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Saban's Press Conference
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban spoke to reporters yesterday as is his usual custom to talk about practice, injuries, as well as the upcoming contest. This week the Alabama Crimson Tide travels to Starkville, Mississippi to do battle with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Game time is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT.
Saban says that Mississippi State is difficult to prepare for for a couple of reasons. Those reasons are on both sides of the ball, both the offense and defense being good. They do multiple things on both sides, he said. Also, Quarterback Dak Prescott is a chore to defend according to Saban. On defense the Bulldogs bring a lot of different pressures which makes it difficult to prep.
It has been determined that redshirt junior wide receiver Chris Black will miss the rest of the season due to a nagging ankle injury, according to Saban. It has been a re-occurring problem since it was injured back in camp, and they have decided to get it repaired this week. Black had two catches for 23 yards in six games. He didn't play in two of the last three games, including Alabama's 30-16 win over LSU this past Saturday night.
Concerning Black, Saban said, "He has tried and tried and tried to compete for us all year long. He hasn't gotten to play a whole lot. Sometimes he felt better than others. But it's just been a nagging, reoccuring thing. We kind of all felt like the best that he could do was go ahead and get it repared."
Saban was highly complimentary of defensive coordinator Kirby Smart yesterday. He said that having the continuity of having Smart on staff for nine years now makes it easier to prepare for teams every season.
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Tide Continues Prep Toward Nationally-Ranked Showdown
The University of Alabama football team continued its preparation for 17th-ranked Mississippi State this Saturday. The Tide worked for two hours yesterday in full pads on the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields.
Saban mentioned in his press conference that State was a difficult team to prepare for, but Bama was hard at it to counter one of the Southeastern Conference's best offenses. State is known to have multiple looks on both sides of the ball, a real test for the Crimson Tide this week. The team worked on the game plan itself, as well as fundamentals and ball control.
State is riding a four-game win streak and boasts a 7-2, 3-2 SEC mark. The game is being played at David Wayne Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi with kickoff at 2:30 p.m. CT.
Alabama leads the series, 77-18-3, and is riding a seven-game win streak over the Bulldogs, and will be looking to improve that to eight this Saturday. The Crimson Tide has won the last three games in Starkville, and defeated the then-number one 'Dogs 25-20 last year at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
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Dan Mullen: Obviously A Tough Matchup
The University of Alabama Crimson Tide travels to Starkville, Mississippi to do battle with 17th-ranked Mississippi State this Saturday afternoon. Paul Finebaum and Marcus Spears yesterday featured Mullen, as well as others, on The Locker Room segment of The Paul Finebaum Show.
Here's some of the interview that Mississippi State head football coach Dan Mullen gave.
Concerning the contest between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Mississippi State Bulldogs this Saturday, Mullen said, "Obviously a tough matchup, playing Alabama...probably the...you know. They don't give me a vote. They're the best team in America."
Commenting on Alabama's depth, Mullen said, "They got five-star players across the board. I'm sure they've got more five-star players sitting the bench that can't get a rep on their team...four and five-star guys that won't even get a rep in the game or any of that stuff. I'm sure most teams, I can guarantee probably more than we have on our whole roster."
Marcus Spears, on The Paul Finebaum Show said, "I love Coach Mullen, but cry. me. a river." Marcus pointed out that Mullen shouldn't cry about the five-star players that Alabama has, but "let's just focus on us." This was interesting, I thought...Marcus said, "I don't like Dan Mullen alluding to what Alabama has...even though I love him."
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Nysewander Receives Honor
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Another University of Alabama student-athlete has received a great honor. This time it is senior tight end Michael Nysewander of the Alabama football team. He is one of 55 players to be nominated for the prestigious Burlsworth Trophy, according to the Springdale, Arkansas Rotary Club. This trophy is presented annually to the nation's most outstanding player who began his career as a walk-on.
