Alabama

2024 NFL Draft: Alabama LB Dallas Turner, SEC Defensive Player of the Year, declares after Rose Bowl loss

Published

2 years ago

January 1, 2024

2024 NFL Draft: Alabama LB Dallas Turner, SEC Defensive Player of the Year, declares after Rose Bowl loss

Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner declared for the 2024 NFL Draft following the Crimson Tide’s College Football Playoff semifinal loss at the Rose Bowl to Michigan. Turner, a projected first-round pick, is ranked by CBS Sports as the No. 10 overall draft prospect and checks in at No. 3 among edge rusher prospects.

Turner had three tackles, including a sack, during Alabama’s 27-20 overtime loss to the Wolverines. He finished the 2023 campaign with 50 total tackles, nine sacks and a pair of forced fumbles, all of which were career highs. His strong 2023 campaign earned him a number of accolades, notably consensus All-America and SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors. For his three-year career in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Turner registered 117 total tackles, 21.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.

He’ll now look to build off that momentum in pursuit of a successful NFL career.

Turner’s draft stock

Although Turner ranks third among 2024 NFL Draft prospects at his specific position, that may as well be splitting hairs. The two higher-ranked edge rushers — UCLA’s Laiatu Latu and Florida State’s Jared Verse — are directly ahead of him and No. 8 and No. 9 overall in the draft prospect rankings, respectively. In other words, Turner is clearly in the upper echelon within his position group, no matter how you cut it.

CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso projected the Houston Texans to use the No. 27 overall pick — traded from the Cleveland Browns — on Turner, and that draft position speaks more to team needs than it does Turner’s sheer talent.

“Let’s get Turner and [former Alabama edge rusher] Will Anderson back together again, this time in Houston,” Trapasso wrote. “Turner has all the talent in the world and put it all together in a marvelous 2023 season for the Crimson Tide.”

Wherever Turner lands, experience shouldn’t be an issue as he played heavily across each of his three seasons at Alabama. The 6-foot-4, 242-pound linebacker appeared in all 15 games for the Crimson Tide as a freshman, including a trio of starts, as Alabama reached the College Football Playoff National Championship before losing to Georgia. Turner then started 10 games in 2022 before peaking as a full-time starter in 2023. It shouldn’t take long for him to cause headaches for opposing quarterbacks in the NFL.

What it means for Alabama

Talent acquisition is rarely, if ever, an issue for the Crimson Tide, but there’s no denying that Alabama will miss Turner’s veteran presence from its pass rush in 2024. Candidly, who wouldn’t when a talent that is named the SEC Defensive Player of the Year subsequently departs? With linebacker Chris Braswell — second in sacks for Alabama this season (8) — also likely bound for the NFL Draft, it’s a position that will require the Crimson Tide to do some maturing in 2024.

As of this exact moment, Jihaad Campbell, Deontae Lawson and Trezmen Marshall — all had at least 55 tackles in 2023 — are names Alabama’s linebacker room can expect to have present next season. Of course, it’s difficult to project any team’s 2024 roster at this point given how much attrition is still possible between draft declarations and the transfer portal.

On that note, it’d be no shock if Saban and his staff end up going to the portal in the coming months to bolster their depth at linebacker, among other positions. Such is par for the course in this era of college football if teams want to compete with the best. On the recruiting trail, the Crimson Tide’s 2024 signing class includes edge rushers Sterling Dixon and Jayshawn Ross, both of whom are considered top-20 edge rushers nationally in the class, according to 247Sports.

The outlook will become far more clear once spring football arrives. But what is certain for now is that Alabama is losing one of its most imposing players across both sides of the ball.

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Alabama

New Alabama football coach Adrian Klemm faces massive task | Goodbread

Published

9 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

New Alabama football coach Adrian Klemm faces massive task | Goodbread

Adrian Klemm, meet the challenge of a career.

