Happy Gump Day! Will Alabama round into form as the SEC’s most dominant team by year-end?

The talk all offseason has been of “three-peat,” however, that has historically been a fools errand. Pat Forde traces the very few teams lucky enough to repeat, and how they all fell short in a three-peat bid (including Nick Saban twice):

Saban’s ’15–17 run featured titles on both ends but a five-point loss in between, to Clemson in the College Football Playoff title game. That one ended on a two-yard pass from Deshaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow with one second left.

Cool story for history buffs.

Another 3-star Committed to ‘Bama yesterday, and it’s another in-state player: TE Jay Lindsey.

Alabama offered Lindsey in June. He returned to Tuscaloosa for a visit at the end of July, as defensive line coach Freddie Roach and tight ends coach Joe Cox led Bama’s recruitment.

“The offer from Alabama is a dream come true,” Lindsey told BOL. I have been watching Alabama since I was a little kid. I grew up an Alabama fan. It’s really cool to get an offer from them…

“I love them,” he said regarding the Tide’s assistant coaches. “They are really great and have taken me in. I talk to Coach Roach more since he is my area recruiter. He is a really good dude. I like both of them.”

Lindsey, like Swagga II, is expected to shoot up the recruiting rankings, as he’s already considered underranked as-is. This could be one of those rare diamonds in the rough that Saban’s staff occasionally unearths.

And, frankly, diamonds in the rough are about all that are left out there at this point: 48 hours before September even starts, 90% of all blue chip players are committed.

CBS takes a stab at 14 Realistic Playoff Contenders. Yes, the Tide is on that list:

Alabama: The fourth-ranked Crimson Tide have a problem at quarterback as coach Nick Saban has been unable to settle on Tyler Buchner, Jalen Milroe or Ty Simpson. Make no mistake, it’s a big issue. If Saban figures it out, though, Alabama will be set up for a run to the CFP. The running game should be stout, especially with a slight change in philosophy that will put more emphasis on the ground game. If that happens, the defense won’t have as much pressure on its shoulders and should be able to keep opponents at bay. Plus, its two biggest games — Texas and LSU — are inside the friendly confines of Bryant-Denny Stadium.

I still think people are sleeping on Aggie. But...

Is the Heisman this year really Caleb Williams or bust? I know people hate inevitability, but I don’t know who’s going to come out of the atmosphere to knock that guy out. Not in the conference, with that scheme, and that atrocious defense that let’s him rack up video game numbers.

And look around the rest of the country. The star power at QB is mostly gone, running backs for that matter...even Will Anderson. So, yeah, I think we are staring at the first repeat in half a century, because the field is so weak.

In the bid to cut down game time, Village Idiot Kirby Smart chaired the Rules Committee that promulgated radical new clock rules that suck a lot of joy out of the college game. I understand when you play dinoball, fewer snaps are a good thing, but we could lose up to 10% of total snaps this year, in what is an indefensible way to shove more commercials at us, in a shorter timeframe, with less football — week zero lost 8% of its snaps

Only Kirby would call that good.

And, if social media was any indication, the changes are wildly unpopular. Let’s hope this is a one and done.

The Crimson Tide wants to put some meat down your throat.

Through a partnership between the Alabama-driven NIL collective Yea Alabama and Crimson Tide Sports Marketing, Roll Tide Natural Jerky will soon be hitting shelves with a portion of proceeds going to offensive linemen.

The two flavors being sold are “Big Man Barbeque” and “Mean Mesquite.” Big Man Barbeque is a honey barbecue-flavored pork jerky, while Mean Mesquite is a smokey mesquite-flavored beef jerky. The product will be available at retail locations across Alabama and at RollTideJerky.com.

Noted jerky state, Alabama, with its noted mesquite trees, is entering the power snakkkkkkkz market. If this is affordable, I’ll pick some up.

It beats giving Greg $216 to walk across the field of Bryant Denny Stadium.

If anyone tries it, give us an unabashed, unfiltered interview, aight?

Rick Stockstill gave his pre-game presser for MTSU yesterday, he dropped this legitimately funny line about the pass rush his guy will face on Saturday:

Big thing is once you get outside the pocket understand and know– and this doesn’t matter if you’re playing Alabama or the Georgetown high school Wampus Cats – once you get outside the pocket, understand when the play is over and get down and live for the next down....As a quarterback, you’re standing upright and you’ve got another 6-foot-5, 300-pound man coming barreling right down at you and you’ve got to sit there in the pocket and sit there and make the throw and take it on the chin sometimes. That’s part of being a quarterback. Nick’s got that toughness, so hopefully we do a good job protecting him.

I suspect Rick would rather face the Georgetown HS Wampus Cats than the hell that’s going to rain down on Saturday.

Full presser here:

Not sure if Pate knows where his bread is buttered, and Georgia hate clicks are as good as Gump clicks, but I actually think he’s potentially right on this one:

“The team Alabama becomes will be the best in the SEC. I don’t think they’ll look like the best team in the SEC to start the year. They’ve won seven of the eight SEC titles that Saban has won with a first-year starter at quarterback. It’s not foreign territory for him. It just looks radically different than it has over the past few years. Here’s the difference with them. They’ve known it’s coming. And they’ve known they haven’t had an elite quarterback on that roster, and they know they still don’t. That hasn’t snuck up on them.

“That’s why everything ideologically in that program shifted the moment that Kansas State game ended last year. You saw coaches hit the door, you saw players hit the door and you saw an entire inversion in many cases from nutrition to strength and conditioning to overall philosophy. They’ve known what they’re going to have to do this year for quite awhile.

Could they be the best? Sure. I would question that complete knowing of what the Tide would do offensively. Alabama did interview UW’s Ryan Grubb, who runs a very different system, with a very different West Coast imprimatur than does Rees. And the simple fact is, without knowing who the signal caller is, you can’t really put an offense in place. They all do so many different things — except Buchner, whose skill set seems repetitive as the odd man out.

Defensively? Now yea, emphatically. Absolutely Saban knew what he wanted, who, and why. But offense has been a whole lot of grasping at smoke for the time being.

It was Cut Day in the NFL, as teams got down to their final 53-man roster, and dozens of Bammers survived, however a full dozen did not, including four from this year’s UDFA class.

Best of luck to everyone in landing on their feet. And for those who made a roster, stay hungry: Someone’s always going to be gunning for your job.

See you folks later,

Roll Tide