Nysewander has become one of Bama's top defenders on kickoff coverage, tied for the most stops. He has earned special teams player of the week honor from the Alabama coaching staff back early in the season for his performance against MTSU. He also serves as a blocker at fullback and tight end.
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Reggie Ragland Appears On Paul Finebaum Show
Reggie Ragland
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Reggie Ragland, the middle linebacker for the Alabama Crimson Tide, appeared on the Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network yesterday afternoon. They first talked a bit about Ragland visiting veterans a short time ago, and how the experience affected him. Then the talk turned to Alabama football...as it relates to the victory over LSU, the upcoming game with Mississippi State, and how the loss to Ole Miss several weeks ago affected the team.
Paul asked him, after beating LSU last week, "Where is your head, and the heads of your team mates as you get ready for Mississippi State Saturday?" Ragland replied, "Our heads are on Mississippi State right now. LSU is in the past...it's all about getting better this week, because we know we got a great opponent in Mississippi State. There's a lot of stuff they do on the offensive and defensive side, so we got a lot of preparation to do, so my head's on Mississippi State and trying to get better this week."
Marcus Spears then asked about State's quarterback, Dak Prescott, and how that would affect Ragland and the defensive play. "It hard to tell at times," Ragland said. "Because at times he can come out of the pocket and he can run the ball on you, and he can also throw the ball. So it's my job to make sure the guys up front get lined up and the DBs in the back are doing their job. If the guys up front don't have the right pass-rushing lanes he'll run through the lanes and get 10 or 20 yards on you by him rushing. You let him sit in the pocket too long and he'll throw the ball on you and his guys will go up and get it for him. So it's going to be up to us up front to get pressure on him to give our guys in the back the time to cover."
Marcus then talked to Ragland about the Ole Miss loss, and said it appeared to him that Alabama had a "bit more of an edge now than you did in the previous game against Ole Miss." He wanted to know the mentality of the team after that loss. Ragland said the guys knew that even with the early loss the guys came out and did the things they knew they needed to do and we'd "put ourselves right back into the position where we need to be, and which we are.
"We've still got to keep getting better," Ragland continued. "We're not worried about the rankings or none of that stuff. We've just got to keep getting better as a whole, and we keep doing that we'll be where we want to be at the end of the year."
Finebaum then asked Reggies about the mentality of Ragland and his team mates in stopping (Leonard) Fournette on Saturday night. "The guys wanted to get to him," Ragland said. "For the whole two weeks, during our bye week and the week leading up to the game, that's all we heard about, was Leonard Fournette. The guys up front didn't like that." So he said they decided they'd apply the pressure to him...and did. He spoke of how the guys established the line of scrimmage and took away the lanes that Fournette was used to having available.
Marcus then asked what has made the Tide defense, and particularly the guys up front, better able to get to the quarterbacks this year for sacks and hurry-ups. "What has changed in that front seven to create those type opportunities for ya'll?"
Ragland responded about being "heavy up front" last year, and the guys this year are lighter and better able to get back there. He also said they were treating this "like a competition" to get to the quarterback. He said it feeds on itself, as in seeing guys getting to the quarterback makes other guys want to get to the quarterback. He said they want to keep the quarterback "in the pocket so guys can collapse on them. Guys are just making it fun out there this year, too. Guys wanting to play, and guys wanting to do this stuff. So anytime you get sacks like that it makes it easier on your DBs when they don't have to cover all that."
Finebaum asked the team's reaction to the new College Playoff football ranking that has Alabama No. 2 in the country. Ragland said, "The guys were like...that's good for us that we're number two but we still got a lot of work to get done. Which we do. We still got a lot of football left. We still got a good team, Mississippi State, and we still got Auburn left at the end of the year...it's always a tough game, no matter what type of record we have. We still gotta come and just keep being Alabama. We gotta keep playing ball and keep getting better."