Alabama football’s first-year offensive line coach is one of three new faces at Kalen DeBoer’s conference table. And, next year, history says there might be three more. At the major college level, heavy turnover among assistant coaches is business as usual. But make no mistake; Klemm was DeBoer’s most important hire of the offseason. He might well be the most important hire DeBoer has made in his 26 months on the job.

That’s the magnitude of the mess that Alabama’s 2025 offensive line left behind.

The Crimson Tide’s 2025 rushing attack was an insult to the word attack. It was more like a rushing surrender; ranked 123rd out of 134 FBS teams, and 15th of 16 SEC teams, at 104.1 yards per game. Rock bottom came in the SEC Championship Game, when Georgia sent it backward for minus-3 yards. It’s frankly remarkable that quarterback Ty Simpson assembled a 28-5 TD-INT ratio, as a first-year starter no less, with virtually zero help from a ground game. And while we’re on the subject of the passing game, Simpson wasn’t very well-protected, either. At 2.13 sacks allowed per game, UA ranked 90th in the country.

If Klemm even bothered to watch film of last year’s offensive line, he had to do it with one eye closed.

UA tried all sorts of combinations up front, looking for a solution to what was plainly its biggest problem. In 45 years paying attention to college football, I never saw so many substitutions on an offensive line as Alabama made in 2025. Backups got every chance that could have asked for. On one hand, it was understandable that now-fired offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic refused to stay with a failing five all season.

But it also smacked of desperation.

In the end, it was clear that no combination was effective; the first-team unit Kapilovic finally settled on late in the season was the one that got manhandled by Georgia in Atlanta.

It was a shock to the system for Alabama fans, who know what a dominant run game looks like whether they’re young or old. Jam Miller led Alabama with 504 rushing yards on the season; former UA star Derrick Henry once ran for 557 in a three-game stretch against Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State.

Miller, of course, is no Henry. But the gap between those two is no bigger than the gap between Henry’s 2015 offensive line and the disastrous line that took the field a decade later.

Klemm is tasked with turning that mess around in a single offseason, with only one returning part-time starter in sophomore Michael Carroll, a promising cornerstone to be sure. But an offensive line is only as strong as its weakest link, and Klemm must find four links to line up beside Carroll. A collection of returning backups, transfers and incoming freshmen have a lot of improvements to make, along with a strong impression on a new position coach.

With spring practice underway, that process has begun in earnest.

And Klemm faces a taller task than any assistant on the practice field.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.

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Alabama

Mother who reported AL toddler missing now faces murder charge

Published

21 hours ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

Mother who reported AL toddler missing now faces murder charge

The mother of an Enterprise toddler, reported missing Feb. 16, has been charged with capital murder, said Police Chief Michael Moore.

Adrienne Reid, mother of Genesis Nova Reid, reported her daughter as missing to authorities and said the two-year-old was not in the home and the door was open. On March 9, she was charged with capital murder of a child under the age of 14 and abuse of a corpse, Moore said. March 9 would have been Genesis’ birthday, he said. Adrienne Reid had previously been charged with filing a false report about her daughter’s disappearance.

She is being held without bond, Moore said. Adrienne Reid could not be reached for comment and court records do not show if she has an attorney.

The case shocked Enterprise and southeast Alabama. Hundreds of volunteers searched for her, and people were asked to wear pink to honor her.

Early on in the investigation neighbors told law enforcement that they hadn’t seen the child for several weeks.

Moore said evidence points to the capital murder charge even though Genesis’ body has not been found. The last time she was seen was Christmas night while visiting family in Dothan, Moore said. Video footage at the apartment complex where they lived showed Adrienne Reid about 11:30 p.m. Christmas night pulling a rolling duffle bag to a dumpster at the complex, and throwing the duffle bag inside, he said.

Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd said his office began the process of planning to search the landfill early in the investigation. The landfill covers 100 acres. He said the area where the contents of the dumpster that allegedly contained Genesis’ body was likely dumped has been narrowed down to an area covering a few hundred feet.

Active searches will begin soon, he said. District Attorney James Tarbox said the state will be seeking the death penalty.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com. To support his work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.

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