Alabama

Alabama Roundtable: Takeaways from Week 1 and can Texas temper the Tide?

Published

1 year ago

September 8, 2023

Alabama Roundtable: Takeaways from Week 1 and can Texas temper the Tide?

The Texas Longhorns enter their Week 2 match-up against the Alabama Crimson Tide 1-0. It was a lethargic start on offense but an impressive performance on defense from the Horns. What was your biggest takeaway from the 37-10 win over the Owls?

Daniel Seahorn (@DanielSeahorn) – My biggest takeaway is that the interior offensive line is going to be a work in progress for at least the first few weeks of the season. I was disappointed to see them struggle with assignments and processing out the gate, and you know Nick Saban is in the lab dialing protection busters for them this week. I am not going to be surprised if see a little bit more of a liberal rotation at the guard spots this week.

Gerald Goodridge (@ghgoodridge) – Going into the game, I thought I was mentally prepared for how suspect the interior offensive line was, but I was not. Rice was tripping Texas up with simple twist stunts, beating them with bull rushes, and just overall making them look bad on the inside. This is new information to everyone, but Alabama is going to be better than Rice, so to see them look essentially unchanged from where they were a year ago was shocking and a bit disappointing.

Cameron Parker (@camerondparker) – My biggest takeaway is that the Texas defense is LEGIT. It felt like the Longhorns defensive line pressured J.T. Daniels on every snap and made his life miserable. If the Horns can get that type of performance every game, it’s going to keep them in every single game no matter how the offense looks.

What is more fixable: Quinn Ewers’s incompletions on deep balls or the inconsistency on the offensive line?

Daniel – This is a tough one for me. I’ll say the offensive line because I think as they get more live game reps the cohesion will become better. Young guys like DJ Campbell and Neto Umeozulu are still young pups with very few starts between them, so you expect some bumps along the way. Ewers is in his second season as the starter now and started every game he was healthy for. Seeing him miss on deep shots and still seeing the mechanics break down against Rice doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies for sure. Either way you go though it’s a small sample size. We will see how things play out for both over the next few weeks and revisit.

Gerald – The offensive line simply because of numbers and options. Replacing Ewers doesn’t really fix the other issues with the offense that add to the deep ball frustrations, while Texas has other experienced and talented options that could potentially provide an instant boost to the interior of the offensive line. Whether it’s sliding Cole Hutson back into the starting lineup or giving Neto Umeozulu some run, there are more options.

Cameron – I think we have a big enough sample size to know that Ewers isn’t an accurate deep ball passer. For now. The offensive line is the option that can be fixed more easily. Everyone on that offensive line has not reached their ceiling – including DJ Campbell.

Now onto Alabama…if Texas wins on Saturday, it’s because ________ but if they lose, it’s because _______.

Daniel – Texas wins if the same Quinn Ewers we saw last year in the same game shows up to Tuscaloosa. Texas will lose if Ewers is inefficient on shots where receivers are schemed open and if they can’t make Jalen Milroe beat them with his arm by inflicting negative plays on early down and distances.

Gerald – Texas wins if the offensive line allows the offense to play in rhythm and ahead of the chains. Texas loses if the running backs don’t have space to breathe and Ewers reverts to his old bad habits.

Cameron – Texas wins if the defense plays like last week and forces Jalen Milroe to turn the ball over in big moments like he did all last year. Texas loses if the offense continues to stall in the red zone (or the gold zone for those who watch Hard Knocks) and Milroe makes one or two big plays.

Texas vs Alabama: Part II. Who wins? (Writers prediction record in parentheses)

Daniel (1-0) – I feel like I should stick to my guns after watching the Alabama quarterback battle play out. I am very bullish on Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense and I think they have the personnel defensively to make things tough on Milroe. I feel like this is going to be a low-scoring affair in Tuscaloosa. I picked Alabama last year to win by double digits and was pleasantly surprised by how things went. It took a superhero effort from the first overall pick in the NFL Draft for Texas to not come out victorious in 2022. He won’t be suiting up on Saturday. I am taking Texas in a tight one. Texas 27 Alabama 24

Gerald (1-0) – I said it on Saturday that I think the defense is good enough to help Texas tread water while the offense figures itself out. Middle Tennessee State was able to create havoc in the Alabama running game and I think that Pete Kwiatkowski’s unit will be able to do much of the same. As much as I love Jalen Milroe as a kid, he’s no Bryce Young and I think Texas will be able to do enough to win a lower-scoring affair. I’ve got Texas 24-21.

Cameron (1-0) – Texas 20, Alabama 23 – I think this Longhorns’ team can be really good but it appears they have a little ways to go, and a Saturday night in Tuscaloosa isn’t ideal for an offense with a few growing pains.

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Alabama

No. 21 Ole Miss visits Sears and No. 4 Alabama

Published

2 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

No. 21 Ole Miss visits Sears and No. 4 Alabama

Associated Press

Ole Miss Rebels (14-2, 3-0 SEC) at Alabama Crimson Tide (14-2, 3-0 SEC)

Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Tuesday, 7 p.m. EST

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Crimson Tide -11; over/under is 164

BOTTOM LINE: No. 4 Alabama hosts No. 21 Ole Miss after Mark Sears scored 27 points in Alabama’s 94-88 win against the Texas A&M Aggies.

