Daniel Hill is an object lesson for the New Crimson Tide
Rejoice, for this is the day that we Gump.
A week after sweeping No. 11 Florida, the No. 22 Alabama Crimson Tide secured another critical SEC series win on the diamond: this over the hated No. 5 Auburn Tigers.
The results could not have been more painful for the visitors either — they got run-ruled in the first game, and then walked-off by the Tide to clinch the series. The sweep (and meltdown) would follow, as the Barn scored four runs in three games.
And a hearty “Fuck Auburn” was had by all.
Am I fully bought in on Vaughn now? No. There was a solid month of problems with…well, everything. And after getting swept at Kentucky, it looked like the Tide was in for a very rough season — they still could be for what it’s worth. It is important to note that the last two series were at home.
Nevertheless, how they responded has been very impressive. You must tip your cap to the staff for these two series, and hope that the momentum can carryover for the next two months.
But cautious optimism is a lot better place than we were a few weeks ago. Having the school’s first sweep of Auburn in a decade can do that.
Lol. Look at this scumfuck. The sordid tale of Will Wade gets grimier by the day.
Is that merely circumstantial evidence? Oh no. It gets worse.
Is that enough smoke for NC State? You betcha’. Call in the lawyers:
The Wolfpack will be pursuing breach of contract against Wade, but there is a very good chance that they also have a direct cause of action against LSU for tortious interference with contract.
Here is the general jury instruction setting forth the elements. You tell me whether the Tigers seem to be on the hook:
I’d take that case in a heartbeat.
Tell me this isn’t the definition of the players’s coach: praising the internal leadership of your team, and giving them the credit for the season, while suggesting that you could’ve done a better job for them.
Besides NBA development, and winning games, things like this attract recruits, even when you are a notorious hard ass.
With the hoops season concluded (and I am working on post-scrimmage notes and the Basketball postmortem), people are suddenly deciding that LaBaron Philon has a tough decision. That’s just silly. This is a no-brainer:
Even Nate Oates thinks it’s absolutely fatuous for LaBaron to pretend that he is conflicted — according to the man himself, Zero is getting lottery grades (or close enough to where it makes no practical difference)
Everything Oats said is true. Zero made himself a lot of extra money playing another year. He developed his three, he cut down his turnovers, he improved his ball distribution, he learned to become an effective and lethal penetrator to the basket.
But what I thought was clever about this was Nate Oats ending with a discussion of his NBA track record and imploring players to come for their long-term financial benefit, not just a quick one-year cash grab. Adroit salesmanship right there.
“Don’t be the first bidder and don’t be the highest bidder,” maybe the internal mantra. But you can’t sell that to players. However, you can sell a variant of Nick Saban, as Oats does here: “build value for yourself.”
A rant about offensive line coaching and program rot
After having one of the fattest, slowest offensive lines in the SEC for half a decade, a program of conscious recruiting, conditioning and nutrition, and Coach Klemm working these boys until I get tired, has paid off — not a single player on the putative starting five weighs 320 pounds. Last year, four did.
Alabama does increasingly run a hybrid man / zone block scheme. And while you like some extra beef in the zone game, the Tide simply had to get lighter. You can’t run a counter if you have feet stuck in a vat of honey buns. You can’t pin and pull if you haven’t seen your shoes since eighth grade. And if you’re too fat to stretch your hamstrings, you’re probably too hefty to run a stretch play. It was unconscionable that we ever let it get this way either; it was a panic to get bigger after the 2021–2022 CFP title game, when Saban saw a burly Georgia squad maul him up front.
If I sound disgusted, it’s because I am. Seven years, four OL coaches, at least 30 offensive line recruits, and UA never got this right. It was an endless parade of failures and flabbies, moobs and misadventures, and program-wide complacency.
It was a concerted decision that not rocking the boat or challenging the boss is better for the program than getting someone in there with bollocks who will push back and knows their job; that loyalists and lackeys are preferable to competent pains in the ass.
