Friday, February 15, 2008

Couple of newsworthy items

Few things on a Friday afternoon:

* First, Alabama has set its 2008 homecoming football game. It will be the Nov. 1 game against Arkansas State.

That's a little later than ideal in terms of weather, but since schools generally like to face a non-conference (read: beatable) opponent for homecoming, it might have been the only option. The Tide's other non-conference home games are against Tulane on Sept. 6 and Western Kentucky on Sept. 13, dates considered too early for homecoming.

* Alabama's baseball team was picked to finish last in the SEC West by league coaches. That's no surprise, given the Crimson Tide returns virtually no experienced pitchers from a year ago.

But baseball teams have been been known to make significant one-year turnarounds, so I wouldn't count Alabama out of the race just yet. The Crimson Tide opens the season a week from today, at home against Cal Poly on Feb. 22.

* Speaking of baseball, one of the Crimson Tide's all-time greats announced his retirement from the game on Friday. Jeremy Brown, a catcher at Alabama from 1999-2002, hung up his spikes after six years in the Oakland Athletics' system.

Brown was a first-round pick by the Athletics in 2002 and a prominent figure in the best-selling Michael Lewis book "Moneyball." But due to injuries and perhaps just bad luck, he never stuck at the major-league level, getting 10 at-bats in his lone big-league call-up in 2006.

* Fourth, and not least, Alabama softball is off to a 6-0 start heading into today's Crimson Classic. The Crimson Tide, ranked No. 4 in the country and preseason SEC favorite, has already sold every tickets for its home schedule.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Spring Football

For those of you wanting to keep up with the rest of the league, here's the spring football dates as released by the SEC.

Alabama (Start: March 13 / Finish: April 15 / Spring Game - April 12)
Arkansas (Start: April 3 / Finish: April 26)
Auburn (Start: Feb. 28 / Finish: March 29)
Florida (Start: March 19 / Finish: April 12)
Georgia (Start: March 3 / Finish: April 5)
Kentucky (Start: March 26 / Finish: April 19)
LSU (Start: Feb. 29 / Finish: April 5)
Ole Miss (Start: March 17 / Finish: April 12)
Mississippi State (Start: Feb. 26 / Finish: March 29)
South Carolina (Start: March 19 / Finish: April 19)
Tennessee (Start: March 11 / Finish: April 19)
Vanderbilt (Start: March 11 / Finish: April 5 / Spring Game - March 29)

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Thompson named top recruiter

In perhaps the least surprising news of the week, Alabama assistant coach Lance Thompson has been named Rivals.com's National Recruiter of the Year. Read that story here.

Thompson helped Alabama lock down the talent-rich Mobile area this year, serving as the primary recruiter for the likes of Julio Jones, Burton Scott, Mark Barron and Glenn Harbin. In total, he secured 10 verbal commitments, two from five-star prospects and six from four-star prospects.

Alabama landed what has universally been regarded as the top signing class in the country Wednesday, and Thompson was perhaps the biggest reason why.

Rivals.com also released its Top 25 recruiters for 2008 on Wednesday. Read that story here.

One flaw in Rivals' system is that only one coach from each school was listed. Alabama's Curt Cignetti, Kirby Smart and Kevin Steele probably deserved to be on that list in addition to Thompson.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Head-to-head = no contest

Alabama didn't sign every player it went after this football recruiting season, it just seemed that way. But perhaps more signficantly, the Crimson Tide absolutely hammered Auburn on the recruiting front, both in-state and out-of-state.

You can theorize all you want as to why this is, but it's safe to say that Nick Saban's arrival has upped the stakes in at least this aspect of the Iron Bowl rivalry. Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville spent signing day and much of the last week trying to explain this trend, and I won't comment on that here.

But as Kevin Bacon said in "A Few Good Men," these are the facts, and they are indisputable:

* Alabama signed 22 players rated four- or five-star prospects by Rivals.com, and 20 rated rated four- or five-star prospects by Scout.com. Auburn signed six and five, respectively.

* Rivals.com ranked 16 players in the state of Alabama's Class of 2008 as four-star or better prospects. Alabama signed 12 (including the Top 5 and 7 of the Top 10), Florida 2, Clemson 1 and Auburn 1 (No. 13 Cameron Henderson).

