Alabama
Mississippi State Reportedly Hosting Alabama Commit Caleb Cunningham
According to Chad Simmons of ON3 Sports, the top football recruit in Mississippi, 5-star receiver Caleb Cunningham, will be in Starkville this Saturday.
Cunningham is from Ackerman, Miss., just 35 minutes from the Mississippi State campus.
Mississippi State and first-year head coach Jeff Lebby seemed in an excellent position to land the 6-1 190-pounder back during the spring, but lost the momentum. The out-of-state schools began to get Cunningham’s ear with visits to Auburn and Alabama before making his pledge to the Crimson Tide official.
Five-star @calebcunning13 doing what five stars do!
Big YAM Cunningham! pic.twitter.com/HTWRerzBBX — Rion (Ree-un) Young (@MacCorleone74) August 24, 2024
In the past, Mississippi State would have a tough time landing a top receiver due to the lack of explosive offenses, but Lebby changed all that. The former Oklahoma offensive coordinator runs an offense appealing to receivers – he can go after the top ones.
However, Lebby is an unknown head coach, which likely made Cunningham a little hesitant to commit to Mississippi State. Alabama has a long history of producing great wideouts like Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Devonta Smith, etc. and it’ll be a fight to get him.
🐐TALK @juliojones_11 pic.twitter.com/V8AYfgoPPh
— Caleb Cunningham ✝️ (@calebcunning13) September 10, 2024
New Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer also has a pedigree as a head coach, having led Washington to the national title game a season ago. It is hard for Mississippi State to recruit against Alabama, but with a kid so close to home, there is always a shot.
The key for Mississippi State to land Cunningham is for Lebby’s offense to deliver on the hype.
If Mississippi State can put an explosive offense on the field for the remainder of the season and build momentum heading into the offseason, it might a legit shot at landing its first 5-star since CharlesCross.
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Alabama
This Mexican restaurant was named as ‘absolute best’ in Alabama: Do you agree?
Birmingham people who love Mexican food need no prompting to visit El Barrio, a welcoming restaurant that serves bold and imaginative food.
The grilled chorizo meatloaf tends to speak for itself, along with dishes such as Masa roasted trout, roasted chile relleno, chicken mole and carne asada.
But if new converts to El Barrio are needed — or out-of-town visitors need a nudge — Tasting Table is ready to spread the word. The foot and dining website included El Barrio in its recent list of “The Absolute Best Mexican Restaurant in Every State in The US.”
“We wanted to find the restaurants that are making tortillas and salsas from scratch, importing ingredients from Mexico, and sourcing the freshest local produce and meats,” writer DB Kelly said. “The best are promoting traditional dishes and cooking methods, and offering options that you might not find on the menus of less dedicated restaurants.”
El Barrio was the top pick in Alabama, lauded for its creativity and carefully sourced ingredients.
“El Barrio has two locations — in Birmingham and in Homewood — and it’s upfront about serving dishes that are inspired by the various regional cuisines of Mexico, rather than being authentic reproductions,“ Tasting Table said. ”And that’s fine, especially when it’s being done with a focus built around seafood sourced from the Gulf and local produce. The result is outstanding potato taquitos, masa cornbread, farm-to-table veg, and plantain nachos that keep customers coming back to this super-fun spot.”
See the full list of restaurants selected by Tasting Table here.
This isn’t the first time El Barrio has made a “best” list, of course.
Fans include of the eatery include loveFood.com, which named it the best Mexican restaurant in Alabama in 2024. The plantain nachos and carnitas are standouts, writer Jessica Morris said.
AL.com has lauded El Barrio, as well, naming it one of the top 5 Mexican restaurants in Birmingham. El Barrio also earned a mention in our opinionated lists of “5 terrific restaurants in Birmingham that visitors will love” and “5 fabulous restaurants we could eat at forever in Birmingham.”
“Repeat visitors may find themselves simply going down the menu and ordering something new each time,” AL.com said. If you’re fond of dipping — and who isn’t? — the guacamole, queso and salsa are top-notch here.”
El Barrio’s downtown location at 2211 Second Ave. North opened in 2011 and became an immediate hit. A second location followed in 2025, at 195 Oxmoor Road in Homewood.
Alabama
Best Floor Rotation in Nation Propels No. 3 Alabama to Dominant Win Over Oregon State
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— No team in the country has put together a better floor rotation than Alabama did during Friday night’s win over Oregon State inside Coleman Coliseum.
Behind a season high (and nationa’s best) 49.675 on the floor exercise, No. 3 Alabama beat No. 22 Oregon State 197.450-195.825.
