Alabama

Alabama NFL roundup: Josh Jacobs carries the load in Packers’ win

Published

1 year ago

September 16, 2024

Alabama NFL roundup: Josh Jacobs carries the load in Packers’ win

With six seconds left in the Green Bay Packers’ season-opening game on Sept. 6, quarterback Jordan Love went out with a knee injury. That left Green Bay with Malik Willis at quarterback, and he had started practicing with the team only on Aug. 28 after being acquired in a trade with the Tennessee Titans.

With Willis in the lineup for their second game on Sunday, the Packers had a new game plan, and it centered on running back Josh Jacobs.

The former Alabama ball-carrier ran for 151 yards on 32 carries as Green Bay totaled 261 yards on 53 rushing attempts in a 16-10 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.

The Packers hadn’t run that many times in a non-overtime game since Sept. 3, 1978, when Green Bay had 181 yards on 55 carries in a 13-7 victory over the Detroit Lions.

Jacobs had the third-most rushing yards and the second-most rushing attempts of his career. Jacobs’ day would have been even better, but he lost a 20-yard touchdown run to an offensive-holding penalty in the first quarter and lost a fumble as he was about to cross the goal line in the second quarter.

Only four Green Bay players have had more than 32 rushing attempts in a game, and Jacobs was the first Packers ball-carrier to reach 32 since Oct. 12, 2008, when Ryan Grant had 90 yards on 33 carries.

Jacobs’ biggest game as an NFL ball-carrier came on Nov. 27, 2022, when he ran for 229 yards and two touchdowns on 33 carries in the Las Vegas Raiders’ 40-34 overtime victory against the Seattle Seahawks. Jacobs had 154 yards and one touchdown on 21 rushing attempts in the Raiders’ 30-29 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Oct. 10, 2022.

Jacobs was playing in his second game with the Packers. He joined Green Bay as a free agent in the offseason.

Jacobs was among the 48 former Alabama players who got on the field on the second Sunday of the NFL’s 105th season.

Four other former Alabama players were involved in the Indianapolis-Green Bay game:

· Colts defensive tackle Raekwon Davis made three tackles.

· Colts safety Ronnie Harrison did not record any stats. Indianapolis activated Harrison from the practice squad to make him eligible to play.

· Ryan Kelly started at center for the Colts.

· Xavier McKinney started at safety for the Packers. McKinney made four tackles, recorded one tackle for loss and intercepted one pass. In the second quarter, McKinney intercepted Indianapolis quarterback Anthony Richardson at the Green Bay 13-yard line and returned it 18 yards. Signed in free agency during the offseason, McKinney has two interceptions in two games for the Packers.

In the other Sunday games:

Las Vegas Raiders 26, Baltimore Ravens 23

· Ravens cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis (St. Paul’s Episcopal) made one tackle on special teams.

· Ravens guard Darrian Dalcourt is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· Derrick Henry started at running back for the Ravens. Henry ran for 84 yards and one touchdown on 18 carries and had a 12-yard reception. Henry scored on a 3-yard run as Baltimore took a 23-13 lead with 12:11 remaining. Henry had 5 yards on seven rushing attempts in the first half.

· Marlon Humphrey (Hoover) started at cornerback for the Ravens. Humphrey reached a career high with 10 tackles. He also had one tackle for loss and intercepted a pass. Humphrey got his 14th career interception when he picked off a pass by Las Vegas quarterback Gardner Minshew at the Baltimore 33-yard line with 5:03 left in the first half.

· Eddie Jackson started at free safety for the Ravens. Jackson made two tackles.

Los Angeles Chargers 26, Carolina Panthers 3

· Bradley Bozeman (Handley) started at center for the Chargers against his team of the previous two seasons.

· Chargers defensive lineman Justin Eboigbe was designated as a game-day inactive.

· Chargers offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· Panthers defensive end LaBryan Ray (James Clemens) made two tackles.

· A’Shawn Robinson started at defensive end for the Panthers. Robinson made six tackles.

· Chargers punter JK Scott averaged 43.0 yards on three punts, with a 32.0-yard net. Scott had a 38-yard punt that went out of bounds at the Carolina 13-yard line, a 44-yarder for a touchback and a 47-yarder returned 13 yards to the Carolina 19.

