Jacksonville State is in its second year as an FBS program with Rich Rodriguez leading the way. Sometimes, these schools rely on nonconference games for financial purposes, facing off against big-time foes. An in-state option for the Gamecocks could be the Alabama Crimson Tide, a matchup Rodriguez certainly was asked about during a press conference on Monday.

And based on his response, he is more than willing to bring his team to Bryant-Denny Stadium. In fact, Rodriguez will actively seek out getting the Crimson Tide on the schedule.

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“If they want to pay me $2 million, I’ll be down there on Saturday and Sunday, I’ll play them twice and help our budget,” Rodriguez said. “They can beat our brains in for a couple million dollars, for sure.

“I’ll call my buddy Greg Byrne, the AD down there, and say ‘listen, Greg, we’ll go down there for $2 million, and if you want to do the back-to-back, we’ll go for $4 million and have a great time.’ I’ll even sing ‘Roll Tide’ for them, if they want.”

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Outside of the Iron Bowl with Auburn, there is not much history of Alabama facing teams from the Yellowhammer State. The Crimson Tide have historically scheduled out-of-state foes when looking for buy games. This season, it’s Western Kentucky — a game that resulted in a comfortable 63-0 win on Saturday night.

Jacksonville State will face Louisville on Saturday, likely trading a loss for cash. Future opponents included UCF in 2025 and Auburn in 2026. Rodriguez is potentially looking to make the travel a whole lot easier for his team, going to Tuscaloosa while getting the program a few million dollars.

All of this without mentioning the history, or lack thereof, Rodriguez has with Alabama. He was the leading candidate to take over the job back in 2007 before turning the Crimson Tide at the last moment. This led to the hiring of Nick Saban, changing the history of college football forever.

Unfortunately, Alabama’s schedule is full through 2026, having an opening in 2027. However, Byrne recently discussed a pause on adding future games due to the uncertainty of the SEC’s conference schedule moving forward. Rodriguez may have to be a salesmen to get the game.

Alabama football defensive coordinator Kane Wommack liked plenty of what he saw from his defense against Western Kentucky. It was a shutout after all.

Wommack liked how the defense played dominant up front, the handling of WKU’s tempo offense, affecting the quarterback, battling in the red zone, and more.

But like any coach, Wommack saw areas for improvement for his defenders.

For the most part, he thought Alabama tackled well. But not completely.

“There was a drive where we had a couple of missed tackles on some critical third downs and we’ve got to get those things cleaned up, particularly some vision coverage where our guys did not have their eyes on the quarterback and so their feet weren’t in the ground to drive on the ball once the ball was thrown,” Wommack said.

Wommack also didn’t like how his defense failed to capitalize more on takeaways. He called Keon Sabb’s two first-quarter interceptions a positive, but he wanted more than that.

“I thought we had opportunities to score on defense multiple times and we did not make the most of those opportunities,” Wommack said. “We also had opportunities in the backfield, sacks are great, but sack fumbles are way better to get the ball back for our offense right there on the spot. So those are things that the guys have really been challenged on.”

Wommack said he didn’t think the defense “met the standard of what we are capable of as a defense there.” He wants to see a response from his players on that front.

“In terms of their intentionality to take the ball away, punching, raking at the ball, all those types of things did not show up to the level that I think we’re capable of,” Wommack said. “So we will make that a huge point of emphasis.”

No. 5 Alabama (1-0) will face South Florida (1-0) on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN) at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.

ATLANTA – After 24 years of investigation, authorities have arrested Clarence George, 63, of Alabama, in connection with the murder of Julie Ann McDonald. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Walker County Sheriff’s Office announced that George has been charged with murder and aggravated assault in McDonald’s death.

George was arrested on Thursday, August 22, 2024, at approximately 11:30 a.m. by the U.S. Marshals Service in Birmingham, Alabama.

The case dates back to June 11, 2000, when the body of Julie McDonald was discovered in her home on Arnold Lane in Lafayette, Georgia. Despite diligent efforts by the Walker County Sheriff’s Office and the GBI at the time, the case remained unsolved for many years.

Significant progress was made between 2015 and 2016 when a Walker County detective and a GBI Special Agent reviewed the case and resubmitted evidence for testing. Although these tests did not identify a suspect, the investigation continued.

Between 2023 and 2024, renewed efforts by a Walker County Lieutenant and a GBI Special Agent led to the reexamination and retesting of evidence. Their work ultimately resulted in the charges against George.

Clarence George is currently being held at the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, awaiting extradition to Georgia to face the charges.