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If you have some spare time, Najee Harris joined ESPN reporter Adam Schefter’s podcast this week, and the interview was phenomenal. On top of being an amazing athlete, Najee is a great personality. Seriously, give this one a listen:
“I think if you check the record, every running back that we’ve had here since we came here has been a third-round or better in terms of the draft and how they got drafted, aight,” Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban said last week. “So we’re very proud of that in terms of the quality of guys we’ve been able to recruit but also how they developed in the program here.
“And Najee is, I think, an exceptional player. He’s got great size. He’s a really good receiver. He’s instinctive as a runner. He’s tough. He’s hard to tackle. And he kind of gets better as the game goes on. So he’s got some really, really positive attributes. He’s always been a really, really good team guy here. So I love the guy, and I think he’ll be a really, really good player at the next level.”
Saban tends to agree here.
A lot of the NFL draft heads (like Todd McShay in this piece) have finally figured out that Najee is a great receiver as well as a running back, and think it was a senior-season improvement. Those of us that kept up with high school recruiting, though, remember that he was also considered by some to be a borderline 5-star prospect as a wide receiver.
He’s going to wind up making some NFL team very happy.
Going further on Jones’ pro prospects, Saban told Patrick that he speaks about his 2020 starter a lot like the way Cal coaches described Aaron Rodgers when he was in the draft. Saban was with the Dolphins when Rodgers was coming out of school and his coaches spoke about his intelligence and accuracy with the ball
Miami drafted Auburn running back Ronnie Brown with the No. 2 pick that year while Rodgers tumbled to No. 24 and the Packers. He’s still there.
The rest of this article pretty much a non-story that AL.com tried to turn into a story, but I do like Saban’s words at the very end comparing Mac to Aaron Rodgers— That’s not a comparison I’ve heard thrown around before.
“He’s a never say never guy. He’s a very hard worker. He’s got very good hands. Good route running ability. Everyone keeps saying he’s not as fast. But once he gets going, he’s got good top-end speed. But he’s a very good route runner. Hand-eye coordination is very good. The guys I can compare him to is someone like, his work ethic is like a Jerry Rice. He’s going to work extremely hard. He’s going to be on time. He’s a going to be a yes sir, no sir type of person. If you tell him to do something, he’s going to do it. He’s a pleaser if you know him.”
This is a cool set of quotes from the defensive backs coach at IMG Academy. He follows this one up by talking about some player comparisons for Brooks as well as talking about JC Latham’s personality on and off the field.
Alabama’s Sweet 16 loss to UCLA did not change the men’s basketball team’s standing in the final coaches poll of the season, released Tuesday.
The Tide remained at No. 5 in the first version of the poll conducted since March 14, before the NCAA tournament began.
Alabama’s finish in the coaches poll matched its No. 5 ranking in the final Associated Press poll published before the NCAA tournament.
The season-ending AP and coaches poll rankings are the program’s best since it also finished No. 5 in both polls in 1956. The coaches poll has collected post-NCAA tournament rankings since 1994.
Alabama basketball as the 5th ranked team in the nation? Yeah, I’ll take it. Sure is a long way from all the years in the last decade of just hoping to be top-60 or so.
And it doesn’t seem to be a flash in the pan, Alabama just secured a commitment from Charles Bediako, the borderline 5-star center. If you missed it, you can check out the details from RBR’s piece here.
Roll Tide!