Jumbo Package: They Call Alabama the Crimson Tide

Consider yourselves lucky. You get a pinch-hitter today at the ol’ Jumbo Package. I will try to keep the triggering to a bare minimum. Although feel free to haiku, pun, and band names to your hearts’ contents. I am claiming Bear Minimum as a band name.

Former Crimson Tide back-up quarterback David Cornwell made some waves on Twitter with his thoughts on the Bama teams he was on. He has some good things to say about many teammates.

However, he really stirred up an interesting hornet’s nest about one former teammate in particular.

Is handing over a binder of team “allegations” to the NCAA, so you can transfer without penalty trashing a program? Asking for a friend. I’ll leave it at that.

— David Cornwell (@DavidCornwell5) February 16, 2022

Cornwell then tosses Barnett under the bus for being a snitch to the NCAA during the former five-star’s transfer. Cornwell didn’t go into further detail, but the damage was done publicly.

Some of the tweets were deleted but 247 captured them in all their glory. Both these guys along with Cooper Bateman were highly rated prospects coming into Alabama. They were beat out by a freshman named Jalen Hurts, transferred out, and went MIA until this week.

ICYMI, Alabama defeated Mississippi State in basketball last night. It was a must win for Bama who has been playing down to their competition as of late. Nate Oats was ejected in the second half and it seemed to fire the Tide up down the stretch.

“It got us going a little bit, when your head coach has got your back,” said Alabama’s Jahvon Quinerly who scored a game-high 21 points. “He’s the one dealing with the refs, making sure things go our way. It just gave us a little energy boost. We felt like we had to win the game for him.”

The win was the third straight for the Tide and lands them at 7-6 in the SEC and a fifth seed in the SECT if the season were to end today. However, they have a tough test on Saturday as Alabama returns to the scene of the crime in Lexington where they handed the Wildcats a 85-65 thumping a year ago. Let’s hope UK has short memories.

Speaking of pinch-hitters and all that baseball stuff, the Diamond Tide gets going on Friday against Xavier. If you missed Roger’s thorough preview, click here. Alabama is not ranked in the preseason polls but four of their foes are among the Top 5. The Texas Longhorns are the preseason No. 1 team.

The Longhorns come in at No. 1 in D1Baseball’s top 25 preseason poll after finishing as the No. 3 team in the nation last season. Texas fell just short of the 2021 national championship series after losing to Mississippi State, the eventual champions. The Longhorns lost their ace Ty Madden to the MLB draft and first baseman, Zach Zubia. Aside from that, they return their entire club and some serious talent. Tristan Stevens returns to lead the pitching staff with Tanner Witt and left-hander Pete Hansen rounding out the weekend rotation.

Bama faces Texas on Feb. 25-27 in Austin. They also have #2 Arkansas, #4 Mississippi State, and #5 Ole Miss on the docket. Vandy is ranked third.

#8 Gymnastics is at #5 LSU. The Tide is 4-3 but have produced five straight scores of over 197, which is a good thing since tumbling is ranked by scores, not record.

Softball hosts three teams this weekend including the dangerous #10/11 Virginia Tech Hokies. Preview/thread will pop sometime tomorrow.

That is about all I have today. Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, JonBenet Ramsey was accidentally killed by her mother and both parents covered it up, and Game of Thrones was a bore. Discuss.