Happy Gump Day, everyone. Alabama softball is enjoying a resurgent season that seemingly came out of nowhere, and some personal hardware has followed.
The 2026 USA TODAY Sports Network’s All-SEC team named Jocelyn Briski as SEC Pitcher of the Year and Patrick Murphy as SEC Coach of the Year.
Briski has gone 20-2 with a 1.46 earned-run average, striking out 167 batters in 129⅔ innings pitched. She is also named a top-25 USA Softball Player of the Year finalist for her standout junior season.
Murphy led
the Crimson Tide to a 47-6 record overall and 19-5 in league play. He was the first coach in the SEC to win 500 conference games after the Crimson Tide’s 4-0 shutout over Auburn on Saturday, April 11.
Congrats to both on the well deserved accolades. This team has a real shot at a national title if they play their best.
Nick Kelly has a list of potential breakout football stars for 2026.
EJ Crowell, running back
He couldn’t participate much this spring as he dealt with an injury, but once healthy, Crowell has the pedigree and talent to contribute early and often.
The Mr. Football winner for 2025, Crowell has future star written all over him. Is that this year as a true freshman? Maybe. The ground game could sure use it, though.
Crowell is a name that Alabama fans have been waiting on. Hopefully he gets healthy and lives up to his considerable hype.
Colin Gay wrote about how Kalen DeBoer is recruiting quarterbacks.
While recruiting, Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer never promises anything. Ever.
And in the Crimson Tide’s quarterback room, that approach works.
It’s what kept Austin Mack, the fourth-year DeBoer disciple, and former five-star Keelon Russell in the same 2026 quarterback room, along with freshmen Jett Thomalla and Tayden-Evan Kaawa. It’s what convinced five-star Elijah Haven to join a 2027 recruiting class that already had four-star Trent Seaborn committed.
This is Alabama’s development-forward quarterback philosophy, at least for now.
“What you can show them is the past and whatever we’ve done, what it looked like for those quarterbacks,” DeBoer told The Tuscaloosa News. “Their success and production when they were in college, the growth and how that led to them going to the next level. You show them the past and then you show them what we have here at Alabama.”
Transfers have been all the rage, but Kalen has been content to continue to grow his own signal callers.
Blake Toppmeyer wrote about the Michigan courtship and whether Kalen is getting a fair shake from the fanbase.
Is it fair DeBoer didn’t earn more praise and affection for Alabama’s achievements in Year 2?
“When you say, is that fair? No,” Byrne says. “But, it’s reality, and you have to deal with reality.”
“Kalen,” Byrne adds, “is really steady-eddie.”
And, I’d add, he’s become increasingly aware of this job’s realities.
“We have high expectations. That’s why I came here,” DeBoer said. “That’s what we signed up for. I remind the guys of that when the criticism comes: ‘Hey, this is part of it, and we got a choice, and we’re going to be better because of it.’”
He’s talking like a coach who chose Alabama, more than once. To be feted as king, he must rule like one.
Last, Stewart Mandel notes in his longform about Curt Cignetti the reason why DeBoer drew some ire.
Cignetti once helped Saban build Alabama into the overlord of college football for a decade-and-a-half. Now, as the Hoosiers’ CFP quarterfinal opponent in Pasadena, he made it his personal mission to embarrass Kalen DeBoer’s Crimson Tide.
“In the game day meeting at the hotel, he was like, I don’t want to do any trick plays, weird stuff,” said Owings. “I want to line up and beat the s—t out of them. In the second half, we started bullying those guys, and when Bama had given up, it was, I don’t really want to pass anymore. I want to run it down their throat and make a statement.”
Which they did, 38-3, to advance to the Peach Bowl semifinal against Oregon in Atlanta.
An elite coach and program will use that as fuel and commit to never letting it happen again. Year three will tell us all we need to know.
That’s about it for now. Have a great day.
Roll Tide.