· Bryce Young started at quarterback for the Panthers. Young completed 18-of-26 passes for 84 yards with no touchdowns and one interception and had a 6-yard run.

CAROLINA PANTHERS STRUGGLE AGAIN: ‘BRYCE YOUNG IS OUR QUARTERBACK’

New Orleans Saints 44, Dallas Cowboys 19

· Trevon Diggs started at cornerback for the Cowboys. Diggs made five tackles.

· Ga’Quincy “Kool-Aid” McKinstry (Pinson Valley) started at cornerback for the Saints. McKinstry made five tackles and broke up one pass. He made his first NFL start in his second game with New Orleans in the place of Marshon Lattimore, who missed the contest because of a hamstring injury.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20, Detroit Lions 16

· Terrion Arnold started at cornerback for the Lions. Arnold made one tackle.

· Buccaneers safety Marcus Banks is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· Brian Branch started at safety for the Lions. Branch tied for the team lead with six tackles, intercepted one pass and broke up another. Branch’s fourth NFL interception came off Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield at the Detroit 43-yard line with 1:52 left in the first half, and he had a 1-yard return.

· Buccaneers outside linebacker Chris Braswell made one tackle and registered one quarterback hit.

· Jahmyr Gibbs started at running back for the Lions. Gibbs ran for 84 yards on 13 carries and caught seven passes for 22 yards.

· Jameson Williams started at wide receiver for the Lions. Williams had five receptions for 79 yards, including a 50-yarder, and a 15-yard run.

Cleveland Browns 18, Jacksonville Jaguars 13

· Browns cornerback Tony Brown is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· Browns guard Javion Cohen (Central-Phenix City) was designated as a game-day inactive.

· Amari Cooper started at wide receiver for the Browns. Cooper had three receptions 11 yards.

· Browns running back Jerome Ford ran for 64 yards on seven carries and caught one pass for no gain.

· Browns wide receiver Jerry Jeudy had five receptions for 73 yards.

· Jaguars quarterback Mac Jones dressed but did not play.

· Browns tight end Cameron Latu is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· Cam Robinson started at left offensive tackle for the Jaguars.

· Jaguars running back Keilan Robinson is on injured reserve and not eligible to play.

· Dalvin Tomlinson started at defensive tackle for the Browns. Tomlinson made two tackles.

· Browns offensive tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. was designated as a game-day inactive. Wills is recovering from a knee injury that caused him to miss the final nine games of the 2023 season. He has been a limited participant in practice and did not play in the season-opening game either.

Minnesota Vikings 23, San Francisco 49ers 17

· Vikings kicker Will Reichard (Hoover) made three field goals and two extra points. Reichard made a 22-yard field goal with 4:45 left in the first quarter for the first points of the game and the first three-pointer of his NFL career. He also had field goals of 39 yards on the final snap of the first half and 27 yards with 3:30 left in the game.

· Vikings outside linebacker Dallas Turner made two tackles.

Seattle Seahawks 23, New England Patriots 20 (OT)

· Patriots wide receiver Javon Baker did not record any stats in his NFL debut.

· Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore is on the non-football illness list and not eligible to play.

· Anfernee Jennings (Dadeville) started at outside linebacker for the Patriots. Jennings made seven tackles.

· Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· Jarran Reed started at defensive end for the Seahawks. Reed made six tackles.

New York Jets 24, Tennessee Titans 17

· Jets safety Jaylen Key (UAB) is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· J.C. Latham started at left offensive tackle for the Titans.

· C.J. Mosley (Theodore) started at linebacker for the Jets. Mosley made three tackles. Mosley left the game with a toe injury in the second quarter and did not return.

· Calvin Ridley started at wide receiver for the Titans. Ridley had four receptions for 77 yards and one touchdown and ran 10 yards for a touchdown. Ridley scored the first points of the game on the first rushing TD of his career with 2:30 left in the first quarter and caught a 40-yard touchdown pass with 3:22 left in the third quarter as Tennessee tied the game at 17-17.

· Quinnen Williams (Wenonah) started at defensive tackle for the Jets. Williams made three tackles and registered one quarterback hit.

Washington Commanders 21, New York Giants 18

· Jonathan Allen started at defensive tackle for the Commanders. Allen made two tackles and registered one quarterback hit.

· Commanders defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis made one tackle.

· Giants offensive tackle Evan Neal dressed for the game but did not play.