That applies to DeBoer to some extent. But the chief architect of this malaise was Nick Saban. In some ways, both his hubris and being gun-shy were understandable. No one in College Football lost as many staff consistently as he did. The disastrous (and childish) exodus at the end of the 2018 season broke his brain. But the departure of Sarkisian, and the poaching that followed, impaired his hiring judgment for the rest of his career.
Saban probably won’t admit it, but all of those misses on the staff in the last few years probably played as much into his departure as anything else. Identifying and nurturing talent on the sideline had always been one of his strongest suits. But his career ended with it being some of his weakest work. No matter how vain a man may be, or confident in our abilities, at the end of the day we know when we have fallen short. Feel free to leave me hate mail below.
Fortunately, Kalen DeBoer is terrified for his job, so he is shucking bad coaches left and right. LOL.
Likewise, our running backs who all thought they were Jerome Bettis have been grounded from the cookie jar as well, and the Tide’s backfield is getting lighter and lither as well:
During the offseason, Alabama coaches told Hill a way he needed to improve.
“I had to go back and see what I was doing wrong,” Hill to reporters Monday in Tuscaloosa. “I had to change the way I was eating, cardio more. That’s really it. And just keep working at that. That’s something I feel like I needed to change. The coaches felt like I needed to change, and I made a commitment to myself to get my weight down.”
Hill was successful. When the Crimson Tide’s 2026 roster update came, he checked in eight pounds below his 2025 playing weight.
The junior said he had already seen benefits from the drop to 236 from 244, with fewer nagging injuries. He also explained how he went about cutting the weight.
“I wasn’t eating a lot of junk food, but it was just here and there,” Hill said. “I had to cut that out.”
And with that weight loss comes the corollary way to improve:
What’s the focus of that group this spring?
“Just being more explosive and just seeing the field better,” running back Daniel Hill said. “Running behind our pads. Just doing all the little things right that can not only help us but help the O-line and the offense as a whole.”
Hit the hole faster, see the field better, get north-south quicker.
No one is expecting this group to be the 2012 Crimson Tide backfield reborn, but steady production with the threat of explosiveness takes the offense into lethal territory, and will greatly help out a new starting QB.
It’s already paying off in the weightroom:
“Daniel looks great,” offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said earlier this month. “He’s hovering in the low 230s. You know, last year at this time he was probably in the 250s. And he just looks quicker, more powerful, sudden.
Quicker and more powerful?
Apparently you can have it all.
Hill confirmed reports on Monday that he recently squatted a whopping 805 pounds.
“I don’t know, it just happened,” he said. “I really don’t know how to explain it. They just they threw it on the bar, and I did it.”
His previous max squat was 725 pounds, he explained, which was in the 11th grade.
They hate us, because they ain’t us:
10. Alabama (2011)
Blame Nick Saban for much of the hate the SEC received for a decade-plus during his illustrious tenure in Tuscaloosa. Universally hated by just about everyone outside of Alabama during his reign, the Crimson Tide won more games from 2010 to 2020 than any program in the country and churned out more first-round picks as well. Saban collected six national titles and countless conference championships over his 17-year reign, but it was Alabama’s rematch opportunity with LSU in the 2011 national title game two months after losing to the Tigers, 9–6, that tossed lighter fluid on the fire aimed at taking computers out of the mix to determine college football’s championship matchup.
How anyone could hate that is beyond me. Those two teams had 41 NFL draft picks on their starting two-deep. It was the most high-level football played of the modern era. The fact that it broke the media’s brain tells you more about them than it does us. That year began in earnest the nightmare we currently have unfolding, and all because jackasses like Mandel and Wolken wanted to whine about historical greatness in front of them.
Having dated a Danish woman, this is 100% accurate.
That’s all for this morning. Tomorrow, we’ll be back with the Extra Special Scrimmage and Spring analysis.
Have a great day, and take care.
