In 2023, Alabama football had the heaviest offensive line, based on average weight of starters, in the SEC. It wasn’t even close, the Crimson Tide weighed in at 339.4 pounds, with Vanderbilt in second place at 325.

Fast forward to 2024 and the Crimson Tide dropped to 13th, according to Beef Index data, released Thursday by AL.com. So what happened?

First of all, the Beef Index numbers take into account only Week 1 starters. For Alabama, that means losing the heaviest member of its offensive line unit, Kadyn Proctor, who was hurt in pregame warmups before the Tide faced Western Kentucky.

Had the 369-pound Proctor taken the field, Alabama’s average would have climbed to 323.6 pounds. That wouldn’t have placed the Tide back to the top of the list, but would have put it up to seventh.

Second, the unit simply slimmed down. Under new head coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic, Alabama prioritized movement, bringing in transfer center Parker Brailsford, who weighs 290 pounds and having other players, like Tyler Booker, lose weight.

Alabama moved significantly year-over-year in another metric as well. The Tide climbed from 12th in the SEC in offensive line total weight to first, counting every player on the online roster.

There’s an extremely simple reason for that. Alabama went from carrying 18 to 23 offensive linemen, and thus jumped from 5,534 pounds to 7,025.

When averaging out the weights of every offensive linemen on the roster, Alabama slipped several spots from 2023. The Crimson Tide weighed in at 307.4 pounds via that metric last season, 12th in the 14-team conference, but dropped to 305.43 pounds in 2024, last in the 12-team league.

Auburn

The Tigers took a huge drop down the standings in terms of starter average weight. While AU checked in third, at 321.4 pounds last season, the 2024 first five weighed an average of 311.8 pounds, dead last in the league.

The big loss there was Kam Stutts, whose 343 pounds topped out the group by a large margin. This year, Jeremiah Wright is the heaviest starter, at 333 pounds, with other weight drops around him.

Auburn sits 13th in total weight. Again, that’s the easiest metric to manipulate, simply by carrying more linemen.

The Tigers have 19 offensive linemen listed, and sit third among the four teams carrying that number. Last season, Auburn carried 18, sitting 13th among the 16 teams now in the SEC.

AU lost several places on the final metric, which averages the weights of all rostered offensive linemen. The Tigers checked in 13th for 2024, at 309.79 pounds, one of just four teams to come in below 310.

Last season, the Tigers sat 10th of the 16 current SEC teams, at 311.22 pounds.

HOUSTON – Alabama State University’s football program suffered a significant setback at the 2024 Denny’s Orange Blossom Classic. Representatives of quarterback Andrew Body informed HBCU Legends that he would need arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder, effectively ending his 2024 season with the Hornets.

Body’s family made the difficult decision to shut down his season after consulting with physicians in Alabama. It was the best course of action to extend Andrew’s football career. The shoulder injury occurred during the Hornets’ final drive, ultimately dealing a major blow to ASU’s championship aspirations.

During a crucial first-and-ten play at the 25-yard line, Alabama State’s offensive coordinator Barnett called for a quarterback draw. As Andrew Body gained four yards, NCCU linebacker Jaki Brevard tackled him, landing on Body’s right shoulder. The Alabama State QB held his arm still and sprinted to the sidelines, where the ASU medical staff promptly examined his shoulder in the medical tent. Unfortunately, Body was unable to return to complete the game.

Following the game, an MRI revealed the extent of Andrew Body’s injury. Alabama State’s quarterback will have arthroscopic surgery to add an additional anchor to one of the muscles supporting the rotator cuff. The procedure requires sutures passing through the torn tendon to be tied to the bone to aid in healing.

Despite this setback, Andrew Body will remain at Alabama State throughout his rehabilitation process, demonstrating his dedication to the team and the university.

Considering Body’s exceptional performance in the game, the injury came as a particularly tough blow. The Corpus Christi native demonstrated that he was the driving force behind the Hornets’ offense during their 31-24 loss to NCCU.

Andrew Body made Alabama State history by becoming the first Hornets quarterback since Darnell Kennedy in 1998 to rush for at least 125 yards and score multiple touchdowns in a single game. His impressive stats included 142 rushing yards and two scores.