· Daron Payne (Shades Valley) started defensive tackle for the Commanders. Payne did not record any stats.

· Brian Robinson Jr. (Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa) started at running back for the Commanders. Robinson ran for 133 yards on 17 carries and had a 3-yard reception. Robinson reached his career high for rushing yards with his second 100-yard game. Robinson ran for 105 yards on 18 carries in a 19-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 27, 2022.

Arizona Cardinals 41, Los Angeles Rams 10

· Rams tight end Miller Forristall is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· Cardinals offensive tackle Jonah Williams is on injured reserve and not eligible to play.

· Mack Wilson (Carver-Montgomery) started at inside linebacker for the Cardinals. Wilson made four tackles.

Pittsburgh Steelers 13, Denver Broncos 6

· Steelers cornerback Anthony Averett is on the practice squad and not eligible to play.

· Minkah Fitzpatrick started at safety for the Steelers. Fitzpatrick made seven tackles.

· Najee Harris started at running back for the Steelers. Harris ran for 69 yards on 17 carries and had a 5-yard reception.

· Broncos linebacker Drew Sanders is on the physically-unable-to-perform list and not eligible to play.

· Patrick Surtain II started at left cornerback for the Broncos. Surtain made one tackle.

· Broncos cornerback Levi Wallace made one tackle.

Kansas City Chiefs 26, Cincinnati Bengals 25

· Bengals safety Jordan Battle did not record any stats.

· Bengals wide receiver Jermaine Burton caught only one pass, but it went for a 47-yard gain. Burton’s reception moved Cincinnati to the Kansas City 23-yard line to open a touchdown drive as the Bengals took a 22-17 lead with 2:16 left in the third quarter.

Houston Texans 19, Chicago Bears 13

· Will Anderson Jr. started at defensive end for the Texans. Anderson had four tackles and recorded 1.5 sacks.

· Texans linebacker Christian Harris is on injured reserve and not eligible to play.

· John Metchie III was designated as a game-day inactive.

· Henry To’oTo’o started at linebacker for the Texans. To’oTo’o led Houston with 13 tackles. To’oTo’o’s career-high total included the first sack of his NFL career.

Week 2 started on Thursday night, when the Buffalo Bills defeated the Miami Dolphins 31-10.

Week 2 concludes on Monday, when the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles square off at 7:15 p.m. CDT at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. ESPN will televise the game.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.

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Alabama

2026 Alabama Gymnastics Season Preview

Published

5 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Ashley Johnston is entering her “senior season” as the Alabama gymnastics head coach at her alma mater. Of course, there is no such thing in coaching, but Johnston feels like she’s gotten to grow up alongside the Crimson Tide’s current senior class as both have spent four years in Tuscaloosa.

“We do always talk about how our senior class, we’re all seniors together as this is my fourth year now,” Johnston said. “And our senior class, we’ve grown, we’ve tweaked the recipe. We’ve really had a variety of experiences over the last three years, now going into our fourth.”

Alabama’s 2025 season ended in the NCAA semifinals. The Crimson Tide is looking to make it back to the finals for the first time since 2017. The road to get back there starts Friday at Clemson.

“We have to treat every meet like we’re competing against our own standard as we want to be a final four team in the country,” Johnston said. “That journey started in August. So this is just one more opportunity to practice being what we want to do this year.”

Schedule

The Alabama schedule features 11 opponents ranked in the preseason top-25, including the top-three teams (Oklahoma, LSU and Florida.) Week in and week out, the Crimson Tide will be competing against the best teams in the nation, which will prepare it for what it will face in postseason play.

Alabama will face the eight other SEC gymnastics teams at least once each in a dual meet format starting at Florida on Jan. 16 and wrapping up at home against Georgia on March 13. The Tide will travel to Norman to face defending national champion Oklahoma on Feb. 6. The first home meet is Jan. 23 against Missouri.

Clemson, Oregon State, North Carolina and Illinois make up the non-conference slate. Alabama will face North Carolina as part of a tri-meet with LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on March 1. Two days prior, the Tide will face LSU in a regular season dual meet.

There are two times this regular season where Alabama will compete on both Friday and Sunday of the same weekend. Johnston likes to do this to get the team prepared for the quick turnaround that happens between competitions during the NCAA postseason. The Tide will be well prepared for the gauntlet it could face in the postseason with the type of schedule it has in the regular season.