The Crimson Tide are 7-0 in home games. Alabama ranks fourth in the SEC with 39.1 points per game in the paint led by Labaron Philon averaging 7.3.

The Rebels are 3-0 against SEC opponents. Ole Miss ranks sixth in the SEC with 16.0 assists per game led by Jaylen Murray averaging 4.1.

Alabama averages 10.3 made 3-pointers per game, 3.1 more made shots than the 7.2 per game Ole Miss gives up. Ole Miss has shot at a 45.4% clip from the field this season, 4.6 percentage points above the 40.8% shooting opponents of Alabama have averaged.

The matchup Tuesday is the first meeting this season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Sears is averaging 19.1 points and 4.5 assists for the Crimson Tide.

Sean Pedulla is scoring 14.1 points per game with 3.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Rebels.

LAST 10 GAMES: Crimson Tide: 9-1, averaging 92.5 points, 41.1 rebounds, 17.5 assists, 7.7 steals and 4.8 blocks per game while shooting 47.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 78.8 points per game.

Rebels: 8-2, averaging 76.4 points, 30.9 rebounds, 16.1 assists, 9.7 steals and 5.5 blocks per game while shooting 45.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.4 points.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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Alabama

Alabama, Texas flags lowered for Carter’s death returning to full-staff for Trump’s inauguration

Published

10 hours ago

January 13, 2025

Press Room

Alabama, Texas flags lowered for Carter’s death returning to full-staff for Trump’s inauguration

Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday ordered all flags at the Alabama capitol and state buildings return to full-staff when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated despite President Joe Biden’s order that flags be flown at half-staff to honor the life of former President Jimmy Carter.

Ivey’s order came 10 days after Trump lamented on social media that Democrats would be “all ‘giddy’” that he would be sworn-in with flags at half-staff.

Carter died Dec. 29 at age 100.

Biden ordered flags be flown at half-staff for a 30-day period of mourning that ends on Jan. 30

Ivey said her order, which applies to flags on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol Complex in Montgomery and at state buildings throughout Alabama, is in accordance with federal law.

“Federal law … enumerates times and occasions for display of the U.S flag, including Inauguration Day, January 20. Accordingly, flags at state buildings in Alabama should be raised to full staff on Monday, January 20, 2025, to honor the inauguration of the new president,” the governor’s order stated.

On Jan. 3, the president-elect said in a Truth Social post that “no American can be happy about it,” referring to the prospect of flags being flown at half-staff for his inauguration.

“The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves,” Trump posted. Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess! In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Gov. Greg Abbot of Texas was the first governor in the country to order his state’s flags to be raised for Trump’s inauguration.

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Alabama

Letter: Mr. Lyman’s wish list for Alabama’s Legislature

Published

17 hours ago

January 13, 2025

Press Room

Letter: Mr. Lyman’s wish list for Alabama’s Legislature

Guy V. Martin Jr.
| Special to the Advertiser

Kudos to Mr. Lyman. It takes chutzpah to ask our legislators to consider his 2025 wish list after having called them soul-less barbarians for years. Yet, legislators would agree wholeheartedly with his final wish, under his “DEI” label: for our teachers “to share the true history of the state, without any vague and mealy language intended to scare people from basic principles of truth and respect.”

Amen to that. Mr. Lyman being a woke advocate, let’s take a snapshot of that history as it relates to Blacks, the largest class of victims in woke theology. The 1960s and before was the era of invidious discrimination. Blacks were like the Israelites in Egypt. Merit didn’t count. Black welders, for example, with decades of talent and families to feed, some fresh from two wars welding tanks and airplanes, had to watch less qualified white apprentices walking through factory gates throughout America, taking the jobs the Blacks desperately needed and could perform better.

Then came Dr. Martin Luther King. Their Moses, who led them from bondage. Followed by brave white Alabamians like our legislators in the 1960s who (in several cases had to ignore death threats) changed Birmingham’s form of government to remove its racist Police Commissioner Bull Connor. Since then, white-majority governments have passed all sorts of laws, spent trillions of dollars, and seen millions of white people help blacks all over, even here in Alabama. Merit started counting and Blacks began flourishing in this Promised Land of ours–climbing ladders everywhere, heading Top Ten lists, from actors and athletes to scholars and entrepreneurs. There’s been magic in that rise of Blacks, and in all fairness, those of us Baby Boomers who’ve served in the trenches to end employment discrimination and know what a Bull Connor Billy Club can do to a man’s skull and emotions, can feel that magic far better than younger generations like Mr. Lyman’s.

But, then came wokeism, which has become the established faith in the legal and regulatory framework of the American political system, elite corporate culture and academia. Central to its creed is CRT, which tells precious black children they’ll be fighting an uphill battle against a society controlled by white people who hate them. CRT pollinated DEI, which tells those children that merit doesn’t count: without DEI’s brand of preferential treatment, they’ll be denied opportunities. As a result, children become poisoned with hate and fear. Thinking, don’t fight the system. Forget studying hard to follow your dreams. Many opt for rebellion and crime.

So yes, we need true history. To demonstrate that while our society has certainly not reached the ideal of being color-blind, we are light years better than yesteryear. We’d have never elected a black president and vice president if we were white supremacists. Our children need the confidence that came over with the Mayflower that, with hard work and ambition, the American dream is theirs. So long as they don’t drink the poisoned Kool-aide of CRT and DEI.

Guy V. Martin Jr., Montgomery

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