Jumbo Package: Alabama Crimson Tide Taco Tuesday

It’s Taco Tuesday and CB is back pinch-hitting with your non-triggering JP needs and maybe a conspiracy theory to rattle your brains.

Alabama softball will be dropping by Southern Miss for a single game at 4pm today. The baseball team will also be in Hattiesburg for a game that had been scheduled for today but was rescheduled for Wednesday due to weather concerns. Softball is on their way back from Baton Rouge and has a home game with FSU Wednesday, so there is zero chance of them pushing it back another day.

The women’s basketball team will be extending their season at least one more game as part of the WNIT. Brackets were announced Monday afternoon. The Tide will play at Troy (24-8, 13-2 Sun Belt) Thursday, March 17 at 6 p.m. CT. I suppose we should congratulate them but a first round ROAD game at Troy as a lower seed?? Yeesh.

Last Friday was the first spring practice for the football team. It also marked the first day of the University of Alabama’s Spring Break. Thus, no practice this week. However, there is no lack for football news. A few more staff moves have been finalized.

Alabama adds strength assistant, reveals role for Drew Svoboda

Rick Danison is now listed as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. On his own Twitter account, Danison specified that he spent time with the UA football team over the last week...

Danison spent the last two years at Michigan State where he worked as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Spartans’ football program. Prior to that, he was at Indiana for 11 years, including five years as the director of athletic performance. He was in Bloomington, Ind., while David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea spearheaded IU football’s strength program. Danison also has NFL experience as an S&C assistant for the Cincinnati Bengals from 2008-09.

It’s great news that Alabama will have someone familiar with the Ballou/Rhea system instead of having to break in someone new.

RBR had recently speculated as to the peculiar listings of two former assistants who were moved under the category of “Football Support Staff” on rolltide.com. The mystery has been solved... kinda.

Alabama also listed official roles for both Drew Svoboda and Sal Sunseri, assistant coaches from last year’s team that moved off the field this offseason. Both men are now labeled as senior special assistants to head coach Nick Saban.

This is the power of Saban. Either one of these men could probably get a Power 5 on-field job, but they would rather stay close to the G.O.A.T. Sal probably has an eye on retirement. Drew is still in his 40s and wants to learn.

In alumni news, the Browns basically stole a former Tide wide receiver from Dallas.

Grading the trade: Browns land Amari Cooper from Cowboys for 5th-round pick

But as we sit right now, the bottom line is they’re a worse offense and a worse team than they were before the trade. Offensive efficiency is king, and that’s going to be tougher to achieve without Cooper. They are an easier team to defend without him than they were with him.

It’d be one thing if the Cowboys got significant draft capital for Cooper, but that’s not the case here. They got a fifth-rounder and a pick swap in the sixth. I understand why the Cowboys did the deal, but the compensation here wouldn’t have been enough for me to move on from Cooper.

Whoever the Cowboys owner is needs to fire his GM.

I hope Uncle Godfather likes snow because Mack Wilson is being traded to New England.

Patriots trading OLB Chase Winovich to Browns for LB Mack Wilson, per reports

In Wilson, the Pats have found insurance against losing inside linebackers Dont’a Hightower and Ja’Whaun Bentley, both free agents.

Also in the NFL, WR Robert Foster reunites with Brian Daboll in New York. Shaun Dion Hamilton re-signs with the Lions.

SEC men’s basketball will have at least five new head coaches next season. Tom Crean had already been fired by Georgia after getting only one conference win this season (too soon?) and in a baffling move the Bulldogs replaced him with Mike White who Florida was on the verge of dumping. The move means Georgia has to pay UF $1.25 million for “poaching” their coach. If the Gators had fired White, they would have owed him $8.75 million. Florida saves a ton of money and can put those funds towards getting a big-time replacement. Bravo, Dwags.

Will Wade is out at LSU and the Cuonzo Martin era is over in Mizzou as well. On Monday, one of the good guys in college basketball, Frank Martin, lost his job at South Carolina after ten seasons. A sixth SEC coach might soon get the axe as well.

South Carolina fires coach Frank Martin after 10 seasons

South Carolina is the latest SEC program to make a coaching change in recent days.

Georgia already hired Mike White from Florida, LSU fired Will Wade due to NCAA violations, Missouri fired Cuonzo Martin after five seasons and Mississippi State is reportedly expected to move on from Ben Howland after the NIT.

Normally, I’d say I am surprise Vanderbilt (17–16, 7–11) hasn’t canned Jerry Stackhouse but after looking at who they hired as their football coach, that proves they don’t know or care what they are doing as long as the SEC money continues to roll in. Ole Miss (13–19, 4-14) has got to be losing patience in Kermit Davis as well.

The Big Dance has yet to commence and already the Transfer Portal rumors are heating up.

Princeton transfer Jaelin Llewellyn hearing from over 20 programs

It’s been just over five hours since Jaelin Llewellyn entered his name in the transfer portal, and over 20 programs have reached out to the talented grad transfer from Princeton.

Llewellyn averaged 15.8 points on 45.1% shooting and 39.6% on 3-pointers. He is a 6-foot-2 Canadian point guard who was a four-star recruit coming out of high school in Virginia and shunned big offers to attend Princeton. Nate Oats has some history recruiting players from the Great White North and from the Ivy League. Stay tuned.

CBS’s Bracketology guru Jerry Palm has mixed expectations for the Crimson Tide in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. I won’t link the aye ell dot com article because the below blurb is the full content on the subject.

When asked about the Alabama Crimson Tide, Palm expects Nate Oats’ team to make an early exit from the tournament. If the Tide gets Rutgers, expect Alabama to be bounced. “If Notre Dame gets there, Alabama will pound them.”

Never waste good bulletin board material, Nate.

Alrighty then. Have a good Taco Tuesday and just so you know, Union soldiers bungled John Wilkes Booth’s arrest in that barn by killing the wrong man and covered it up by claiming the corpse to be Booth. Abraham Lincoln’s killer escaped and died almost 40 years later in Enid, Oklahoma. Enjoy!