Happy Gump Day (yes, I’ve decided to let you have it back for the Georgia game, despite all your whinging the last few weeks about Tennessee, Georgia, or Tennessee and Georgia.) Let’s see what we can find
to chat about today, shall we?
And do try to Gump to a standard, folks.
Unfortunately, we’re going to begin with something a little grim. Former NFL and Auburn RB/Weapon of Mass Destruction, Rudi Johnson, took his life earlier this week. Unsurprisingly, the battering back had been diagnosed with early CTE: He was just 45. And though we all fight the battles we never tell anyone about — and even win more often than not — it doesn’t have to be that way. Just call up a friend; and vice-versa, make yourself available. No one is truly Superman, and sometimes the literal difference between life and death is just being able to unload…As Bill Parcells had to explain to Andy Reid.
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That out of the way, we can move on to the lighthearted, with the national treasure that is Lane Kiffin. As most folks have heard by now, Kiffin’s daughter Landry (a platinum blonde doppelgänger of mother, Layla), is a sorority girl at Ole Miss. She decided, four days before the Magnolia Bowl between No. 13 Ole Miss and No. 4 LSU, to announce to the world that she was literally sleeping with the enemy and is dating the Tigers’ star LB Will Weeks.
Did Dad take it lying down?
Wish them the best?
Call up Will and have a chat about how to comport himself around his little girl?
Nope…He went full LMFK:
That’s legitimately hilarious.
As Brent fleshed out yesterday, the messaging out of ‘Bama’s camp this week has been singular and focused. The Tide’s practice footage from yesterday even looks a bit more dialed-in than you’d expect for a random Tuesday morning.
I don’t want to predict that this group has turned it around just yet — the next four weeks will tell the tale of the season — but they sound the part lately. And they even look it.
Much of the improvement is self-directed, sure. But it sounds an awful lot like Saban and DeBoer had a sit-down about how to get the players to take ownership of the little things they’re doing every day.
In a word, they’re being coached:
Head coach Kalen DeBoer wasn’t satisfied though. He wanted players getting granular with how they were improving.
“What I’ve asked them to do is just really look at their process,” DeBoer told reporters on Monday. “This is the way it should always be, you’re always trying to just make things better. I don’t care if it’s how they take notes. What’s that system? Is it color-coded ink that you use? How can you just make it better for you to be more successful?”
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Players took what DeBoer said to heart.
“I actually do color-code my notes,” starting center Parker Brailsford said Tuesday. “I saw coach (Chris Kapilovic) with, you know the pens that have different colors, you can click them in? I got one of those now. So I really like that, just being able to see different things, highlight different things throughout my notes.”
The notes were just one example though. Throughout the team, players gave thought to what they could be doing better.
Brailsford made another change.
“I actually started carrying a backpack with me now,” Brailsford said. “I have everything I need in there. My notebook, extra electrolytes, whatever I need in my backpack. SO that’s just something that I did just to keep me prepared throughout the day.”
Doesn’t that sound familiar? It sure does to me. Whatever prompted the Tide’s renewed emphasis on overall professionalism, it’s a welcome song to these ears.
Because how you do anything is how you do everything.
For his part, DeBoer is ready to contribute in any small way he can:
It sounds like the Fabled Black Hoodie is here to stay. Huzzah.
“It was after the ULM game, I seen an Instagram post, when Kalen DeBoer wears his black hoodie we win, or whatever,” Bernard told The Next Round on Monday. “I screenshotted it and texted it to him and was like, ‘Coach, looks like you got to wear the hoodie from now on every game.'”
The only problem: temperatures were expected to be in the 90s for Alabama’s ensuing day game against Wisconsin.
“He was like, man, ‘it’s gonna be 90 degrees on Saturday. It’s gonna be hot,'” Bernard recalled. “He was like, ‘But whatever it takes I got to do it.’ He’s been wearing it. I don’t expect him to switch it up.”
If they can color-code notes, you can wear the black hoodie, Coach.
If there were any one person on this offense that you have to game-plan around, the key to making the whole thing run, who would you say it is?
