Jumbo Package: NFL Combine plan for Bryce Young, new LB coach hired

Happy Monday, everyone. I have completed my warm-up routine that includes a faux MMA pat-down and am now ready to bring you whatever news is out there.

Alabama softball went 4-1 over the weekend, though the loss was a really bad one. The Gym Tide lost to LSU but nearly touched 198 for the second time this season in the process, and are trending in the right direction.

Women’s basketball suffered their third consecutive loss to end the season and will be the 6-seed for the SEC tournament which starts Thursday. It’s a shame, because had they simply managed to defeat lowly Florida and then defend their home court vs. Ole Miss in the finale, they’d have had the double bye. Instead it’s the Rebels who get to enjoy that 4 slot, and Alabama will likely get Florida again on Thursday.

The baseball team is off to a roaring start which makes us all very happy but Roger in particular. He is very close to, and invests a lot of time and energy into, that program.

Men’s basketball defeated Arkansas to move to 15-1 in SEC play, and a good day for the Tide became a great one when Mississippi State upset Texas A&M. The Tide can now clinch the SEC regular season crown on Wednesday, a Senior Night tilt vs. Auburn. Could anything be more perfect than that?

Brandon Miller, with a fresh new banner on his Twitter page, averaged 32.5 PPG and should be a shoo-in for SEC player of the week. I can’t imagine that there would be any crazy reactions to that. If you want to read what is likely the most even-handed piece from a national sportswriter on the ongoing saga, check out Seth Davis this morning but I have no more interest in delving into it. At the least, he’s the first one that I’ve seen who acknowledged Miller’s statement of intent to pick Miles up, and not deliver a weapon.

Saban replaced young Austin Armstrong with another young coach.

Bala served as a Liberty analyst under new Auburn coach Hugh Freeze during the 2022 season. He was set to be the inside linebackers coach for Liberty for 2023.

Before Liberty, he was a defensive coordinator for two seasons at FCS member Southern Utah while also coaching the linebackers in 2021 and the safeties in 2020. Before becoming defensive coordinator, Bala was Southern Utah’s co-special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach in 2019 and solely the cornerbacks coach in 2018.

Chase Goodbread writes that Tommy Rees loves joyless murderball.

When it comes to a running game that can impose its will on opponents, Tommy Rees does more than just preach. You want physical football? Alabama’s new offensive coordinator doesn’t just call the plays that grind a defense down for a second-half submission.

He lives them.

He breathes them.

And at the tender age of 30, his style might befit a coach twice his age.

“Tommy is like an old man trapped in a young man’s body,” Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea told The Tuscaloosa News.

It will be interesting to see if there is more reliance on the run game this season after five seasons of airing it out. That likely depends on confidence in one of the QBs to sling it.

Last, Bryce Young is going to let his tape speak for itself.

Listed at 6-feet tall and 194 pounds, Young said the day he declared for the 2023 NFL draft in January that he did not know what he would measure at the combine.

“That’s a good question,” he said Jan. 2 with a laugh. “I guess we’ll see.”

Young will throw at Alabama’s pro day March 23 in Tuscaloosa, according to the report, which added Young is “long past” a shoulder injury he suffered in September at Texas and affected him for weeks.

Young can only hurt himself by standing alongside bigger dudes, some of whom are better athletes. The key to his game is between his ears, and that is what he plans to show off.

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

Roll Tide.