Jumbo Package: Tide offense among SEC best ever per Georgia coach Mike White

Happy Monday, everyone. It was a mostly successful weekend for the Tide, as baseball dominated their opening series vs. Richmond, gymnastics posted another 197.525 to take down Georgia, softball won four of five over the weekend with the loss to 2nd ranked UCLA, and of course men’s basketball put a 49-point beatdown on Georgia. The only real hiccup of the weekend came from women’s basketball, who took an ugly 15 point loss at Mississippi State, to fall to 20-7 on what has been a landmark season.

Georgia head coach Mike White was quite impressed with Nate Oats’ squad.

“I think it’ll be hard to forget about this one, to be honest with you. When you have something like this happen, I haven’t been a part of something like this. I did a very poor job, obviously, preparing our guys. We looked rattled from the tip. Alabama’s obviously a better basketball team than we are. They were terrific. As good of an offensive team as I’ve seen live or competed against in our league that I can remember.

White has four years as a player and another 15 as a coach in the conference, so he is speaking from some experience.

Let’s hope that offense is firing on all cylinders in March, which is fast approaching. The Tide will likely fall to 2nd in the AP poll after Houston managed an eight point win over Memphis yesterday, despite the fact that the Cougars sport a Q3 loss, have played only five Q1 games, and lost to Alabama head to head. Their best win of the season came at Virginia, currently ranked 16th in the NET. Meanwhile, three of Alabama’s four losses came to teams ranked in the top ten of the NET, the Oklahoma debacle standing as the lone exception. Something tells me that these things will matter to the selection committee.

Alabama got a B- for the week from CBS Sports.

Tennessee held Alabama’s high-flying offense to a season-low 59 points in a loss Wednesday before Bama bounced back with a 108-59 win over Georgia on Saturday. No team is more dangerous than Alabama coming off a loss this season.

This picture from Saturday drew plenty of “aw how sweet” comments.

Not much out there in the way of football news, but we did learn that Georgia boosters spent an exorbitant amount of money on their 2nd ranked class.

Note that four of the five are already in the SEC, and the fifth will be joining soon.

Meanwhile the Pac 12 can’t even find anyone to broadcast their games now that the two Los Angeles area schools are leaving for greener pastures.

Instead, the Action Network reported Wednesday that CBS and Turner are not involved in those negotiations. NBC has gone all-in already on the Big Ten and Notre Dame. On the “Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast” this week, John Ourand of Sports Business Journal said Fox would only take the Pac-12 for “pennies on the dollar.” And just last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger said during an earnings call with investors that ESPN would have to “get more selective” on which broadcast rights it wanted to pay for in the immediate future.

If you add all that up, it’s not easy to see where the Pac-12 lands a big-money deal on linear television. And while the Pac-12 has been engaging streaming partners as well, Ourand said on the podcast that Amazon is more interested in the best football game of the week than the bulk of the inventory the conference will offer.

Da’Ron Payne wasted no time taking down Sam Ehlinger in a game this season.

Fastest sack: Washington Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne (Shades Valley, Alabama) took down Indianapolis Colts quarterback Sam Ehlinger in 2.37 seconds in a 17-16 victory on Oct. 30. That edged a 2.4-second sack of Tennessee Titans quarterback Joshua Dobbs by Jacksonville Jaguars outside linebacker Josh Allen (Abbeville) in a 20-16 victory on Jan. 7 for the fastest by a player with Alabama football roots.

Last, The Athletic’s mock draft has Bryce and Will going 2 and 3, respectively.

2. Houston Texans: Bryce Young, QB, Alabama

In this trade-free mock draft, the Texans are happy to sit back and get their guy at No. 2. Young is the difference-maker this new coaching staff needs to build around. His poise and accuracy are special, and he totally played up to the hype in his two seasons as an SEC starter. The size concerns are valid, but you’d be a fool to talk yourself out of drafting Young. — Olson

3. Arizona Cardinals: Will Anderson Jr., Edge, Alabama

Anderson was the best defensive player in college football for each of the last two years and would’ve been drafted in this same spot a year ago if he were eligible. He racked up 58.5 tackles for loss and 34.5 sacks over three seasons with the Crimson Tide. With J.J. Watt off into retirement, Anderson could slide in perfectly as a top-level pass rusher. — Vannini

Bryce getting to play for Demeco Ryans would be pretty cool.

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

Roll Tide.