Roster

Alabama’s available roster is comprised of one graduate (Jordyn Paradise), three seniors (Gabby Gladieux, Natalia Pawlak and Rachel Rybicki) three juniors (Chloe LaCoursiere, Gabby Ladanyi and Jamison Sears), four sophomores (Love Birt, Ryan Fuller, Kylee Kvamme and Paityn Walker) and five “trailblazer” freshmen (Jasmine Cawley, Noella Marshall, McKenzie Matters, Azaraya Ra-Akbar and Derin Tanriyasukur.) Corinne Bunagan and Karis German will miss the entire season with injuries.

“These freshmen are trailblazers,” Walker said. “They’re like veterans, and I’m so proud of them and how they have come out of their shell.”

Paradise is returning from an injury that kept her out all of last season and will bring a veteran presence to the vault and uneven bars lineup. Birt also returns from injury and will make her Crimson Tide debut this season. The other sophomores are all coming off strong freshmen seasons and will look to continue making an impact for the Crimson Tide in 2026.

LaCoursiere, Cawley and Ra-Akbar are all names to watch for the all-around competition alongside Gladieux of course. Gladieux has been a steady contributor on all four events since her freshmen campaign. The senior has stepped into an even bigger leadership role heading into her final year.

“I think what I’m most excited about for Gabby is not just how she’s leading herself, but how she is leading others,” Johnston said. “I’ve been really excited to see how she has really broken through her own struggles and things that she has been trying to break down the walls of trying to be perfect all the time. I think learning how to be authentically herself, and by being authentically herself, she has really been an incredible role model for the rest of our team. So how that plays out on competition night is not just her worried about her own performances but her really looking around, leaning in and helping to bring in others— learning what it’s like to compete in a really fierce way. She is a fierce competitor, but I think she’s really grown to be able to look around and meet the needs of her teammates, and that’s what being a great team leader is all about.”

Outlook

Over and over this offseason, Johnston has emphasized that there will a lot of new routines in Alabama’s lineups from both new faces and returners. The Crimson Tide is ranked No. 8 in the preseason coaches poll and has a great mix of fresh talent and experienced depth.

It isn’t finals or bust for Alabama this season. Johnston has been building the program in a steady direction, but a Final Four appearance would go a long way. The SEC is always a challenge, now more than ever with parity from top to bottom. Johnston doesn’t want her team to be average, but she wants them to compete their average week after week to have ultimate success.

“I think this team has worked relentlessly to make sure they’re capitalizing on every half tenth, every possible way that they can increase their scoring potential,” she said. “This team’s talented. They’re excited. They’ve worked so incredibly hard, and I’m just excited for each of their stories to break through in their own unique and special way.”

Friday night

Alabama will open the season at Clemson on Friday at 6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra. The Tigers are relatively new on the college gymnastics scene, only having a program since 2024. Clemson did not score higher than a 196.575 all of last season, but the Tigers are under new direction with first-year co-head coaches Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell.

This will be the first meeting between the two programs. Clemson traveled to Tuscaloosa last year for NCAA regionals, but the Tigers were not in the same session as Alabama and finished fourth in their session. The Tide should be the higher-scoring team on Friday night, but Johnston is more focused on learning how ready her team is.

“Clemson is going to be a great kind of litmus test for that,” Johnston said. “While they’re not an SEC competitor, their environment certainly is similar to what an SEC environment is going to look like. It’s going to be a sold-out crowd. I know they sold out tickets early when this meet was announced, so I think it’s going to be a really energetic, exciting environment.

“We’re going to be able to see how quickly our athletes are going to be able to adapt to the different feelings that they’re going to have. They’re going to be a little nervous, they’re gonna be a little stressed, they’re gonna want to be perfect…I’m most interested in seeing how they’re going to handle it, but at the same time, I trust that they’re going to handle it well. This team has worked really hard on handling hard moments where I think that’s our superpower. I think our strength as a team is that we’re able to step into the hardest moments and trust and know that we can get it done.”

Alabama defensive back officially declares for 2026 NFL draft

Published

17 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Alabama defensive back officially declares for 2026 NFL draft

Jones transferred to Alabama from Wake Forrest prior to the 2024 campaign.

