Happy Monday, everyone. The Gym Tide started the weekend off with a whimper, allowing Auburn to win at Coleman for the first time in series history. They did notch their highest score of the season to date, but are currently ranked only 17th. Softball had an OK weekend and are currently ranked 21st. Neither of those programs are currently performing up to Alabama’s usual lofty standards.
Baseball had an interesting day at the Jacksonville Classic. They must have been watching the men’s basketball team as they fell behind 10-0 to Ohio State early in the game. The pitching and defense locked in at that point though, and national Player of the Year candidate Justin Lebron hit not one, but two three run jacks to get them back into the game. Then, Will Hodo did this.
Lebron was named MVP of the invitational.
in what is becoming a theme, the women’s basketball team fell behind by 16 to a terrible Auburn team before finding their way. But, they got it done.
In the second quarter, Alabama got cooking. The Tigers led by 16 points with 4:51 left in the half, when UA’s offense finally arrived.
“We all kind of looked at each other and we’re like ‘Oh, this is on the five that are on the floor right now,’’ Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker said. “Like, this is our fault. We’ve done some things that we didn’t practice. We did things that we don’t need to do. We turned the ball over. We weren’t getting defensive stops.
“So there was nothing that coaches could say. It was us as a collective, as a team, that was like ‘No, this is on us, we’ve got to fix it.”
That was the ladies’ ninth SEC win, guaranteeing them a finish above .500 in league play with two left, against an elite LSU squad and at 18th ranked Oklahoma.
Nate Oats made a little Alabama history this weekend.
Alabama basketball’s win over No. 17 Kentucky on Saturday came with a cherry on top for Nate Oats. He scored his 26th win over an AP top 25 team throughout his tenure as head coach at Alabama, taking sole possession of UA’s record in that department.
Oats passed Wimp Sanderson, who had 25.
“Wimp did a really good job here, I’m guessing that the SEC is a lot better now so there’s a lot more opportunities than he probably had,” Oats, in his sixth season as the Tide’s head coach, said after the win. “And when they give you the opportunity, you take advantage of them and try to get it done. We don’t have enough because we had a chance to get two more in the last two games before this.”
Maybe they can cure the slow start infliction that seems to have spread throughout the athletic department.
On3 has some of those anonymous sauces for you, ready to spill about the early enrollees.
Alabama: “[Safety] Ivan Taylor, [wide receiver] Derek Meadows, freaking [offensive tackle] Jackson Lloyd, [offensive lineman] Michael Carroll, [cornerback] Dijon [Lee], [wide receiver] Lotzeir [Brooks], all our freshmen — we’ve really been excited and surprised by our freshmen. All of our dudes are thriving, it’s unreal. And they’re fitting in well with the team.
“[Quarterback] Kee [Russell] is competing hard, he’s a competitor. But as a whole nobody is a clear-cut No. 1 because all of them are alphas.
“Ivan he’s a pro. He handles everything. He and [EDGE] Justin Hill, those dudes are pros. They finish, they work hard, they do extra, they’re in the training room, they take care of their body. They come in from a professional mindset and a great background. This class is a home run.”
All eyes will be on the Alabama QB battle, of course. That’s the first time I’ve seen Russell referred to as “Kee.” Whoever that quote is from certainly seems to be passionate about Lloyd. Maybe he’ll be ready to roll at right tackle.
Brad Crawford still thinks Ty Simpson will get the nod.
Projected starter: Simpson
The word: Who will be Jalen Milroe’s heir at Alabama? Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer isn’t willing to show his hand ahead of the start of spring practice in a few weeks. DeBoer told Bama247 recently that this competition will not “waste reps” during the spring, but all three options will have equal opportunity to show what they’ve got with a chance to impress the coaching staff. Russell, the heralded five-star true freshman, has already impressed as an early enrollee and has the tools to be an early-impact player in the SEC. The more likely option is Simpson, who is a seasoned vet after serving the last few seasons as Alabama’s backup. Mack, a redshirt sophomore, transferred to Alabama from Washington with DeBoer’s arrival and has a familiar face at offensive coordinator after Ryan Grubb re-joined DeBoer after a year in the NFL.
Nicole Auerbach reports that the SEC and Big Ten are unsurprisingly getting pushback from the G5, Big 12, and ACC on changing the playoff seeding that allowed Boise State and Arizona State to “earn” byes.
There’s a $4 million payout that comes with advancing to a quarterfinal — that’s on top of $4 million for reaching the playoff for a total of $8 million earned by a team’s respective leagues.
Would those leagues vote in favor of changing the seeding without any financial or other assurances for their conference champions?
“I don’t see a willingness to do that,” one CFP source said. “I don’t see the incentive for the G5 schools to agree to do away with the current seeding — just a self-interest thing — unless there’s something else that’s being committed to them for next year.”
The Group of 5 commissioners had their own separate call last week, and while there was an agreement that continued access to the CFP remains the top priority, there was concern about a lack of leverage for anything more.
It’s always about the money.
Last, Bill Connelly has his annual returning production numbers for you. Most of the top teams from 2024 are on his “likely to regress” list due to roster turnover. Alabama is ranked 35th here, which is basically neutral. But, the numbers nationally are the lowest they’ve been since he’s been tracking them.
We have another transfer window to come, so these averages aren’t set in stone. But the national average shifted only from 58.7% last February to 59.9% in August; it’s all but certain that we will end up with all-time lows in the returning production department this season.
I think there are two primary causes for this. First, most of the players with remaining years of bonus eligibility due to 2020 have officially cycled out of the system. Granted, if you were a true freshman in 2020, received the bonus year, then redshirted in 2021, you’ll still be a redshirt senior in 2025. But a healthy portion of the remaining bonus players are gone.
Second, use of the transfer portal is only speeding up. In 2023, FBS teams averaged 10.7 incoming transfers. In 2024, that rose to 13.9, and we’re already at 14.1 in 2025. Sure, a lot of the production from these transfers has just shifted from one school to another. But because of the way I calculate the numbers, a transfer is still a net negative.
Expect some ugly football this fall, folks.
That’s about it for today. Have a great week.
Roll Tide.