* Scout.com ranked 11 players in the state of Alabama's Class of 2008 as four-star or better prospects. Alabama signed 8 (including the Top 5), Florida 2, Clemson 1 and Auburn ZERO.

But perhaps the most telling stat --- and the most-disheartening one if you're an Auburn fan --- is this:

According to the individual player scholarship offers tracked by Rivals.com, Alabama signed 15 players who also had offers from Auburn. Auburn signed ZERO that also had offers from Alabama (I would link this info, but it's subscriber-only content on Rivals, so you'll just have to believe me if you're not a subscriber to that Web site).

I'm not saying this proves anything, least of all that Alabama is about to begin dominating Auburn on the field. But anyone who says the Crimson Tide didn't just do so in recruiting is either ill-informed or in full Orange and Blue spin mode.

Tide on top

Julio Jones' committment to Alabama vaulted the Crimson Tide into the No. 1 spot in the national recruiting rankings, according to Rivals.com. The Tide had been second at the beginning of the day.

See that list here.

Alabama already ranked No. 1 according to Scout.com.

Julio to Alabama

Five-star wide receiver prospect Julio Jones of Foley has verbally committed to Alabama. Check annistonstar.com for updates throughout the day.

Alabama recruiting tracker, 3rd update

Add the following players to Alabama's official list of 2008 signees, according to rolltide.com:

DB Wesley Neighbors
DE Michael Williams
DL Brandon Lewis
DB Alonzo Lawrence
OL John Michael Boswell

Dareus brothers to Bama?

Birmingham Huffman football players Marcel and Demerius Dareus each verbally committed to Alabama on Wednesday morning, but it's unclear if both will sign with the Crimson Tide.

Of the two, only Marcel Dareus has a firm offer from the Crimson Tide, according to Rivals.com. Marcel, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound, three-star defensive tackle, chose the Crimson Tide over offers from Auburn and North Carolina, among others.

Demerius Dareus, a 6-5, 245-pound defensive end, is rated a two-star prospect by Rivals.com. He had reported offers from Arkansas, Southern Miss and Tennessee, but apparently not from Alabama.

Guess we'll have to wait until Alabama's official list of signees comes out before we know if the Crimson Tide landed one or two Dareus brothers today.

Alabama recruiting tracker, 2nd update

Add the following six players officially to Alabama's 2008 signing class, according to rolltide.com:

DL Damian Square
RB Ivan Matchett
OL Tyler Love
DL Undra Billingsley
DL Glenn Harbin
LB Courtney Upshaw

Also, Birmingham Huffman defensive tackle has pushed his announcement back to 11 a.m. He's narrowed his choices to Alabama, Auburn and North Carolina.

Quinn commits to North Carolina

Robert Quinn, a 4-star defensive end prospect from North Charleston, S.C., committed and signed with North Carolina on Wednesday, a rare recruiting loss for Alabama.

Quinn, from Fort Dorchester High School, had narrowed his final three choices to North Carolina, Alabama and Auburn, but ultimately opted to stay close to home and signed with the Tar Heels.

Alabama has gotten commitments from nearly every major prospect it has recruited this winter, and will receive word from the likes of five-star wide receiver Julio Jones and four-star linebacker Jerrell Harris later today.

Alabama recruiting tracker, update

Add the following to Alabama's 2008 signing class,according to rolltide.com:

DB Robby Green
OL Barrett Jones
LB Don'ta Hightower
RB Chris Jordan
DB Mark Barron
QB Brad Smelley
WR Destin Hood
RB Jermaine Preyear

Alabama recruiting tracker

For the first time, Alabama is giving live recruiting updates on its official site, rolltide.com. As of 8:20 a.m., the Crimson Tide had two letters of intent in hand, from Tallahassee, Fla., wide receiver Melvin Ray, and Norcross, Ga., wide receiver/linebacker Devonta Bolton.

With the December signings of kicker Corey Smith (Bunker Hill, W.Va.) and wide receiver Chris Jackson (McDonough, Ga.), Alabama now has four official signees.

Check back throughout the day for updates ...