Alabama defensive back DaShawn Jones has officially declared for the 2026 NFL draft.

A senior out of Baltimore, Maryland, Jones was an excellent rotational piece in the Alabama secondary throughout the 2025 campaign. Jones joined the Crimson Tide in 2024 after transferring in from Wake Forrest, and the defensive back took full advantage of the opportunities he was given and thrived in Tuscaloosa as a result. The former three-star prospect recorded 11 solo tackles and one interception this season, as the playmaker will now turn his attention towards the NFL draft in April.

Jones was ranked as the No. 137 cornerback and the No. 1551 overall player from the class of 2021, per the 247Sports Composite rankings, prior to attending Wake Forest to begin his collegiate career. The talented defensive back played far above his expectations over the course of his college career, as the former Demon Deacon was a solid contributor during his time at both Wake Forrest and Alabama.

Jones could quickly prove to be an excellent pick up for any team that choses to draft him, as the promising playmaker’s time in Tuscaloosa officially comes to an end.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion.

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Alabama

May they see your driver license?: Down in Alabama

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

May they see your driver license?: Down in Alabama

Driver license, please

A case we followed here in 2022 has found its way to the Alabama Supreme Court.

AL.com’s Sarah Whites-Koditschek reports that the question is whether Alabama Police officers can demand to see people’s driver licenses or other IDs if they have probable cause.

In 2022, Childersburg Police answered a call about somebody on the property of people who were not home. The man, Michael Jennings, said he was watering flowers for his neighbors. The officers told him to provide an ID. He would only give his name as “Pastor Jennings” and refused to provide identification. Eventually the officers arrested him on a charge of obstructing government operations.

Attorney Ed Haden is representing the city and a group of police officers. He argued before the justices that state law gives officers with probable cause the authority to identify people, and that means a full name verified by identification.

Jennings attorney Henry Daniels argued the opposite, telling the justices that “Entitlement to live one’s life free from unwarranted interference by law enforcement or other governmental entities is fundamental to liberty.”

How low can you go?

Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December came in at a low 2.7% and was accompanied by record-breaking employment totals, reports AL.com’s Heather Gann.

Alabama Department of Workforce Secretary Greg Reed announced the figures on Wednesday.

Records fell for the number of people counted as employed and wage and salary employment. The difference between those two stats is that “wage and salary employment” doesn’t include a few types of workers such as the self-employed.

Alabama’s 2.7% rate was down from 3.3% in November ’24. And it was tracking well below the national rate.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.6%. That’s low, historically speaking, but the highest it’s been since September 2021.

RIP, songwriter Jim McBride

Huntsville native, country-music songwriter and Alabama Music Hall of Famer Jim McBride has passed away, reports AL.com’s Patrick Darrington.

McBride, who was from Huntsville, wrote or co-wrote No. 1s such as Johnny Lee’s “Bet Your Heart on Me” and Waylon Jennings’ very last chart-topper, “Rose in Paradise.”

With legends such as Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and George Jones cutting his songs, he became a Nashville mainstay himself during the 1980s. In the country-music business, a lot of figures like McBride aren’t the household names of the recording artists, but the smart recording artists are going to gravitate to somebody who can take a song or a hook or an idea and turn it into something that might hit. So the songwriters become famous inside the industry and many of them are like family to the Opry stars and in high demand for late-night guitar pulls. We had another one — Bobby Tomberlin — on the podcast on Sept. 12, and he told some great stories about that life.

Well, one of those smart recording artists who wound up in McBride’s orbit in the late ’80s was a fresh-faced Alan Jackson. Their songwriter partnership produced the No. 1 songs “Someday” and CMA Single and Song of the year “Chattahoochee” as well as many others, including the Top 5s “Chasing That Neon Rainbow” and “(Who Says) You Can’t Have it All.”

That alone is a career.

Jim McBride was 78 years old.

Quoting

“To all our ICE agents in Minnesota and across the country: if you are violently attacked, SHOOT BACK.”

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, in a response to a woman’s being shot and killed in Minnesota on Wednesday after she allegedly tried to drive her SUV into an immigration officer.

By the Numbers

60%

That’s the percentage of Alabamians in an AL.com survey that said they expect to spend more on housing or rental costs this year compared to 2025.

Born on This Date

In 1977, actress Amber Benson of Birmingham.

The podcast

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