Jumbo Package: Ty Simpson is playing lights out

As we head into Vanderbilt week, we got our press conferences from the three Alabama coaches.

Ryan Grubb

On cross-training Wilkin Formby at guard and tackle…

“Yeah, Wilkin obviously has the athleticism to to play inside, and the size. So I think there’s a couple things that happen for Wilkin in there, his natural pad-level because he’s got his hand in the dirt, and he’s got a good base and wide frame, so he’d one really nice job in there. So we keep working on that and expand. As long as he can stay right-handed, playing on the right side, I think the transition for him is easy.”

On the offensive line rotation…

“Yeah, we’re just still not where we want to be yet. It’s really that simple. And so I know the gel part, but we also have guys that wear down a little bit, so try to keep guys as fresh as possible, and at the same time find the best five. And for us I think, there’s a little bit too, you don’t know what you got until you get some of those young guys in the game. Michael Carroll’s gotta play Will’s (Sanders), gotta play. And we don’t know how good they are or what they can do until they get in the football game. So we’ve been kind of falling back on that a little bit and seeing–that challenge, that competition, seeing if that can spur a little bit more production.”

The beat guys are doing their best to get some more info on the offensive line after the sudden change of putting Will Sanders in the lineup and moving Wilkin Formby to RG. It was some interesting rotating last week. Jaeden Roberts barely got any snaps and Kam Dewberry lost snaps to Sanders. His second answer shows that the rotating means they haven’t been satisfied with the play of the OL and are looking for for something else. His first answer about Formby was more interesting, as the verbiage he used made it seem like something they are actively making the transition to, not just something they were testing out.

Kane Wommack

We said we wanted to handle their perimeter game; that was something they had done a really good job of. I think we talked them in and out of a lot of different things off the perimeter, just with pre-snap alignments. So, for the most part we did a pretty good job there. But one of the things we had to say, that we talked about, is the key to victory was when the ball declares, we’ve got to take the air out of the ball, and I thought on the interior run fits for the most part we did that, but the ball rolled off the edge and created six explosive plays for 171 yards. Outside of that, we had 26 rushes for 55 yards, so they averaged 2.1 yards in those 26 plays. But those six rushes that the ball got outside on us and we didn’t take the air out of the ball and gave really good athletes space to make a play. We didn’t finish. That’s unacceptable. We’ve got to get those things fixed. In the SEC, you have to answer for the things that you put on tape, and we are certainly going to answer for those things.

Kane hit us with a 4-minute opening statement this time, and for the most part I don’t think gave us too much info to work with. The quote above was one I noticed, though. Essentially, he thought the defense did a good job of defending the run up the middle, but they gave up 6 big runs on plays that were intended to go inside, but the rusher bounced outside.

Watching it, it seemed like a lot of the issues were the outside players jumping inside too quickly/aggressively and leaving the outside contain. Still, the rushing defense continues to be a problem through both seasons with Wommack as the defensive coach, even if it seems they are playing whack-a-mole with the type of run plays that are gashing them.

Kalen DeBoer

What do you think has led to the team’s success in preventing turnovers?

“Being intentional. Repetitions in the ball security circuit we do every single day. Showing our players, we showed clips during the bye week of other teams losing games in moments where just a little bit of the elbow not being tight enough to the rib cage, or even a player having it high and tight, but it just not being tight enough. Locking the wrist. Technically doing the things on such a high level all the time. Being real truthful in all the times in practice or showing times in game where there’s a time or two where those fundamental things aren’t done perfect. It’s being intentional. It’s being intentional and running to the ball defensively to cause those turnovers, too. It’s effort. It’s fundamental. I think our guys are really understanding you win or lose games because of those things.

I wanted to point out this clip just to emphasize that Alabama has yet to commit a turnover this season, and it’s something that the coaching staff is truly emphasizing and “focusing on the little things.” This staff has caught plenty of flak from Bama fans over the past year for not preaching “attention to detail” like Saban’s staff, so this is a good data point against that.

Hey look, Alabama picked up a new recruit! (For 2027)

Alabama football has added to its 2027 recruiting class with the commitment of one of the top offensive linemen in the cycle, Jatori “JT” Williams.

Williams is an in-state talent, currently playing his junior season at Central High School in Phenix City, Alabama. The 6-foot-5, 300-pounder took unofficial visits during his recruitment to Alabama, Auburn and Georgia Tech, while also holding offers from the likes of Ohio State, Georgia, Nebraska and others.

Next up, if you have 45 minutes, here’s a video from The Film Guy, Brooks Austin. The video is made more from the perspective of the UGA defense, trying to break down their coverages…. But the ultimate conclusion was, for the most part, Ty Simpson was playing out of his mind.

We also quietly got a new legal headline for college football yesterday. I’ll let Erik chime in the comments with his thoughts, but here’s the announcement:

The next domino in college athletes’ rights and Name, Image and Likeness legislation tipped Monday night.

U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement (SAFE) Act, aiming “to codify athletes’ rights and protections in law, expand revenue for all schools, support women’s and Olympic sports and bring much-needed stability to the college sports system.”

The key provisions in the bill provide federal NIL protections, pooling of media rights, new broadcast revenue for Olympic and women’s sports, local market broadcast access for football and basketball, protections from bad actor agents, national standards for the transfer portal and preserves the House vs. NCAA settlement’s 22% revenue share cap.

The bill proposes amending the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to allow schools to negotiate media rights as a group to increase value without violating antitrust laws. It states schools must use increased media rights revenues to keep the same number of scholarships and roster sports for non-revenue generating and women’s sports as provided during 2023-24 academic year.

And it says football and basketball games must be provided to local markets on a local broadcast outlet and not behind a paywall.

Among its provisions, if passed through Congress the SAFE Act would:

• Provide federal NIL rights, replacing patchwork state-by-state laws.
• Establish health and safety standards for heat exertion, brain injury, asthma; provide five years of post-eligibility medical coverage for sports-related injuries.
• Protect scholarships, a 10-year guarantee.
• Provide NIL contracts that outline what athletes must do under the contract and how much they’ll be paid.
• Require agents cap their fees at 5% and to register with a state.
• Allow students to transfer twice without having to sit out for a year; students can transfer without having to sit out for a year if their sport is cut or reduced.

Honestly, I’m not sure if this makes things more or less convoluted. I suppose we’ll just have to see where it goes.

Finally, here’s the SEC Shorts this week. Enjoy!

The ending is gold.