Final Spring Football Practice Concludes
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2016 A-Day Game Is Tomorrow
Bama Wide Receiver ArDarius Stewart
Photo Credit: RollTide.com/Robert Sutton
The excitement created by spring football is just about at it's end until the end of summer. The University of Alabama football team completed its final practice of the 2016 spring season yesterday afternoon. The players worked in helmets and shorts for approximately two hours on the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields.
The Crimson Tide's 2016 A-Day Game is scheduled for tomorrow at 2 p.m. CT inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. This will be the 10th A-Day Game conducted by Tide coach Nick Saban. It is once again free to the public and broadcast on ESPN with Kirk Herbstreit, Joe Tessitore and Joey Galloway handling the announcing duties.
A-Day Lineup:
Quarterback placement for the game has been announced. Cooper Bateman and David Cornwell, the two supposedly leading in the starting quarterback race, will be on the Crimson team with the first-team offense. Blake Barnett and David Cornwell will lead the white team.
The two top running backs will be split. Bo Scarbrough will play for the Crimson team while Damien Harris will play on the White team.
The receiving corp for the Crimson team will include Robert Foster, Calvin Ridley and ArDarius Stewart. It will be Derek Kief, Cam Sims and Dayon Charlot (and others) handling receiving duties for the White team.
Offensive linemen for the Crimson team includes Lester Cotton, Brandon Kennedy, Korren Kirven, Ross Pierschbacher and Jonah Williams. For the White team it will be Alphonse Taylor, Charles Baldin, Bradley Bozeman, J.C. Hassenauer, Dallas Warmack and Matt Womack.
Defensively on the White Team (first unit) are linemen Da'Shawn Hand, Da'Ron Payne and Dalvin Tomlinson. Linebackers will be Reuben Foster, Shaun Dion Hamilton, Ryan Anderson and Tim Williams. The Crimson team will field Christian Miller, Keith Holcombe and Rashaan Evans. Secondary on the White team is Minkah Fitzpatrick, Ronnie Harrison, Eddie Jackson and Maurice Smith. The Crimson team will field Kendal Sheffield, Anthony Averett and Tony Brown.
Tide LB Reuben Foster
Photo Credit: RollTide.com/Robert Sutton
Crimson Tide Quarterback Cooper Bateman
Photo Credit: RollTide.com/Robert Sutton
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A-Day Festivities For Tomorrow
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
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McCleney 13th Pick By USSSA Pride In Draft
Graphics/Photo Credit: RollTide.com
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Top-Ranked Women's Golf At SEC Championship
Photo Credit: RollTide.com
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A-Day Festivities For Tomorrow
Here is a look at the scheduled activities for the 2016 Alabama Golden Flake A-Day game. The game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. CT kickoff at Bryant-Denny Stadium tomorrow, April 16th, and will include a jam-packed day full of activities. The fans will once again be able to take to the field at the conclusion of the game for some photos and autographs.
The gates for the event are scheduled to open at 11 a.m. CT, and admission will once again be free to the public. For those never having attended the event before: line up early to get your choice seating in relation to taking to the field after the scrimmage.
Things get underway at 8 a.m. with the Mercedes-Benz Fan Fest. This event is open to the public outside the North end zone at the corner of University Boulevard and Wallace Wade Drive. Inflatables, giveaways and games will be available for the fans. The Amway Coaches Trophy will be on hand and available for fans to use in their photographs.
The Alumni Flag Football Game begins at 11:30 a.m. CT inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, featuring many of the former Alabama greats. There will be two 20-minutes halves and should conclude in the neighbohood of 12:15 p.m.
There will be a special pregame video featuring some of the great moments during the past 10 seasons of the "Nick Saban Era."
The annual Walk of Fame Ceremony at Denny Chimes, one of the great traditions at UA, is scheduled to begin at approximately 12:15 p.m. CT and is always open to the public. Alabama head football coach NICK SABAN along with the former captains of the 2015 National Championship football team, JAKE COKER, DERRICK HENRY, RYAN KELLY and REGGIE RAGLAND will speak to the crowd, then leave a print of their hands and cleats in the concrete as so many other Alabama greats have done in days gone by.
