Happy Gump Day: ‘Bama adds another WR to its ‘26 Class, with more on the way?

Happy Gump Day, one and all. With us truly being in the dog days, and it being the Holiday week no less, news is very slow…except for recruiting, which is red hot at the moment, with the first dead period approaching.

How hot? The Tide have vaulted up to No. 8 in just one week, lead the nation in 5-star commits, and are devouring most of the conference in head-to-head battles. #AlabamaReign indeed.

That will be our focus today.

First up, some crootin’ on the diamond, as the Tide inked a transfer P out of Texas Tech, Tyler Boudreau.

Boudreau appears a bit of a wildcard. The Canadian rightie spent most of his career at JUCO, and in his lone college season he was absolutely rocked. The Ks are nice, as is the fact he made 10 starts in the cut throat B12 (13 appearances), but you can’t exactly call it a roaring success. He was 1-4 in those appearances, with a 6.65 ERA. You’d think that is likely adjusting to big boy baseball, but he also had a 4.45 at the JUCO level too.

Alabama needs arms, for sure. Pitching has been a problem under Vaughn. I don’t know that Boudreau is going to be in the starting rotation without some development. The knock on him is that he’s a two-pitch guy: lively fastball and a crisp off-speed pitch. And that may not be enough to thrive in the SEC. We shall see.

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On to football crootin’, where the Tide picked up an unexpected commitment yesterday from 3-star Brian Williams Jr. out of Florida. To say Williams is underranked is perhaps an understatement. He already holds offers from UGA, Penn State, Notre Dame, all the major Florida schools, and three dozen others.

You can see why teams are going so hard, so early: the 6’3” 185 2026 signee moves very well in traffic, gets good separation off the line, and is utterly fearless going over the middle. The latter alone will put on the radar at a position where many guys fear contact. He has a second-gear in the open field, and is capable of turning on the jets.

Williams will need to work on catching the ball more with his hands than his body, and his route running leaves much to be desired. But there is a lot of raw potential here for Coach Shepard to work with.

The coaching staff have already pointed out his huge hands, and have called him a special player. So there is a lot of upside with Williams.

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And that takes us to the day’s big news: it’s Cedarian Morgan’s commitment day. The 5-star No. 1 WR has long-been a ‘Bama lean, with most services projecting him to the Tide.

He’s announcing at Noon Central today on Rivals’ YouTube livestream.

Hope for the best. Morgan is No 1 WR in his class, and the overall No 11 player.

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Apropos of nothing (besides our occasional quest to take you into the Xs and Os), but have ever wondered how defenders shed a double team? Particularly along the line, where they lack the impetus of momentum?

Let this coach show you: Leverage, getting small, and working the shoulders.

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I predicted this one about 18 months ago, with the “Title IX Compromise” that pissed off everyone — biology would eventually win out under the plain language and textual history of Title IX:

Pennsylvania on Tuesday modified a trio of school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and said it would apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by her participation on the women’s swimming team, part of a resolution of a federal civil rights case.

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Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I records and titles to female athletes who lost to Thomas and send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers, the Education Department said.

Penn’s statement is particularly obeisant:

While Penn’s policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules,” Penn president J. Larry Jameson said in a statement. “We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”

The writing was already on the wall, after a federal court struck the T9 compromise down. But the social zeitgeist is impelled by the law as often is it the determinant of it. Schools were always going to be slow adopters…until they got their ass handed to them in that first major lawsuit. And as we have seen in the corporate space particularly, once the dominoes start to fall, the money lines up, and then it snowballs out of fear of litigation more than anything else, as happened here.

The Quakers were the first; they won’t be the last.

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‘Bama’s soccer schedule was released yesterday, and UA looking to rebound after a somewhat average season last year. Opening the season on the road at No. 24 Clemson and at No. 13 FSU will tell us much this year for Coach Hart’s Tide squad.

https://rolltide.com/calendar

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Finally, your moment of levity with perhaps the greatest honky tonk bar-clearing hootenanny story you’ve ever heard, from a master storyteller.

I don’t know if all of this is true. I don’t need to know either — anything involving the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, losing toes in an Uno game, and assault with a stuffed catfish is too good to pass up.

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I know. It’s a miserably light day. It happens sometimes. Let’s hope Cedarian improves Gump Day — we’ll see you around noon, if so. #PrebuiltAndHiddenByCode.

Take care, Roll Tide