If you ask Kirby Smart, there’s one player that brings it all together — and though he stopped short of saying he’s ‘Bama’s best player, he’d have quite a lot of agreement from ‘Bama fans if he did.
Germie Bernard — undisputed WR1, and probably ‘Bama’s early season MVP
I can’t read tea leaves here, but it sounds like Ryan and the rest of the receivers are going to have quite a few shots at making one-on-one plays, because Smart legitimately sees Germie as the weapon that has to be holstered.
Yesterday, Jah suffered a fairly significant head/neck injury in practice and had to be rushed to UAB:
Alabama Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer has announced that linebacker Jah-Marien Latham suffered a neck injury in practice Tuesday and has since been transported to a nearby hospital. Latham was taken to UAB St. Vincent’s Hospital following his injury, where he is currently receiving further evaluation and care.
While specifics of how the injury occurred and its severity are not yet known, the Crimson Tide noted Latham has “full feeling and motion” as he undergoes medical assessment to determine the next steps in his recovery.
We have no idea the extent of the injury, a timetable for his recovery, or even whether he’ll ever be able to play again. But those latter concerns are secondary beside his health. Here’s hoping he’s on the mend soon.
And to the sport at hand, on the field Latham’s injury is a blow to a pass rushing position where ‘Bama can scarce afford to lose impact players, particularly ones as explosive as Jah. It’s time for Keeley (among others) to prove he’s not another five-star bust.
The Tide’s complete opponent list for the next four years was released yesterday. The dates obviously have not been carved out, but mercy do 2027-2028 already look daunting, or what with trips to Norman, Knoxville, Aggie, Ole Miss, Auburn, Athens among the road trips.
Strap in. The league just got a whole lot harder to win.
How much pressure do you think DeBoer is under to win this Saturday? It seems a lot of narratives are being developed that this is a must-win for the second-year coach, or at the least that he’s under extreme pressure to win it:
Alabama has gone 7-5 since that win against Georgia last season and just 5-5 in games against the Power Four. While they’ve gotten back on track against Louisiana-Monroe and Wisconsin, the Crimson Tide are still dealing with the fallout of a 31-17 loss to the Florida State and coach Mike Norvell, one of the leading candidates for the post-Nick Saban opening that eventually went to DeBoer.
One important point to remember: DeBoer is not in a Billy Napier-like must-win situation, even if you can see that on the horizon should the Tide fail to navigate one of the toughest remaining schedules in the Bowl Subdivision.
Georgia followed by No. 20 Vanderbilt, No. 19 Missouri and Tennessee. After a road trip to South Carolina, Alabama takes on No. 4 LSU and No. 7 Oklahoma.
On one hand, Saturday’s road trip presents an awesome opportunity to rewrite the narrative. Beating the Bulldogs would vault the Tide up the Coaches Poll and back into prime SEC contention. On the other, a loss could portend a brutal run through ranked SEC competition and spell major trouble for DeBoer’s tenure.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true, though. Before the season started, I think most ‘Bama fans had mentally consigned this contest as a loss (or a tossup, at best). So winning that game isn’t required beyond SEC positioning and CFP consideration.
But, I do think pressure is on him and the team to actually look like Alabama and play to their talent level. That means being being prepared, ball pursuit, winning their share of one-on-one battles, recognizing and executing their assignments, avoiding silly mental mistakes and unnecessary penalties, not committing silly turnovers.
All the things that Road ‘Bama has shown far too often the last 14 months.
Because, there’s losing then there’s losing. Dropping a hard-fought, well-played road game against a Top 5 team isn’t the end of the world. Not showing up off the bus, a failure to make adjustments, lack of discipline — god forbid, lack of motivation and hustle — would be disastrous for his tenure. In the case of the latter, I think most of us would go ahead and write him off for good.
And, finally, your moment of levity, wherein Europeans remain baffled at how so many people live on a continent that tries its damnedest to kill us every day, in every way.
We’ll be back in a bit with our beginning previews of the Georgia Bulldogs. For now, have a great day.
Roll Tide.