A Walk of Champions is scheduled for 12:50 p.m. CT when the team arrives at Bryant-Denny Stadium. 2015 Heisman Trophy winner DERRICK HENRY will be joined by 2009 Heisman winner MARK INGRAM for the festivities, as the Heisman Trophy Trust presents Alabama with the program's copy of Henry's 2015 Heisman Trophy and Ingram will receive his 2009 Heisman ring from the Trust.
Halftime entertainment will this year feature the Alabama Quarterback Challenge with former Crimson Tide QBs from the past 10 years. Participants will be announced today and the blog will be updated at that time. Participants will make nine throws from various distances to moving targets, all of which will be assigned points. A final throw for distance will be awarded two points for every yard the pass travels. Winner will be the QB with the most points tallied at the competition's conclusion.
Former captains of past Crimson Tide teams, former Bama stars, and current NFL players from Alabama will be on hand to help celebrate 10 years of Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban as head football coach at UA.
There will again be a free autograph session sponsored by BBVA Compass. This one will be with former Bama running back KENYAN DRAKE from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. CT at the Fan Photo tent outside of Gate 5. Former football players will be also available for pictures from 10 a.m-1 p.m. CT. Appearance times as well as the players' names will be released closer to the event.
A-Day posters featuring head coach Nick Saban as well as 10 of the Bama greats during the last 10 years, along with the 2016 schedule will be given away at the gates to the first 12,500 fans. Special commemorative A-Day programs highlighting Coach Saban's 10 A-Day Games will be available at a cost of $5 and will include a player poster, coupons from sponsors and a chance to win game tickets if the Golden Flake game program ad on the inside front cover is signed by Coach Saban.
At the conclusion of the A-Day Game coach Saban will present the spring awards to the team at midfield. Fance will once again have post-game field access once the team has cleared the field. Fans may enter through any of the four corner gates.
UA leads the country in spring game attendance over the last nine years with a total of 733,532 fans and an average of 81,503 fans per game during that period. The largest A-Day crowd in school history came in 2011 with 92,310 fans in attendance. In Saban's first year of 2007, the stadium was at full capacity prior to expansion (92,138).
Numerous and varied activities will be going on throughout Tuscaloosa and the Alabama campus on A-Day weekend. The Crimson Tide baseball team will host Ole Miss on April 15-17, with the series getting underway at 7 p.m. CT from Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Country music artist Chris Young will throw out the first pitch on April 15 prior to his 7:30 p.m. concert at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater. The men's tennis team will then play host to Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale on Sunday, April 17th at The University of Alabama Tennis Stadium.
Public parking for A-Day is once again free and is offered on a first-come/first-serve basis with Crimson Ride shuttles running from the east side of campus to the Quad. For more parking and A-Day information go to UAGameday.com.
The 2016 Golden Flake A-Day Game will be televised on ESPN, with Kirk Herbstreit, Joe Tessitore and Joey Galloway serving as hosts/reporters.
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McCleney 13th Pick By USSSA Pride In Draft
She has done a bang-up job for Alabama, and the effort has been and will continue to pay dividends. Crimson Tide softball senior outfielder Haylie McCleney has been selected in round three as the 13th pick by the USSSA Pride in the 2016 National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) Draft which was held last night.
McCleney is just the 11th player in program history drafted by the
NPF, the first since Kelsi Dunne and Whitney Larsen were selected in
2011. Alabama will play alongside former Alabama All-American Kelly
Kretschman with the Pride. Former Alabama players Jaclyn Traina
(Scrapyard Dawgs) and Kelley Montalvo (Akron Racers) will also play in
the league this upcoming season.
McCleney, a Morris, Alabama native, leads the Crimson Tide this season with a batting average of .459, .602 on-base percentage and .704 slugging percentage. Of her 45 hits, 16 have gone for extra bases while also drawing a
team-leading 31 walks. McCleney is the Alabama all-time leader in batting
average (.450) and on-base percentage (.568). It doesn't end there, however. She also possesses top-10
career marks in slugging percentage, hits, runs, stolen bases, doubles,
triples and walks.
