Happy Thursday, everyone. Yesterday’s biggest news was the hire of Pauline Love as the new women’s basketball coach.
Pauline Love, the former associate head coach at Oklahoma, was named as the next head coach of the Crimson Tide Wednesday, April 1. Love was Alabama’s assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under former coach Kristy Curry in 2024-25.
“I’m incredibly honored to lead the Alabama women’s basketball program,” Love said in a statement. “This is a place with a championship standard, and we’re
going to build a team that reflects that every day through toughness, togetherness and trust. I’m excited to get to work with our players, connect with this community and build something special in Tuscaloosa. I want to thank Greg Byrne, President Mohler and the Board of Trustees for this opportunity.”
Love will attempt to keep the NCAA Tournament streak going.
Chris Low published an interview with Kalen DeBoer yesterday, and the Michigan rumors came up.
“I just don’t know how you could live with yourself and look into your players’ eyes if you’re looking at other opportunities in the midst of the season and getting ready for a playoff game and hopefully making a run at a national championship,” DeBoer said.
“So it was a pretty easy decision not to engage with them. I didn’t come here to follow coach (Nick) Saban only to turn around after two years and go somewhere else. I mean, this is Alabama. I’m at an amazing place. That’s the way I was looking at it. I chose to be here. I love the support and love our players and love the direction and everything the staff has done to put the pieces together here over the last two years. A lot of heavy lifting’s been done to get us to this point.
“That will continue to happen. But man, we’re right here where we want to be, and I plan on being here for a while.”
Lane Kiffin disagrees.
Kalen also spoke about the transfer portal, and seems to be pleased with the haul.
Alabama was 44th nationally and 13th in the SEC in On3’s transfer portal rankings this year, casting the narrative that the Tide lost out on a bunch of players. One of those was Hollywood Smothers, who would have been a big addition at running back after transferring from N.C. State. But Smothers wound up at Texas after initially committing to Alabama out of the portal.
Smothers’ flip skewed the perception, according to DeBoer, in terms of what Alabama did in the portal. In particular, he thinks the Tide were able to spend wisely and not overpay on players.
“A lot of the guys we added are better than what we had, and we got them for a lot less money,” DeBoer said.
Receiver Noah Rodgers (N.C. State) and 6-4, 209-pound cornerback Carmelo O’Neal (Mercer) have been especially impressive, and DeBoer thinks tight end Josh Ford (Oklahoma State) will add some toughness in the running game.
Jackson Lloyd continues to draw rave reviews.
Similar to Grubb, head coach Kalen DeBoer praised Lloyd after Alabama’s first scrimmage.
“He’s done a great job to deserve the notoriety that’s been given to him,” DeBoer said. “It’s happened because every single day he brings his best. That was last fall, that was this winter and spring. He’s become very strong. And he’s already an athletic kid and going out there and doing some really good things on the football field.”
Lloyd appears to be the guy at left tackle, which makes sense, but it was a bit of surprise when Grubb said it the first week of spring practice. The Crimson Tide only returned one starter from last year’s offensive line, and Michael Carroll has seen time at both right guard and right tackle through eight practices. But the pair of former 5-stars are key pieces for the 2026 line.
The same can be said for Cal Poly transfer Racin Delgatty, who leads Alabama’s battle at the center position. The two other vacancies could be filled by either William Sanders, who is out this spring due to injury, or a transfer portal addition. Nick Brooks has worked at guard, while Jayvin James has received first-team reps at tackle. UA has some options up front.
Keon Sabb sees growth in understudy Ivan Taylor.
“Ivan is just continuing to get better each and every day. He’s a guy that keys into any little detail. When you see that from a young guy, it’s really important.”
Taylor, the son of former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor, was a four-star prospect in the Tide’s 2025 recruiting class from West Orange High School in Florida. He was ranked as the No. 43 overall prospect and the No. 2 safety in the 2025 class and played in all 15 games for Alabama last season on special teams and defense. He totaled 14 tackles and a pass breakup in the action he saw last season.
Earning the trust of the Tide’s experienced secondary and the coaching staff is crucial for young defensive backs, and Sabb shared that Taylor has started to earn that trust.
Bill Connelly has Alabama 11th at this juncture.
ESPN has factored in all the data, primarily returning production on both sides of the ball, as well as last year’s records and recent recruiting classes, and unveiled its initial 2026 college football SP+ rankings.
Alabama, which finished 10-2 in the regular season and made the SEC Championship Game and 12-team College Football Playoff, landed just outside the top 10 at No. 11 in Bill Connelly’s early 2026 projections. The Crimson Tide are ranked one spot below LSU and one spot ahead of Oklahoma entering Kalen DeBoer’s third season.
On the recruiting trail, Alabama‘s incoming 2026 class was ranked No. 2 nationally by 247Sports after National Signing Day. ESPN had the Crimson Tide’s class at No. 5.
Last, the SEC Championship Game probably isn’t long for this world.
“Why have a conference championship game?” Del Conte said in February.
The obvious answer to that question: Money.
The SEC championship generates gobs of it.
How, then, to offset that lost revenue if the SEC championship went bye-bye?
Byrne’s proposal: Expand the playoff.
“If you’re going to a 16-team playoff, you’re adding more games,” Byrne said. “I would imagine it would be pretty good content.”
By pretty good, he also means revenue-generating.
I’m not particularly fond of playoff expansion, but have maintained that I’d trade the SEC Championship Game for it. Use that weekend as the play-in round to the 12 teamer we already have, which is essentially the same format as the SEC basketball tournament.
That’s about it for now. Have a great day.
Roll Tide.