Five of the Crimson Tide’s six floor routines scored a 9.925 or higher capped by back-to-backs 9.95s from Jamison Sears and Gabby Gladieux in the final two routines of the night. It marked the third straight week that at least one judge gave Gladieux a 10 on floor.
“I think we still have a lot of potential,” Gladieux said after the meet. “There’s still a lot of areas for us to grow, but I think what makes Jamison and I’s job so easy is the trust we have in the first half ot he lineup. They set us up perfectly tonight. There was really no pressure on our end. We just went in, had fun and did our job.”
In her routine of the season, senior Rachel Rybicki scored a 9.925 in the third spot after Chloe LaCoursiere and Azaraya Ra-Akbar started the rotation with the same score. Alabama’s depth on floor gives the Tide the potential to consistently be one of the highest-scoring teams in the nation on the apparatus.
Alabama continued its strong work on the uneven bars with its second-highest bars score of the season with a 49.475. Junior Chloe LaCoursiere came into the meet as the top-rated bars worker in the country and recorded her fourth straight score of the season higher than a 9.925 on the event with a 9.95 Friday night against Oregon State.
The vault and balance beam routines are both ones Alabama will want to leave in the past. There weren’t any major mistakes, but the rotations resulted in the Crimson Tide’s two lowest rotation scores of the season through four meets with a 49.125 on vault and 49.175 on the balance beam. Alabama did not stick any landings on vault, but head coach Ashley Johnston was still pleased with what her team learned on the event.
“I’m actually really excited about on through four on that lineup,” Johnston said of the vault rotation. “I thought Jasmine, Jordyn, Jamison and Gabby all had their best vaults tonight and just continuing to find what it is that helps them settle in to landings is going to be everything. I think because they all did, really a great job, I think Kylee and Aza, they like, really tried to go for the stick. And they over-tried on the stick, but they did big vaults.”
LaCoursiere’s beam routine lead to extended conversations between the judges and between the Alabama coaches and the judges. One of the judges gave LaCoursiere’s routine a starting value of 9.8 while the other gave it a 10.0 starting value. Her final score ended up being a 9.725 on the event, and head coach Ashley Johnston spent the entire transition period between the third and fourth rotation conferring with the head judge.
Johnston said it was the longest inquiry of her career. LaCoursiere’s connection series was questioned by one of the judges. The Alabama coaches originally did a routine inquiry with a video, which they lost. Then, they did a video review at the end of the competition and ultimately won the inquiry process to get LaCoursiere the proper start value.
“It was a long-fought battle,” Johnston said. “Very thankful for Ross Thompson who is ultra prepared for all situations, and he had his book of every single rule that has ever existed, so we were armed and ready to bring all the information forward to ultimately make the right decision.”
Despite not having its best meet on vault and beam, the meet was never in doubt for the Crimson Tide. Alabama held a sizable lead over Oregon State after each rotation and continued to build on the lead. The Beavers only scored above a 49 on one event: balance beam.
Alabama has now started the season with four straight scores in the 197 range and will likely stay in the top-five nationally after this meet.
Up next for the Crimson Tide is a road meet against the defending national champion and the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners next Friday.
“Depth is really going to be the determiner of how far we go, and so having the seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th person who is pushing everybody in the lineup, continuing to find their edge, is going to be a really important focus point for us right now,” Johnston said. “I think we did a good job of that tonight, but that’s absolutely a priority as we go into this next month because we’ve got a gauntlet of a season coming up.”
Read more on BamaCentral:
Alabama
Another Arctic Blast Targets Alabama, Bringing Snow Flurries and a Bitter Weekend Chill
FRIDAY FRONT: Another Arctic front will roll through Alabama this afternoon and tonight; ahead of the front temperatures will warm into the 50s over the southern 2/3 of the state, but the northern third of the state will likely hold in the 30s behind the front with an icy north wind.
As the cold air rushes into the state, a few snow flurries or snow showers are likely over the northern 2/3 of the state tonight and tomorrow morning. While many places won’t see a single snow flake, there could be a few heavier snow showers that bring some light accumulation to scattered places along with icy spots on roads.
But the main impact from snow will be east of Alabama, where winter warnings are in effect for eastern Georgia, the Carolinas, and southern Virginia. The Great Smoky mountains will also see some impactful snow as a surface low moves northeast just off the Atlantic coast.
WEEKEND CHILL: Highs will be in the 20s and 30s across Alabama tomorrow; even South Alabama communities will have a hard time getting above freezing. Sunday morning we expect lows in the teens deep into the southern part of the state with a clear sky and light wind. The day Sunday will feature a sunny sky with highs in the 30s and 40s.
NEXT WEEK: Monday and Tuesday will be dry with a warming trend. Rain returns to the state Wednesday ahead of a cold front, then cooler, drier air returns Thursday and Friday.
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