She is a three-time All-American, earning first team
honors each of the last two seasons. McCleney's outstanding college career isn't just on the field either, as she is also a two-time Academic
All-American and is just the second player in program history to earn
first-team honors as both an All-American and Academic All-American in
the same season. Last year, she was named the Academic All-America Team
Member of the Year for Division-I softball and the SEC Scholar-Athlete
of the Year.
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Top-Ranked Women's Golf At SEC Championship
The top-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide women's golf team heads to Birmingham, Alabama for the Southeastern Conference Championship scheduled to begin today. The tournament will be held at the par-72, 6,195-yard Greystone Golf and Country Club's Legacy Course, the fourth consecutive year at the venue. In the three previous appearances at Greystone the Tide has finished first (2013), fourth (2014) and fifth (2015).
Women's golf team head coach Mic Potter said, "I feel really good about our team. I like the way we’re playing. We’re gelling at the right time.
As there always is in the SEC, we’ll see depth and quality on all the
teams. Florida is having a really good year, Arkansas is always good and
Georgia is very good this year. The important thing for us is playing
our best golf."
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4-Star LB Christopher Allen Likes The Tide
Four-star linebacker prospect Christopher Allen says that University of Alabama football is his leader for his services after high school. The 6' 4", 234-pound Allen hails from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and, yes, LSU is also in the running. According to the 247Sports composite Allen is the No. 92 overall prospect in the nation, the No. 7 outside linebacker and the No. 4 overall player in Louisiana. He earned an offer from the Tide at a junior day event in late January.
Though Allen as yet hasn't created a "top group" as of yet, he says that Alabama, LSU and Florida would be in it if it existed. Plus, Alabama leads right now.
One of the big things Allen likes about the Crimson Tide is "they win." At the New Orleans Opening Regional he said, "They've won the national championship and they are sending guys to the NFL in the first round. That's where I would like to be."
Allen says he is trying to get to the A-Day Game on Saturday for the festivities and enjoy the game, but he has already said the January visit made a big impression on him. He even said that it he felt like he wanted "to commit on the spot."
No commitment is expected anytime soon according to Allen. He said that his recruitment could even run all the way to National Signing Day.
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4-Star Devonta Smith Likes Bama
4-Star Receiver Prospect Devonta Smith
Photo Credit: 247Sports
Four-star receiver recruit Devonta Smith has said he doesn't plan an official visit to the University of Alabama.
No, that's not as ominous as it sounds. Smith, out of Amite, Louisiana commented this week that he might not make an official visit to the Capstone "because that's a school that I can get to easily. It wouldn't make sense for me to take an official visit there." 247Sports believes that Smith is pretty much 100 percent going to follow close friend Shyheim Carter to the University of Alabama to continue his football career.
Smith was named wide receiver Most Valuable Player at the regional and earned an invitational to The Opening. The 6' 1", 160-pound Smith is ranked the No. 89 prospect nationally according to 247Sports. He attended the last Junior Day at Alabama, and plans to go to Alabama's A-Day Game this Saturday.
Concerning Alabama receiver's coach Billy Napier, Smith says, "We have a good relationship with me going to their camps since the eighth grade. I've been talking to him ever since. He's a good man, good teacher and someone I can relate to."
The youngster has commented that he's a fan of Alabama's tempo. He likes the way the offense has grown from just the grind-it-out-on-the-ground team to throwing it down the field and hitting screen passes, too. He says he's also eager to see how the current Alabama quarterback battle plays out.
Smith said, "You can't do nothing without a quarterback. I haven't seen them really practice or anything like that, so I have to wait and see."
The young man was once a Georgia commit, but has now shown interest in LSU, Florida State and Ole Miss. However most believe he will end up at Alabama.
He did make the statement "everyone is equal" and plans to make his decision shortly after the end of his high school senior season. But never underestimate the influence of a best friend coupled with close proximity to the reigning National Champions.
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Former Bama Basketball Commit Ferguson To Arizona
Photo Credit: 247Sports
The announcement of selecting Arizona as his destination came via Twitter by Ferguson himself.
Though Alabama basketball hasn't added anyone new to its two-member class so far during spring period, several graduate transfers are being recruited by the basketball staff after having landed New Mexico player/transfer Arthur Edwards.