Concerning the concentration on any given week's opponent and Ragland's leadership, Reggie answered Marcus telling him that they encourage each other every day for that particular game. He said he goes around talking to the guys "to see where their head's at." He said the guys want to keep getting better and that is one of their big things to focus on, in order to "play at the next level hopefully." He said they encourage each other both on and off the field, and don't just wait on the coaches to correct something when it goes wrong in practice, they correct it. "Guys want to keep getting better on the field, and...don't 'worry about the outside stuff', we just worry about us. That's our main focus: just getting better this year."
Ragland then told Finebaum they're not worried about the people talking about a letdown against Mississippi State. They couldn't worry about what the "people on the outside" were saying. He said they just have to get better. "Last week was last week," Ragland said. This week they had to concentrate on State. He said they haven't even talked about LSU since this week started. "We're focused on Mississippi State. We had a great practice...on Tuesday." He said you can tell that the guys just want to keep getting better on the field. "Because guys are hustling and running to the ball. Special teams are starting to look good." He says the "guys are ready and we're primed."
Marcus then asked about the team's thoughts on quarterback Jake Coker and on him being able to get Alabama where they want to go. "Jake has been playing great," Ragland said. He said the quarterback hasn't been doing "any talking", but has been showing it by the "way he's been playing." He complimented Coker on the way he gets the guys lined up, and said he's "been doing a heck of a job throwing the ball". He said when Jake needs to he can use his feet. He talked about Coker's toughness, and running guys over. "We love watching him play on offense."
Alabama takes on the Mississippi State Bulldogs this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast live on CBS.
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University of Alabama softball picked up a major signee yesterday as the early signing period begins. Catcher Bailey Hemphill of Lafayette, Louisiana signed her national letter of intent yesterday becoming one of the Lady Tide. Hemphill comes from St. Thomas More Catholic High School where she was named the Class 4A MVP in both her freshman and sophomore seasons. She broke the school's home run record after just two seasons, making her one of the nation's top power hitters.
Bama head coach Patrick Murphy said, "Bailey is one of the best power hitters in the country and we can't wait to get her in Crimson and White."
She was named a NFCA High School First Team All-American this past season, and was also selected to the American Family Insurance All-USA Second Team as catcher. She is the top-rated 2016 catcher on FloSoftball's 'Hot 100' list. She is a three-time All-State, All-Acadiana and All-District honoree, including All-Acadiana MVP accolades in 2013 and 2014.
Bailey is the daughter of Mark and Christi Hemphill and has one sister, Sydney.
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Head Alabama women's basketball coach Kristy Curry announced yesterday that the women's basketball team has added three of the top prospects in the 2016 recruiting class. Signing their national letters of intent are Cierra Johnson, Ashley Knight and Jordan Lewis. This is a huge get for the Crimson Tide women's basketball team.
Concerning the new additions to the Tide roster, Curry said, "All three of these young ladies bring a style of play that is fun to watch, and all three are truly committed to making an immediate impact in our process. This class compliments our current roster and will compete on a daily basis to impact our program both on and off the court in a major way as freshmen."
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Bailey Hemphill Signs With Bama Softball
Bailey Hemphill
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Bama head coach Patrick Murphy said, "Bailey is one of the best power hitters in the country and we can't wait to get her in Crimson and White."
She was named a NFCA High School First Team All-American this past season, and was also selected to the American Family Insurance All-USA Second Team as catcher. She is the top-rated 2016 catcher on FloSoftball's 'Hot 100' list. She is a three-time All-State, All-Acadiana and All-District honoree, including All-Acadiana MVP accolades in 2013 and 2014.
Bailey is the daughter of Mark and Christi Hemphill and has one sister, Sydney.
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Tide Women's Basketball Inks Three
Graphics/Photo Credit: RollTide.com
Concerning the new additions to the Tide roster, Curry said, "All three of these young ladies bring a style of play that is fun to watch, and all three are truly committed to making an immediate impact in our process. This class compliments our current roster and will compete on a daily basis to impact our program both on and off the court in a major way as freshmen."
