Jumbo Package: Alabama sits atop preseason Coaches Poll

Happy Tuesday, everyone. Alabama predictably sits atop the preseason Coaches Poll.

Alabama enters the season with the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback in junior Bryce Young along with junior EDGE threat Will Anderson Jr. and a pedigree of success under legendary coach Nick Saban. Ohio State checks in at the No. 2 spot. Coach Ryan Day’s team, led by Heisman Trophy contender C.J. Stroud at quarterback, earned five first-place votes and 1,564 overall points.

Defending national champion Georgia earned the No. 3 spot but eclipsed Ohio State with six first-place votes, while Clemson and Notre Dame rounded out the top five despite major coaching turnover.

Rarely have two programs seemed on more of a crash course to meet in the final than this year’s Alabama and Ohio State squads. History tells us that means it won’t happen, but someone would really have to come from nowhere. The 2022 versions of Clemson and Notre Dame have to be a couple of the weakest top 5 picks in some time.

Ja’Corey Brooks didn’t really know what he had done when he caught that ball at Auburn.

Freshmen aren’t allowed to speak to the media at Alabama, so Brooks didn’t have his first chance to publicly recall what that moment was like.

“I’m from Florida, so I didn’t know how big the Iron Bowl was, so I just went up there and took it play by play,” Brooks said. “But after, when I got to the sideline JaMo [Williams] told me it was a great catch. During that play, I just tried to execute and do my job.”

Brooks has learned just what it means to be a hero in the state of Alabama. What a throw from Bryce, too. Just an incredible play all around.

Nick Kelly reports that Alabama has been including an out clause in the past few scheduling arrangements, to allow for a potential nine game SEC slate.

The timing of the language coincided with Alabama pursuing home-and-home deals in place of neutral-site openers. The last such deal to be signed was in 2017. Then UA began including statements exactly like, or similar to, this one.

“The team acknowledges the long-term nature of football schedule planning and that conference rules,” many of the contracts read, “including the requirement to play a minimum number of games each season within their respective conferences, as well as the prospect that conference alignments could change, dictating that a game cannot be played during the (season) season. Accordingly, should this occur, the teams agree to discuss in good faith a future date(s) for the game(s) to be played.”

Some details on the Big Ten’s new TV deal were released.

With ESPN out of the equation, a Big Ten Saturday could look like this: a noon game on Fox, a 3:30 p.m. game on CBS and a prime-time game on NBC. According to SBJ, Big Ten games would also air on FS1 and Big Ten Network with Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, also in the mix.

Additionally, according to The Athletic, a “streaming package” with Amazon or Apple could also be part of the deal.

Can’t lie, it’s gonna be weird seeing Iowa vs. Nebraska in that 2:30 CT slot on CBS.

It was an interesting day over in Norman.

Not hard to figure out what the word likely was here. This set off quite the debate online. He claims to have been reading what the player wrote on his tablet in order to call the player out for not paying attention. Did he say it multiple times, as Venables asserts? Is Venables telling the whole truth, or is Gundy’s daughter just mad that he lost his job?

In any case, Oklahoma now needs a new WR coach.

Last, Will Anderson explained his facial impression in Alabama’s team photo.

That man is scary.

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

Roll Tide.