Also, Body became the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s leading rusher with 134 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in Week 1.

Andrew Body’s achievement also placed him in elite company among HBCU quarterbacks. He joined former Bethune-Cookman player Allen Suber (2022) as only the second HBCU signal-caller to accomplish this feat in a season opener.

With Andrew Body’s injury sidelining him for the remainder of the season, Alabama State hoped to have quarterback Jonah O’Brien to lead the offense. However, reports of O’Brien sustaining an injury could prevent him from playing against Miles on Saturday. The Hornets need help adapting their game plan and maintaining their competitive edge without their star quarterback and O’Brien being able to suit up.

As Alabama State navigates this unexpected turn of events, fans, and alums, wonder about the program’s future. SWAC coaches and SIDs predicted that Eddie Robinson Jr.’s football team would finish first in the Eastern Division. Some pundits forecast that ASU would represent the conference in the 2024 Celebration Bowl.

How will the Hornets’ offense perform without Andrew Body? More importantly, how will Coach Robinson handle a once-promising season that appears murky at best?

We shall see.

U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, harshly criticized federal spending and President Joe Biden’s policies while attacking what he called the administration’s “weaponization” of the Justice Department.

Speaking at a breakfast of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Moore repeatedly criticized federal spending on the war in Ukraine as well as federal energy policy, which he said is the “driving factor” in driving inflation up and economic challenges Americans may be facing.

“When energy fuel costs goes up, folks, everything you do, whether you build a house and when you buy a car, the parts that go into that — the petroleum investment in there is higher,” Moore said to the attendees.

Moore blamed Biden for increasing energy costs, claiming he halted energy production “from day one.” Moore did not provide a specific example, but Biden did shut down oil and gas lease sales in public lands and waters in his first days in office due to concerns about climate change, according to The Associated Press.

The move was seen as an effort to change the U.S. fossil-fuel economy into clean energy, but the rule has been on hold since February 2022 due to a Western District of Louisiana court decision after Louisiana and nine other states sued the Biden administration. It’s unclear the effect it has had on inflation due to energy, as U.S. energy exports hit a record high in 2023.

Moore also claimed the Biden administration added about $1 trillion to the national debt in the last one hundred days but did not cite a source. According to Politifact, Biden’s debt accumulation is expected to reach about $7.9 trillion by the end of his term in January. In his four-year term, former President Donald Trump added about $7.8 trillion.

When asked about Trump’s spending after his speech, Moore said that while they may occasionally have to reject Trump’s funding requests, he shifted to promoting energy independence, proposing “you drill here and you drill now” to bring down the national debt, as well as halting international aid.

“They told him no on the wall, $5 billion, and now we spend $176 billion in Ukraine. I think there’s some ways there. Then certainly go ahead and quit spending money all over the globe in the areas that we not even got oversight,” he said.

Trump in 2018 asked Congress for $5 billion to build a border wall, but the House of Representatives, headed by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, offered $1.3 billion for border security. As a result, Trump diverted $6 billion in military funds for the wall construction, which the Supreme Court in 2020 approved.

Congress also has passed five bills appropriating $175 billion in response to the war in Ukraine, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent thinktank, but $107 billion is directly spent on Ukraine. The remaining portion is funding other U.S. government activities associated with the war.

Moore also expressed concern over what he called the “weaponization” of federal agencies, including the FBI and the IRS. He claimed an incident, claimed by the Wall Street Journal editorial board, where the home of a journalist testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by House Freedom Caucus deputy chair Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, was visited by the IRS, which Moore suggested was an attempt to intimidate.

There has been no evidence of the incident, other than the Judiciary Committee sending a letter to the IRS asking for details.

Moore, who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, also denounced the Russian election interference “narrative,” calling it a hoax that top Democratic officials knowingly perpetuated, but on July 13, 2018, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers for allegedly interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections. A bipartisan U.S. Senate committee concluded in 2020 that “Russia launched an aggressive effort to interfere in the election on Trump’s behalf” and that Trump associates “were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid,” according to The Associated Press.

Moore insinuated that Democrats will use it again to try to win the election.

“We certainly don’t want the federal government picking our next elected official. We want to have a fair election process,” Moore said.