Jumbo Package: Wrapping up the spring game

Happy Monday, everyone. As you already know, softball swept Mississippi State while baseball took one of three from Tennessee, which caused the Vawls to lose their minds.

This is a particularly bad look considering the widespread umpire shortage at lower levels of baseball that is generally blamed on mistreatment from players, coaches, and parents.

“We can get people in but the problem is after two or three years because of their treatment from fans or players and coaches and whatnot they leave the industry,” Faulkens said.

Across the country this past weekend, two incidents of violence against umpires have gone viral. In Texas, a coach was caught on camera shoving an umpire after being thrown out of little league game. In Mississippi, a mother was arrested for punching a softball umpire and giving the official a black eye.

“There’s not a place for that in youth sports and I definitely think that’s a part of the problem across the country,” Cherry said.

Leave it to a Tennessee coach to be the example of what not to do, and the fans displayed the trashy behavior that we’ve come to expect from them as well. Fortunately no golf balls or mustard bottles were thrown this time.

Speaking of mistreatment, Alabama’s pass rushers thoroughly abused the offensive line on Saturday.

Young finished the afternoon 14-for-29 passing with 153 yards and one interception. There were a number of dropped passes, an issue Saban noted the weather didn’t help but also couldn’t be an excuse on an afternoon the three QBs combined to complete 30 of 64 passes. The first-team offense finished with 201 total yards, 75 of which came on Gibbs’ touchdown in the third quarter.

There was clear frustration from all three Alabama quarterbacks — Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson included — when scrambles into open field were whistled dead because they were touched down by a defender.

“Somebody asked me the other day, ‘What’s Will’s weakness?’” Nick Saban said following the scrimmage. “I said, ‘Well, he’s got to learn more about pass coverage because he plays a position where every now and then he’s supposed to drop.

“But you all are gurus of the game. Should we spend a lot of time on him dropping or let him rush? So his weakness is pass coverage, but he helps the pass coverage when he sacks the quarterback.”

There was nothing tongue in cheek about that “gurus of the game” comment. None whatsoever.

Jahmyr Gibbs was named MVP of the spring game.

“He’s really good at pressing the holes, but he has a great burst to get to top speed quickly in setting up blocks,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Very good running back. Very good receiver. Good third-down back. Very good addition.”

Gibbs plays a different position than Williams, but the Georgia Tech transfer will be part of the group tasked with replacing what the Ohio State transfer brought to the offense – the ability to scare defenses.

Georgia Tech transfer running back Jahmyr Gibbs took home the Dixie Howell Memorial Award presented to the A-Day MVP. The explosive runner scored the only touchdown for the first-team offense, a 75-yard burst in the third quarter.

Junior defensive lineman Jamil Burroughs claimed the other award voted by media members with the Dwight Stephenson Award going to the game’s top lineman. He recorded two sacks with the first-team defense and was the first player mentioned by Saban when asked about front-seven players who improved this spring.

OL Dameion George and Javion Cohen were both listed in the “Most improved player” category, but the results on Saturday obviously weren’t very good. Best guess at the first team OL to enter fall camp has to be JC Latham and Tyler Steen outside, Emil Ekiyor and Cohen at guard with either Seth McLaughlin or Darrian Dalcourt at center.

Four-star WR Johntay Cook II lamented the lack of football trophies at Texas A&M, and seemed impressed by the hardware case in Tuscaloosa.

Something tells me that Cook is planning a commitment to Texas A&M in which he will promise to bring some trophies, but the schtick is cute nonetheless.

Bob Bowlsby is getting really lonely.

“I was very frustrated, and I don’t stay frustrated for very long because I think it is unprofessional and not very productive,” Bowlsby said Thursday during an interview with The Ticket in Dallas-Fort Worth. “But I was frustrated because the four of us spent two years working on this. ... We came up with a plan that really served college football well. It served a lot of additional teams and was going to be very good for the regular season, because toward the end of the season, there would be 25-30 teams that would have had a legitimate claim to the playoff. All of that is going to be good for TV revenue, game receipts and it’s going to be good the health of the game.

Can’t blame him for desperately clinging to his seat at the adults’ table.

George Teague did a little reminiscing about Gino Torretta.

Last, James Rojas has found a new home.

“I am going to go back to Kansas and play at Wichita State for my last year of eligibility so my son, his mother and I can be around our extended family, and have our support system around us.”

Rojas played high school basketball in Jamestown, New York before playing two seasons at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. He committed to join Buffalo out of junior college before following Nate Oats and the Bulls’ staff to Alabama in 2019.

Best of luck to him.

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

Roll Tide.