Jumbo Package: Texas A&M game time announced, Tyler Booker recognized for play vs. Ole Miss

Happy Tuesday, everyone. We learned yesterday that the Texas A&M game in two weeks will also be in our familiar 2:30 pm slot.

The Crimson Tide will face the Aggies at 2:30 p.m. CT on CBS on Saturday, Oct. 7 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.

First No. 11 Alabama (3-1, 1-0 SEC) will play Mississippi State. Meanwhile, Texas A&M (3-1, 1-0) will face Arkansas this Saturday.

Alabama is 12-3 all time against Texas A&M. Two of those losses have been during Nick Saban’s tenure: Once in 2012 in Tuscaloosa and once in 2021 in College Station.

Tyler Booker was honored for his play against Ole Miss.

Anchored the Crimson Tide offensive line in a 24-10 win over then-No. 15/16 Ole Miss

Alabama’s offensive front controlled the line of scrimmage as the Tide accounted for 356 yards of total offense, including 132 yards on the ground

Recorded a career-high six knockdown blocks against the Rebels

Did not allow a sack as Jalen Milroe completed 17-of-21 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown

Cleared a path for Jase McClellan to rush for 105 yards and a touchdown while averaging 6.2 yards per carry

Saban has called him the leader of the group. He may well be one of the most important players on the field.

Saban held his usual Monday press conference.

“We had a couple of times in the first half where we sort of self-destructed a little bit with the way we executed and some of the things that we did, and sort of eliminated some of those things in the second half and played much cleaner and I think played the way we would like to continue to play and hopefully build on that,” Saban said.

“And sort of show the players today when we watched the film, here’s the reason that it worked and here’s the reason that it didn’t work, whether it’s offense, defense, special teams, or whatever, and that’s the way that you actually can have a chance to get better.”

— Praises Jalen Hale’s performance at wide receiver Saturday. Says Tide need to work hard with the freshman to get him playing with more confidence and understanding.

— Says Tide will rely more on Jihaad Campbell and Trezmen Marshall at inside linebacker Deontae Lawson can’t go due to his ankle injury.

— Saban says he loved late MSU head coach Mike Leach. Says Leach was different in a good way, had a great sense of humor and a very distinctive offensive system. Says he liked Leach as a coach and a person.

— Saban says Tide have given a lot of thought about whether it should have just run a QB sneak during bad goal line offensive sequence against Ole Miss. Said execution needed to be better.

“There’s a lot of thought about that,” Saban said. “Not smart on our part to do what we did. Then we get a bad snap after all that. I’m not defending anybody, but with better execution, we shouldn’t snap the ball over the quarterback’s head and we’ve got to get on the same page with the snap count. I agree with you that, at a time when it’s first and 1 on the 1, why do we need to be in (shotgun)?”

After the bad snap, Alabama had second down on the 14. Then Ole Miss was sacked on back-to-back plays. By the time Will Reichard was kicking a field goal, Alabama had the ball on the Ole Miss 22 after starting at the 1-yard line.

Some people are latching onto that last comment as an indictment of Tommy Rees while leaving out the piece about execution. Seth’s well documented problems snapping the ball are the reason for pause here. Alabama has routinely run from the gun or pistol inside the 5 yard line the past few seasons. Lots of teams do, and the funny part is that they do it largely to avoid a bad snap exchange due to lack of practice. Snaps under center are less “sure thing” than many folks seem to realize. You may recall Texas fumbling a snap on a short yardage sneak a few weeks ago, that of course worked out for them because that’s just how that night went.

You can check out all of Saban’s comments below.

Katie Windham at SI landed an interview with Greg Byrne. She asked about a basketball arena and of course he said nothing substantive. He did have some interesting comments on NIL though.

“There’s a misnomer out there. A couple of things. One is that the thought process or the saying is that people are just going to be giving million of dollars to NIL. People who have a lot of money normally have a lot of money for a reason. They’re usually pretty smart with it. What we are seeing is that somebody will support NIL, but they’re not going to do it in place of their support of the athletic department and of the university. That it may be over and above, but it’s going to be a very conservative number compared to what some of those numbers that have been out there. When I read about seven and even eight-figure deals, I don’t know how many of those are legitimate. People see it, and going back to my earlier comments about not rushing to judgement, people see it, and believe that that’s what it is. I think there’s a lot of smoke and mirrors with some of those.

The hoops team is practicing.

Last, I personally don’t have a problem with Deion Sanders running his mouth a bit. He’s trying to market his program, and it’s working. This however, was just stupid.

Sorry Deion, but it’s tough to balance allowing and encouraging that kind of nonsense with your “send me a boy, I’ll send you back a man” promise. Acting out like that on the field before the game, then toting a thorough asskicking, isn’t great for the brand.

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

Roll Tide.