americans status last year with only Mac Jones coming up short of unanimous status.

Anderson will likely be the only unanimous All-American this year, but he’d better make it. Sporting News has all four on the first team, so Young and Neal are consensus All-Americans.

This is a fantastic piece from Nicole Auerbach and Aaron Suttles.

Tucker knew Saban’s reputation as one of the game’s best defensive back coaches. And Saban knew Tucker’s father had played at Toledo — Mel Sr. is in the school’s Hall of Fame for his illustrious football and baseball careers — and that his mother is from there.

“My dad’s coach was still alive,” Tucker says. “(Saban) arranged for a meeting for me, and he actually showed me some film on a projector — real film of my dad in practice that he’d dug up. That was the first time I’d ever seen footage of my dad suited up and playing.”

Saban’s message to Tucker over the winter of 1989-90 sounds familiar to anyone ever recruited by him: He’d help Tucker launch his football career, sure, but the relationship would be lasting and about more than just football. Though Tucker ended up playing at Wisconsin, the relationship endured, leading to jobs on multiple staffs with a lifelong mentor.

What a story, and just more proof that Saban practices what he preaches. Take a few minutes to read the whole thing if you are a subscriber to The Athletic. It’s worth the time.

Whatever the pitch, it’s working. Check out this nugget.

Pretty phenomenal if you ask me.

Not everyone is thrilled about Mario Cristobal’s hiring in Coral Gables.

“Faculty are asking themselves the question, why does there seem to be money for major capital projects, for a new football coach and for these [COVID-19] stimulus checks for students, while there isn’t money to make the faculty whole again after losing eight to nine months of retirement contributions,” said a Miami faculty senate member, who did not want to be identified by the Miami Herald due to possible repercussions.

Faculty members balking at coaching salaries is nothing new, but it’s easy to see how current conditions might make it worse.

Spencer Rattler is now a Cock.

As a redshirt sophomore, Rattler completed 74.9% of his pass attempts for 1,483 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions in nine games. He was replaced in the starting lineup by freshman Caleb Williams, who was a second-team All-Big 12 selection.

We’ll see if he can revive his career in Columbia.

Last, this is the mother of all controversies. A man went to his favorite Mobile ice cream shop to get a seasonal favorite flavor featuring Christmas Tree Cakes from Little Debbie, and you can read the rest.

Recently, Matt and his 12-year-old son, Baker, stopped by Cammie’s second Mobile location on Halls Mill Road after school one afternoon, as they do at least once a week. Matt overheard an employee talking to Cammie on the phone. When she hung up, she told him she wouldn’t be able to sell him any Christmas Tree Cake ice cream in a half-gallon size because Cammie was having a hard time finding the Little Debbie treats.

That was all Baker needed to hear. He told his dad that he knew where they could find some. Off to Piggly Wiggly they went, and soon they were loading up a buggy with box upon box of Christmas Tree Cakes.

I posed this question on Twitter last night and the results were very close. Vote here, folks. We cover only the hard-hitting, important things here.

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

Roll Tide.