Jumbo Package: Alabama’s OL looking to return to being a dominant group

First of all, I’d like to start your day off with an absolute gem. If you recall, on Tuesday, a certain Peyton Woodyard decommitted from Georgia and committed to Alabama. The safety is a 5-star recruit in Rival’s opinion, and a high 4 star for the rest of the services. Regardless, he’s a great player and should be a key piece of the class of Alabama.

Here’s our piece covering his flip, if you missed it.

This is where things get fun though. Check out the comment thread on this same coverage from Dawgnation.com.

It’s not quite a full meltdown thread, but here’s some highlights:

Well so sad for him. He’s leaving a program (UGA) that’s going up and up, to a program that is gradually declining. Whether he or Any Bama fan wants to admit it or not, Saban is aging and beginning to show cracks in his armor.

Where as Kirby is young and going up, and no where vaguely close to reaching the peak of his vitality. Bad move on the young man’s part imho. But it’s his life.

Guess he’ll cry elephant tears when he watches the Dawgs bypass Bama to go on to Continued greatness. Go Dawgs !!

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I’m tempted to give you this one @wpony714, but my issue is I NEVER seem to hear those same sentiments about kids COMING TO Georgia. When are we going to get someone who wants to play for us because their “dad is from Georgia.? When are we going to get the kid who dreamed of wearing the Red and Black from infancy (Stetson Bennett notwithstanding; I’m talking about 5-stars with options)? When we get the kid who committed elsewhere for a year but flipped to UGA because “no one does it better?” When are we going to sign the in-state kid who decided to stay in state because he always loved his state school and wanted his parents to see him play every weekend? I know that I’m overreacting, but it just feels as if it’s always UGA who gets the short end of the stick on these kinds of flips and reversals. OK, I’ll be quiet now, but I wish a kid would lie about his unbreakable commitment to ANOTHER team and flip to Georgia some time. How many have we lost this year already? Woodyard? Thomas? And Bolden feels like a flip? Combine that with Haynes and Downs going to Alabama last year and it’s like wow? Go Dawgs!

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Time and Age eventually tells on ALL of us regardless of your profession. Saban is an older guy, Gradually going into decline. Kirby is a younger guy that is No Where Near his peak. NIL $$ is very appealing initially, I get that, I’d probably want all I could get to !! But the short term gratification of pretty good NIL $$$ is not worth forfeiting the long term Mega $$$ of drafting really high in the NFL.

And NO I’m not saying it’s impossible not to draft high if a guy doesn’t go to UGA. I’m simply saying if a guy wants the best coaching in All college football to Prepare for the NFL, then UGA is the place to be !!

P.S. Also sooner or later some of these schools are gonna get in Deep trouble with the NCAA regarding NIL !! It’s only a matter of time !!

Seriously, there’s plenty more in that thread for you to enjoy. Go check ‘em out and make fun of the Dawg tears

On Tuesday, three-star safety Rydarrius ‘Red’ Morgan announced on social media that he was flipping his commitment from Florida State to Alabama. He recently pledged to the Seminoles back on July 4, originally choosing the program over Miami and Auburn, but began to trend towards the Crimson Tide a short time later.

Rather than visiting Tallahassee during the only open weekend of July, Morgan instead chose to check out Tuscaloosa. The seed was planted and it didn’t take very long for the Alabama native to take his talents to the in-state Crimson Tide.

Alabama also picked up a much less heralded recruit as an under-the-radar guy flipped from Florida State. The in-state guy from Phenix City is mostly known as a high-energy kind of player with potential to grow, but is a bit undersized still.

The Tide is now up to the #4 recruiting class in the country.

Next, we have a post-practice press conference from Saban:

Nick is rounding into mid-season form already, starting the press conference off by calling all the media folk soft as they sat in the air conditioned room. Then went right into saying they usually ask dumb questions about a roster “roll call”.

In his opening spiel, I particularly found this to be interesting:

“You know one of the interesting things somebody brought to my attention the two longest games we had last year, almost four hours long, two games: Tennessee and LSU. We made mistakes at the end of the game which were very costly. So the ability to sustain this level of concentration and focus no matter what you call it is something that we really, really need to do and continue to work on so that we have a chance to be more consistent as a team and don’t make plays that are drive killers or give up explosive plays on defense or help the other team with penalties or whatever it is.

“I like the attitude that the team has, I like the togetherness, I like the sense of commitment to the principles and values everybody seems to be buying into, but that’s something that we need to work on. And every guy has got to do a good job of working on that.

Many of us fans talked about this as well. Some have speculated that lack of finish in long games is a lagging result from the loss of Scott Cochrane. Regardless, it’s encouraging to know that Saban saw the same thing from his team last year and is actively working to address it this year.

He also talked a little about guard Terrance Ferguson

“He’s showing a lot of maturity, and I look at him as a starter on our team. I think we have six or seven guys who may be starters, so we’re seeing what the best combination is as we go through camp.”

Through the first six days of practice, Ferguson has worked primarily at left guard, although, as Saban pointed out, he has also received a look at center behind Seth McLaughlin and Darrian Dalcourt. At Saturday’s open practice, Ferguson opened the workout at Bryant-Denny Stadium at left guard with the first offensive line, ahead of Dalcourt, backing up Saban’s claims.

If Ferguson is able to unseat the 5th year veteran Dalcourt, I will take that as a very, very good sign for the Tide’s OL this year. He also mentions “Book and J.C.” as guys who set the tone for this group, and said that Seth McLaughlin “has the right stuff.”

Essentially, I think we’re pretty set at 4/5 OL spots, with only the battle between Elijah Pritchett and Kadyn Proctor still outstanding. If the freshman can step up and really show out in year 1, this could wind up being an awesome group.

Roll Tide!